A three-day workshop of Mexican Tibet Support Groups [Pensando en Tibet] concluded successfully on Sunday, February 13, 2011, in Morelia, the State capital of Michoacan.
The workshop held from February 11 to 13 was conducted by the ITSN’s International Coordinator, Tenzin Jigme, and Latin American Regional Coordinator, Exa Mendez, and facilitated by CTA’s Liaison Officer to Latin America, Tsewang Phuntso.
Thirty participants representing Tibet Support Groups in four states of Mexico—Federal District of Mexico City, Michoacan, Jalisco, and Neuva Leon—participated in the workshop.
The workshop commenced with a brief introduction about the workshop by Exa Mendex and a presentation of Gerardo Barrales’ experience of participating in the 6th International Conference of Tibet Support Groups held at Surajkund in the North Indian State of Haryana from November 5 to 7, 2010.
This was followed by an hour-long presentation of Tsewang Phuntso on the current situation inside Tibet with a special focus on the Chinese government’s policy implementation in Tibet after the post-Spring-2008 uprising.
In his presentation, Tsewang highlighted the suppression of the Tibetan culture and identity including language; control of information flow into Tibet as well as from Tibet; compulsion on the Tibetan nomads to change their centuries’ old life style by forcing them to adapt urban style way of life with a permanent settlement; and ecological disturbances on the Tibetan plateau as a result of increasing state-sponsored mining activities.
He also briefed the participants about unprecedented restrictions being imposed on Tibetan intellectuals—writers, bloggers, artists, singers, etc—and social figures after the Spring-2008 uprising.
The three-day workshop focused on training in strategic and direct action planning and media handling as well as planning of 2011 activities. While dealing with the strategic and direction action planning, Exa and Tenzin Jigme focused their workshop on analyzing the situation inside Mexico, understanding difference between goals, strategy, and tactics in action planning, and prioritizing actions to adapt with important dates and events unfolding in the locality. They also emphasized on action plans that are practical and detailed in planning.
In his presentation on the dealing with media, a Mexican media expert, Mr. S. Santana, gave an overview of the Mexican media (television, radio, print, and online) with their distinct features. He then went on to give tips to handle and interact with each of the Medias. While emphasizing that any information that is sent to the Media must be short, precise, clear and concise, Santana also advised the group to share only those information which they want to share and not to share the information which they don’t want to share, even in the off the record circumstance.
Before concluding the workshop, Tenzin Jigme briefed the participants about the kind of resources that are available online and also asked for the participants’ feedback on other resources that they would like to have.
The Tibet Support Group in the Federal District of Mexico City also shared their experiences of raising funds locally and how to operate activities with a small sum of money. They also shared their experience of what not to do.
