NEWS


GIORNATA DI PROTESTA CONTRO GOOGLE

Milano, 14 febbraio 2006.
I tibetani e i gruppi di sostegno al Tibet di tutto il mondo si sono idealmente uniti, nel giorno di S. Valentino, nella protesta contro Google, il più importante motore di ricerca della rete informatica. Dispiegando striscioni con la scritta “We don’t love Google”, si è inteso manifestare contro la censura o l’oscuramento totale che l’azienda, piegandosi al volere di Pechino, ha voluto applicare ad alcuni siti web, giudicati “sensibili” dal Partito Comunista. A Milano, anche l’Associazione Italia-Tibet si è unita ai tibetani nella protesta davanti alla sede di Google Italia. Proponiamo ai lettori il resoconto della giornata nelle parole, in lingua inglese, di Chomphel Gelek, corrispondente dall’Italia di Bodgyalo, un mensile di informazione su video CD.


The hard protest catapulted on the door of Google office

Milan, 14th feb.2006
It was a pleasant day with the sun brightly shining all over clearing away the doubts lingering in the air of Milan and that of Milanesi (Milan’s people) over the suspected foggy weather. Everyone seems to be in mood unusually as it is the 2nd day of the week except the officers of the Google as they were well informed the day before that the young protesters are on their way with the colourful banners and loud-speakers obviously unpleasing.

The San Valentino (Valentine) day is the long-waited day to many of the young Italians whose gushing energy to get to know of their love knows no bounds. A day like this to sacrifice is a lot for them, yet the young Tibetans here in Milan with all the knowledge of the significance of the day rushed to the gate of the Google office to protest against Google censoring the search engine in China in favor of the already harsh and rude Chinese regime and letting them to hold the control of the digital imprints of the ever-rising huge net users in China.

The young Tibetans in the square were soon joined by the co-founder of the Italia-Tibet Association, Mrs. Vicky Sevegnani. The protest burst in the “Piaz.le Biancamano” (square) at around 11.50am and last until 1.35pm. It began with the speech from the StudentsforaFreeTibet grassroots coordinator Mr. Gelek and, thereafter, was followed by a brief speech from Mrs. Vicky, explaining in details the reason why we were there and called upon the Italians to boycott the Google on this special Valentine’s day. Our incessant call on the door of the Google office eventually put to a stand the Director of the Google communication office, Mr. Stefano. He invited us in the office and we had all the opportunities to convince him and open up in front his eyes the hard pinning situations the Tibetans are facing in Tibet. Mr. Stefano said, in response to our call: “ I understand the problems ongoing in Tibet and China. We are only starting to opening up in China and obviously we had to respect the laws of the very nation. However, we will be trying to better in the near future. There will be a Google conference very soon in the United States, I will be bringing up the case to them. Good luck”.
He even left us his e-mail address to contact him from time to time on the developments.

We later marched through the streets into the Milan’s main DUOMO square as we were aware that on the right block, 3rd floor in the room of Mtv, the popular singer Mr. Ricky Martin was scheduled to visit and there were plenty of students waiting up to see him appearing shortly from the Mtv balcony. Few cameras were fixed in the square. Quite cleverly we joined the students and together we sang “ we love you-you are beautiful” and raised simultaneously several charts reading “we don’t love Google”. Naturally the camera couldn’t ignore us as we were in the group.
It was a huge success, I should say, we also let everyone know, in the square, the ongoing hunger strike in Torino (S. Pietro in Vincoli) to call-upon the Chinese regime the unconditional immediate release of the innocent prisoners in Tibet and the whereabouts of the youngest political prisoner of the world, Panchen Gedun Choekyi Nyima.

By Dhundup Chomphel Gelek

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