Groupon and the Tibet Group.

I am sure many of you saw the Groupon commercial at the Superbowl.  I did not see it at the time, since I am not a fan of football (men in spandex wrestling over a ball and leaping on top of each other isn't really my thing), but was told about it yesterday.  This morning, I saw the commercial, and read the letter of "apology" written by Groupon CEO Andrew Mason.

First, the commercial.

The commercial begins with beautiful footage of Tibet..the landscape, the people....speaking of their culture, and how it is in danger.  But then, the actor (Timothy Hutton, who is now on my shit list) goes on to say that despite this, the Tibetans still make an amazing fish curry...and that since the people in this commercial used the Groupon website, they are now getting this amazing fish curry for cheap.

....apparently, we are meant to find this amusing.

Many people commented on the video on youtube.  Many of those comments were angry, complaints about how offensive the commercial was, but a lot of people were saying that those who were offended were too uptight, some going far into the boundaries of offensive.  One commenter sais "best commercial ever" and another, who needs a good beatdown, said "I don't care about Tibetans. wtf have they done for me?" (name of quesoesbueno59)
I don't know if he/she was joking or not, but either way, it is a cruel and horrible thing to say.  America really is full of assholes.

Now, on to the letter.

Groupon's CEO, Andrew Mason, wrote a letter of "apology" for the commercial, a day after receiving innumberable complaints.  However, if there is a true apology in there, one would have to search with a fine-tooth comb to find it.
Instead, Mason points out how most Superbowl commercials objectify women, and that the Groupon company supports many charitable causes....as though either of these points makes it okay for the Groupon company to crack jokes about situations as serious as that of Chinese-occupied Tibet.

Groupon has made a statement that if you donate money towards the Tibetan Youth Fund, they will match your donation.  But after the airing of the commercials, the Tibetan Youth Fund pulled out.  Unsurprisingly.  However, when I went on Groupon's website today, they still had the Tibetan Youth Fund donation page up.  I called them and spoke to them for several minutes about it.  First they couldn't find the page, then said that yes, they were still working with the Tibetan Group Fund, only quietly, due to the commercials.  Wanting to double check (I wouldn't put it past those bastards to just be taking money for themselves) I called the Tibet Fund.  They told me yes, they had pulled out after the commercials but had noticed the page was still up, and would have to be speaking to Groupon.  So I don't know if the money has been getting through to them or not, or if they are going to be speaking to Groupon just to finalize the breaking of their business.  Either way, as long as it is ended, it is good.  The Tibet Fund deserves much better.

I encourage everyone to go and donate to them.    http://www.tibetfund.org/   The gentleman I spoke to assured me that their own site was still up and working, and as everyone knows, they need the donations.

1,148,000

I have, as I'm sure many others have, been watching the news of the current conflict in Egypt.  I have extremely mixed feelings about the subject.  And I'm certain many people will criticize these feelings and find me to be messed up, which is the usual reaction I get when this sort of situation comes up, but it is what always comes to mind whenever something like this does come up.

Since the riots in Egypt began, the death toll has climbed as high as 300 people.  This is terrible.  It is a horrible, unfortunate, ridiculously unnecessary loss.  Here comes the part where people think I'm sick.

Why is this reported on the news but we never hear about all of the deaths in Tibet?  There are enough of them.  The closest we have come in a long time to hearing anything on tv about Tibet was news of the most recent earthquake, and even then, they only mentioned "Chinese" casualties, nothing about Tibet.

Why?  Because unlike China, Egypt is not a superpower.  We do not buy the majority of our supplies from Egypt, or ship our businesses overseas to them.  And it is because of this dependance on China and fear of them and their immense power that the Tibetan people must continue to suffer.

But isn't it enough that they must suffer without the world hiding it?  While it is understandable that a country's government is unwilling to take a stand against another country that holds so much power, other people can still make a statement.  News is supposed to be unbiased.  Television news could still say what their governments cannot.  Or is that being controlled as well?  Or maybe they are just afraid, too.

What news there is can only be found on the internet, and it is thankfully incredibly informative.  For eleven years, I have been relying on the internet for information about Tibet, and the things I have seen and read are sickening.  Since the Chinese invasion in 1950, there have been 1,148,000 Tibetan deaths. 

People are thrown in jail for minor offenses such as peaceful protest.  A man was jailed once simply for posession of the Tibetan flag.  The undergo severe torture, such as beating with an electric baton, being burned with cigarettes, hung from the ceiling by their wrists and then beaten, raped (sometimes with the electric batons), set on by dogs, and more.  Yet none of this is mentioned on the news.

You can help.  Go to http://www.tibetnetwork.org/ or http://www.freetibet.org/, or http://www.savetibet.org/

Instruments of torture.

WARNING: BELOW CONTENT IS DISTURBING!

The result of an electric baton.