XPost: alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan, alt.politics.religion, alt.religion   
   XPost: alt.religion.christian.episcopal, soc.culture.south-africa   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   Dalai Lama: Cosatu presses goverment   
   04 Oct 2011   
   Sapa   
      
   CAPE TOWN — The government stuck to its refusal to pronounce on the Dalai   
   Lama’s visa application yesterday, but came under pressure from rights   
   activists and Cosatu to allow him into the country.   
      
   Said the labour federation’s Western Cape leader, Tony Ehrenreich, “Even   
   though China is our biggest trading partner, we should not exchange our   
   morality for dollars or yuan.   
      
   “It is completely inappropriate and discriminatory that the Dalai Lama should   
   be denied access.”   
      
   Opposition leader Helen Zille and academic Mamphele Rampehle accused the   
   government of betraying SA’s sovereignty and Constitution.   
      
   “We cannot be blackmailed into defying our Constitution,” Zille said.   
      
   A representative of the Dalai Lama said requests for information from the   
   South African High Commission in India, where he lives in exile, have proved   
   fruitless.   
      
   “We have not been told anything. I spoke to my colleague in New Delhi and they   
   are still waiting. The high commission has closed now for the day,” Sonam   
   Tenzing said.   
      
   http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global%5B_id%5D=69521   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa   
   Web:  http://khanya.wordpress.com   
   Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com   
      
   "She believed in nothing. Only her scepticism kept her from being an atheist."   
   -- Jean-Paul Sartre   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)