Why Technology for Tibet?

"If not me, who?
If not now, when?"

• "People don't know about the Tibetan issue?"
  How can they? Whose reponsibility is it to tell them?

Because we are all involved here in Dharamshala, and the westerners who come here are people who know and care — we think that the whole world knows and we just have to sit on our hands and wait for the politicians to listen. Well i want to tell you different! Here's a quote from an intelligent, awake, buddhist westerner who didnt know anything about the Tibetan issue, and who just returned to US from visiting McLeod Ganj:
'I'm telling you the West DOESN'T KNOW. I've been telling people, and I keep hearing the same thing over and over, "I didn't have any idea!"'

• "People don't care about the Tibetan issue?
  Why should they? They have their own lives just like you do. If they don't realize that the Tibetan issue is something that affects everyone on the planet — Whose reponsibility is it to get them to understand?

"If our struggle through nonviolence with a compassionate feeling succeeds, we will be creating a new way to solve problems and conflicts and thereby serve the interests of the entire human community."
— His Holiness the Dalai Lama

• "There's no Tibetan font for Internet Explorer/Mozilla!"
  So? There are hundreds of other languages that don't show on browsers either. Whose reponsibility is it to tell the the browser programmers that people want to see Tibetan websites in their own language?

Mozilla/Firefox    MS Internet Explorer

• "Chinese is easy to use on computers, Tibetan is difficult!"
  So? Same for many other languages. Whose reponsibility is it to tell the the software companies that people want Tibetan? If they could do it in China, why can't the "free Tibetans" do it here!

Tell MicroSoft
Or try Ubuntu Linux — Tibetan works on there just fine!

• "There aren't enough websites for Tibetans to read, telling them about what is happening to them in their country!"
  Whose reponsibility is it to make those websites?
• "Computers are hard to learn! Programming is hard! I'm not technical!"
  My little tiny violin is playing sad songs for you. I bet it's not as hard as getting your legs broke in Drapchi.
  When you understand that the web is the greatest voice, library, tool, and weapon in history ...
  When you understand that you can speak to everyone, anywhere, anytime, ...
  You may find that learning these skills is not really so baaad.

The western world — and increasingly the Tibet world, is communicating through the web. The web is your tool, your weapon, your means to talk to the world. The more you learn how to use it, and how to make it, the more you can reach out to others.

One of the great things about the internet is that anybody with a computer and a connection and a brain in their head, can do something!

"Information technology is the strongest means to propagate the Tibetan cause to the outside world."

— (written by one young Tibetan student who knows more than 100,000 adult Tibetans!

So — What's the plan? Sit on your butt and wait for some stoopid westerner to do things?
Hmmm — wasn't that the policy the first time around, 60 years ago?