THE TEXT PROJECT HITS YOUTUBE & WE NEED YOUR HELP

 

 

The TEXT Program (Tibetans in Exile Today) is an oral-history project directed by Professor Sidney Burris and Geshe Dorjee at the University of Arkansas.  The TEXT Program has three purposes:

1. To preserve the memories and stories of Tibet before the Chinese arrived by interviewing the elderly Tibetans who lived in Tibet before the Chinese invasion began in 1949 and continues today to destroy systematically the Tibetan people, their culture, and their environment.
2. To allow the Tibetan people to tell their stories, in their own words, in their own way, without intervention or influence from others.
3. To place Arkansas students on the front-lines of this oral history project, providing them an immediate and first-hand introduction to the issues that will define their own careers in the global village:  refugee life & immigration; human rights violations; national autonomy and independence; climatic change; and nonviolence.  We believe, and it has been our experience, that working with the Tibetans in this capacity indelibly shapes our students and renders them better able to make informed decisions regarding their own lives and the contributions they will make to the problems that confront them and their generation.

After a very steep learning curve and with the generosity of the University of Arkansas, The TEXT Program now has a YouTube channel affiliated with Arkansas's channel.  We will store our interviews there, and they will be available to the general public.

So—the central purpose of The TEXT Program at the University of Arkansas, and of our YouTube channel, is to spread awareness of the powerful and diverse array of voices that are currenlty rising from the Tibetan community in exile.  

Accordingly, the more our channel appears in Google searches, and the more its information is shared, the more visible are the problems faced by the Tibetan people.

How can you help?  It's very simple.  

You can increase our visibility by visiting our YouTube channel, and in the upper right-hand corner, click on the "Subscribe" tab.  When we post a new video, you will be contacted through the email account that you provide.  And that is all.  A kind of clicktavism, if you will, that requires little effort, but will have, we hope, a real impact.

Thanks for your help in this matter.  And if you feel so inclined, we'd be delighted if you encouraged a friend to subscribe as well.