Life is fleeting. We know our time is limited on this earth. Time is particularly valuable. As a Buddhist I believe in reincarnation, but life in our present being, our present spirit is ephemeral.
News & Views
Tiger Chair: Tool For Torture
By: Laogai Research Foundation
Friday, July 22, 2016
Washington, D.C.—Torture methods use various apparatuses from simple rope to complex contraptions. The tiger chair is used to extract information or “crack” the detainee even if that means breaking his or her bones.
NEW YORK (April 27, 2016)—Human Rights Foundation (HRF) mourns the passing of Harry Wu, the Chinese author and dissident who survived and exposed the Chinese dictatorship’s “laogai” system of concentration camps. Wu died yesterday at the age of 79, while traveling in Honduras. He was a founding member of HRF’s International Council.
The Alexander Hamilton Institute (AHI) on Tuesday June 28 toured the Laogai Museum. The AHI, which is based in New York, selected 20 students from various universities around the United States for a two-week course in Washington, D.C. on national security.
Harry Wu was a political prisoner in China for nineteen years after being labeled as a counter-revolutionary by the government. Originally from Shanghai, he was part of the so-called bourgeoisie class and was a university student in Wuhan before he was unjustly imprisoned, without even a trial. He spent much of his time working in extremely treacherous conditions in a prison mine.
The Dalai Lama visits Washington D.C. this week. His Holiness spoke at length in both English and Tibetan on Monday at American University’s Bender Arena on a Peaceful Mind in a Modern World.
Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi gave the opening speech praising His Holiness for his environmental awareness back in 1989 when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
We, the artist Michael Rogatchi and the author Inna Rogatchi were close friends with Harry for about 20 years, and his sudden death is felt both surreal and very painful to us.
He was a true Hero of our time, and his absence will be indispensable forever. He was a unique man, and there will be no others like Harry.
Campaigner and gulag survivor who exposed ‘re-education’ system
Harry Wu, a prominent Chinese human rights activist who has died in exile aged 79, spent years campaigning to expose and abolish China’s Soviet-style work camps.
Harry Wu, who was brutally treated in Chinese prison labor camps for 19 years and managed to come to live in Milpitas in 1985, died at 79 last week. He battled all the years until his death to call attention to the human rights violations perpetrated in his homeland.