Thursday, July 05, 2007

The Dalai Lama in Oz '07...07年 達賴喇嘛澳洲行...ダーライーラマ豪州トリップ07年...

'My Religion is Very Simple, My Religion is Kindness' (The Dalai Lama)-
Official Merchandise Bag


Volunteer at the Dalai Lama Australia Tour 2007

The Dalai Lama Australia Tour 2007-Sydney


The Dalai Lama Australia Tour 2007-Sydney

I attended the Dalai Lama Australia Tour 2007 at The Domain in June last month...It was sooooo cold that day and the rain was pouring with the strong wind sweeping through the open space that we were in...what made it extremely cold was actually the strong wind rather than the weather itself and i was just freezing!! Despite that, many people turned out for the Dalai Lama to hear his speech...it was good but you couldn't really see him as there were too many people with unbrellas since it was raining and the umbrellas basically blocked the view. Anyways, the talk was pretty good and the Dalai Lama is a pretty humourous man. He is very simple and down to earth and gets his message across quite well, often with a touch of humour.


I bought a bag from the official merchandise store as well as a T'Shirt for my brother with some meaningful words printed across the front. All sales goes towards funding for his Australia Tour 07. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and i am glad i attended despite the freezing cold that day.

On another note, res 121 was passed by the US House Committee on Foreign Relations and it now awaits being passed by the full House in Congress...this resolution is unprecendented in that it is the first time that the American Congress has brought up the issue of Comfort Women (Asian women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during WW2). It calls for an official and unambiguous apology by the Japanese government on the comfort women issue although it does not ask for financial compensation and if passed is not binding. However, it will send a strong message to Japan as well as other countries that wartime violence against women is not acceptable and will not be allowed to be swept under the carpet even 50 and 60 years on.

More info:
http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/uncomfortabletruth/default.htm- ABC 'Australian Story' program on only publicly known former Dutch-Australian comfort woman Jan Ruff-O'Herne. Full program available online(on broadband) by clicking link in index.

I am an active member of 'Friends of Comfort Women Australia', the main body in Australia campaigning on behalf of the comfort women issue as well as assisting the only Australian survivor to come out in public, Jan Ruff-O'Herne, in her media campaigns. All media wanting to contact Jan Ruff-O'Herne go through our head coordinator such as an upcoming Korean as well as CCTV Chinese documentary on Jan Ruff-O'Herne. We are now seeking interested parties in Australia to either donate money or actually becoming an active member and help us with our campaigns. If you live in Australia and particularly if you live in Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra and would like to help out, please do contact me by leaving your email address in the comment section and i'll get in touch with you. We need all the help we can get!!!
Oh yeah, I am attending a two-day conference on Buddhism next week which would be informative as it covers an introduction to Buddhism as well as meditation,etc. I think it'll be great to get in touch with my zen side and all that post-modern stuff and i've never had an opportunity to get to know Buddhism more although i'm a non-religious person but i do lean towards Buddhism more than Christianity or Islam. I know too much about Christianity already given that its still pretty strong, esp amongst young Chinese Asians, and i do know some stuff about Islam coming from Malaysia, an Islamic country (note its a secular,not an Islamic state though) and reading this book about Islam and Middle Eastern women. So i'm lookin forward to the conference/workshop and i'll let you all know about it once i attend it:)
Sorry for jumping all over the place....just wanted to write about different stuff so i thought i would put it all in one post..haha:)
Top: Durian Ice-cream Right Above: This cute guy whom i saw some weeks bck at a cafe. Notice the shirt 'Ah-Ha' if i didn't know i would have thought he was Malaysian/Singaporean Chinese or HK Chinese but i recognised that name is a Korean restaurant nearby and so he's Korean!!! As usual, gods telling me i fall for the Koreans..he was kinda cute..this isn't the first time i found a korean guy cute without realising at first he was korean (so u can't say i'm just biased in favour of koreans cos a few times i didnt even know they were koreans) ...there was the time last yr when i saw this really cute korean guy and as we were waiting for our takeaway i chatted him up (hehehe) and i had thought he was one of those rare Chinese guys that i find extremely attractive ( i usually only find korean guys extremely attractive at 1st sight) but i found out he was korean to my enormous surprise cos he completely didn't look korean and he was also a med student at Melbourne uni..wow smart and cute too!!...
Comfort Women issue makes front page in 'The Australian' paper earlier this yr during Australian PM Howard's trip to Japan.
'Comic Book Day' at Kinokuniya, Sydney

'Love '07' written on frosting on the window...i 'made' the frost....anyone wanna guess how i managed to do that?

Korean 'pancake' takeaway at home...

7 comments:

Philosophical Anarchist said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hcpen said...

anon: eh, how come you deleted your own comment??

Philosophical Anarchist said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Philosophical Anarchist said...

even though i do respect dalai lama to some extent...it is no exaggeration that he is cashing in on the 'Tibet' sentiment...the sentiment that he is the messiah of the Tibetan people wrongfully enslaved by chinese government.....Even this is responsible for creating a pull effect on people towards him than solely his integrity....

hcpen said...

hari deepak: Thanks...also please do not keep deleting ur comments. I've realised that you have deleted many of your past comments...next time, think carefully before u leave a comment as i have seen ALOT of deleted comments frm you!

Philosophical Anarchist said...

i am sorry...but i don't do this with only your blog but with all blogs....i always delete when i feel what i write is slightly controversial or if i make spelling mistakes...i will always remember to preview before posting .....take care

hcpen said...

hari deepak: Well, It is VERY ANNOYING for me to have to keep deleting your deleted comments.