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"W O R L D   T I B E T   D A Y   I N   M U M B A I"
(Speech by Latoya Ferns, July 6, 2009, Mumbai)

Latoya Mistral Ferns-Advani introduces World Tibet Day. On the occasion of international observance of World Tibet Day, Friends of Tibet screened Martin Scorscese's highly-acclaimed film 'Kundun' on July 6, 2009 at the Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda, Next to Jahangir Art Gallery, Bombay.

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Tashi Delek every one!

I would like to wish His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama a Happy 74th Birthday, a long and successful life and many more reincarnations to come. Furthermore I would like to wish the people of Tibet a quick and painless resolution to the half a century long Tibetan question and Chinese occupation of their homeland.

All of us here are privileged to be able to gather in a truly democratic country to celebrate the 74th birthday of His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama, the occasion for World Tibet Day. Founded by Richard Rosencrantz, a Pulitzer Prize nominee in history, World Tibet Day was created with three main goals: to create an annual worldwide event to help restore essential freedoms for those living in Chinese occupied Tibet; to increase awareness of the genocidal threats to the Tibetan people; and to celebrate the unique beauty and value of Tibetan culture and thought. It has come to be one of the most important events on the Tibetan calendar after his holiness gave it his blessings in 1998. I am honored to be able to welcome you on behalf of Friends of Tibet and the supporters of the cause worldwide. Friends of Tibet is a movement of people whose mission is to keep alive awareness of the Tibetan crisis through direct action. Aimed at ending the illegal Chinese occupation and the rampant human rights abuse in Tibet, this movement supports the struggle for Independence. I am proud to say that I’ve been a part of this organization for exactly a year now.

Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Latoya Mistral Ferns-Advani and I am an eighteen year old supporter of total freedom and independence for Tibet. It is an important issue long denied and ignored by the world, a noble and just appeal which will never be stifled by the waning diplomatic cowardice prevalent in society today. I am a humble but passionate supporter of the cause as I am strongly against the Chinese occupation and violent suppression in the region and am a believer in self determination and the sustaining of the beautiful, invaluable and distinct Tibetan culture, something I came to know and love as an ex student of Kodaikanal International school.

It is ironic that my mother once learned about Tibet in her classroom as a child, the glorious and spiritual roof of the world. I remember seeing it as a distinct state and wondering about it on an old, perhaps outdated political map in school. It is jarring because the entire world seems uncertain when an entire country like Tibet can so effortlessly be subdued by the might of another nation. Might may not be right, but normative statements like that don’t seem to be able to halt genocide. It is arguable that cultural genocide more than any other type is the most lethal as it erases an entire memory of the people, and in this the cumulative cultural world, that of the rest of mankind, marring and setting back our intellectual endeavors. My Tibetan teacher Mr. Sither once told me that there are stories that gold dust graced the rivers and streams of tibet, but they were considered so holy that they were never exploited for it. Sadly the comfort of spiritual mythopoeia is fast eroding in a consumerist world, fast eroding as Tibet loses semblance of its long, distinct and rich history of being one of the spiritual storehouses of the world.

The road is long and hard and sometimes I feel I am fighting for a lost cause. It has been fifty years since the international community agreed to lose an entire country for the sake of diplomatic appeasement and political expedience in this great illusory non-interference that is the Maya of international relations policy. It is easy to get on the bandwagon and say that Tibet will never be free. However the lure of easy cynicism and stoic resignation is broken, shattered utterly, for me at least, by the valiant and sincere efforts that still persist in the hope of one day seeing a free and thriving Tibet. I need not talk about the many noteworthy efforts of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to illustrate this. We have in our midst Sethu Das, founder of Friends of Tibet, who I know from personal experience has run it with no thought of any sort of benefit but doing the right thing. Friends of Tibet runs wholly on the contributions of its volunteer members and on donations. From a one member organization and email club in Bombay the organization has evolved into one with 19 regional chapters and six international chapters with close to four thousand members in India alone. I recently met Tenzin Tsundue, the General Secretary of the organization, who is best remembered for his red head band which he has worn for six years and will only remove when Tibet is free. Tsunduela is an inspirational writer-activist who has crossed the border into Lhasa by foot to experience firsthand the condition of his people under Chinese occupation and has made many noteworthy one-man protests during visits to India by Premier Zhu Rongji and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. An Alumnus of Kodi School, I am fortunate to have Tibetan refugee friends and to have worked with the Tibetan community in Kodaikanal. It has not only taught me the stark difference between our realities but has allowed me valuable insight into the indomitable spirit and peaceful worldview which graces any legitimate freedom struggle. Their courage has instilled in me the imperative to acknowledge my responsibility of working towards the realization of true freedom in Tibet and I hope that you will all come to know it first hand and that it proves worthy of your effort too.

I have written an Appeal to the People of China and Tibet in the form of a poem which I would like to have you all hear. It is important to highlight that I wish the people of China holistic happiness as well. An Appeal to the People of China and Tibet:

China discipline those who poison from the inside,
They kill your children too for welcoming Freedom,
This regime that you from Humanity divides
I appeal to your reverence of Justice and Wisdom!

Tibet, though I be a foreigner distinct and proud,
I am your kin in hope and a part of your vigil...
Even as hopeful songs are punished by repression loud,
Valiant hearts remain in beaten bodies which resist ill will!

Citizens of China exert your will and your motherland rule
Bow your insecure government, Censorship is your true Opium.
Have not decades of oppression acted like fuel
To overcome the enforced schismatic delirium?

Tibet with the dignity of people unconquered:
Liberation is the soul mate of preservers of Dreams.
A barren, blood soaked martyrs' land cannot birth a Future,
Let the dew fall on pure upheld prayer flags and unsullied mountain streams

True China, acquaint yourselves with a trodden-down-reality:
Another State, distinct from your own yet steeped in twin grief,
Even in prospects of obliteration holding on to peace and spirituality,
Defiantly depriving the utilitarian sadist-thief.

The moment is rife with telltale signs,
If the struggle retains its untarnished hue
Of ridding the oppressed from malign,
Imminent is the advent of "triumphs of virtue"!

Await the day when you as Neighbors
In spontaneous assembly your national anthems sing,
Great Eulogies to the sacrificial patriotic labors
That inspired the Lauds of self-determination to ring!

The struggle to regain self-determination, freedom of belief, association, assembly, expression and religion, and independence in Tibet is what you are aiding by your very presence here. I encourage you to do more to insure that no voice goes unheard in Tibet, that no incident of human rights abuse goes unseen or approved of, by this an international community, where when empowered everyone can work towards together a better world in enlightened self-interest.

I believe that Tibet is like India before independence, exploited and a thing of speculative contention. If India could get Independence from the British nonviolently then, it is possible for Tibet despite jaded skepticism. I am glad that the Worldview is beginning to change as evident in the mass opposition in the media today. I believe that the present is ripe for heartening change. it is my fervent prayer to be a part of something which will realize a future for our Tibetan Brothers and Sisters and allow for them the basic fundamental rights guaranteed to us all, regardless of where we come from.

I do feel responsible, and hope that all of you gathered here do as well, to see in my life time a free and happy Tibet. Bodh Gyalo, Victory to Tibet!

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Friends of Tibet, PO Box 16674, Bombay 400050, India.

Friends of Tibet is a people's movement to keep alive the issue of Tibet through direct action. Our activities are aimed at ending China's occupation of Tibet and the suffering of the Tibetan people. Friends of Tibet supports the continued struggle of the Tibetan people for independence.