(Clearwisdom.net) Sainte-Lucie is a small English-speaking island located to
the south of Martinique Island on the Caribbean Sea. There are many Embassies
and Consulates on the island, including a Chinese Embassy.
A few practitioners from Guadeloupe decided to visit Sainte-Lucie to
introduce Falun Dafa to the people there and also to expose the persecution of
Falun Gong in China. Because we didn't know any local practitioners, we prepared
a lot of informational materials to be given to government offices, Embassies
and the media.
On the first day, we went to the Venezuelan Embassy and were warmly received
by an assistant. We introduced Falun Dafa to her. After she learned that there
are Falun Dafa practitioners in Venezuela too, she immediately expressed her
interest to practice Falun Gong and said to us, "As soon as I saw you, I had a
feeling I wanted to try it out."
After that we went to the centre of Castries, the capital of Sainte-Lucie, to
look for the Jamaican Consulate. In fact the Consul is of Chinese origin but
born in Jamaica. He very politely received us in his office. He did not seem to
know Falun Gong, and listened to our introduction very carefully. Then he
expressed his personal opinion, "From my personal point of view, I don't believe
in religion and I have my own way of life. But if it doesn't affect my freedom,
I respect the belief of other people. I think China should not delay its real
reform. China made some progress economically. But it should not wait too long
to make progress in respecting human rights." We told him that Falun Gong
practitioners follow the universal principle of Truthfulness, Compassion and
Forbearance. In the course of appealing for an end to the persecution of Falun
Gong practitioners in China, practitioners have always been peaceful. The Consul
told us to be courageous and wished us luck. At the same time, he also thanked
us for visiting him and we providing him with the relevant materials.
In order to find out about the situations of different media, we went to the
main library in the city. A lady in the reception kindly received us and
provided us with the addresses of some local media. There was a bookcase behind
her displaying magazines, including English editions of some Chinese magazines.
It was very surprising. We asked her how come the library had so many Chinese
magazines and newspapers. She said the Chinese Embassy sent them to the library
every month. We asked her if we could leave some Falun Gong booklets on the
library bookcase. We specifically described to her the persecution of Falun Gong
in China. She happily agreed.
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We went to a bookshop in Sainte-Lucie with the purpose of passing them the
publication (ISBN) number of the English edition of Zhuan Falun [the main
text of Falun Dafa] because when we were giving out leaflets, quite a few people
asked where they could find the book. The person in charge wrote down the
publication number and said if people came to ask for it, she would order it.
We went to introduce Falun Gong to an official in the city government. She
also accepted a few booklets to be displayed in the reception area. We also left
her with a complete information package and asked her to pass it to the Mayor of
the city.
On our way, we went to a clinic, where there were many people. Everyone was
happy to get a Falun Gong booklet. A little girl took quite a few copies and
said she wanted to pass them to other people in the clinic. We gave her mother a
Video-CD and the girl was so happy.
We observed that during this long day, whenever we were meant to introduce
Falun Gong to an organization, it would start to rain. This would force us to
stop and look around. We visited many places over the course of the day because
of this.
On the second day, we called a taxi to take us to the Chinese Embassy. At the
beginning the weather was perfect. Suddenly the rain poured down heavily. This
forced us to change our plan again.
We noticed that the Chinese Embassy was located in a very quiet place. The
rain continued to pour down. We asked the taxi driver to wait for us and decided
to try and talk to the Chinese Ambassador. Two of us went to the Chinese
Embassy, while another two sent forth righteous thoughts nearby.
One person came out to see us. We told him we wanted to see the Ambassador or
make an appointment with him. He asked us where we were from. When we said we
were from Guadeloupe, without asking our identification and our purpose of
visit, this person started to shout violently, "We know some people from
Guadeloupe who came to Sainte-Lucie. You are Falun Gong. Go away. Falun Gong is
not welcomed here. Although it is the Embassy, nobody will help you. No press
conference, nothing!"
We calmly stood there and told him with a compassionate heart that our coming
to Sainte-Lucie was not to bring trouble to them. We only wanted to tell them to
stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in China. We also wanted to expose the
persecution to governmental departments and people here.
[...]
We asked, "In China, why do you arrest and torture Falun practitioners?
Why do you break up their families?" He didn't answer us and became very
nervous. He gave us some propaganda materials. He said repeatedly, "You are not
welcome. We are not willing to see you. We don't like you!" We replied that we
liked them very much and we only wanted them to know the truth. A young Embassy
official said, "You had better go now and get to know Falun Gong really well; we
are Chinese and we know what we are talking about." We looked at him kindly and
said to him that we knew the facts and unfortunately they were deceived by their
own government's propaganda booklets. One of them said that we were wrong. We
then asked, "So over sixty countries are wrong in this situation?" They could
not answer our question.
Because they gave us those terrible propaganda booklets, we gave them a few
Falun Dafa materials. Some of them took the material and quickly left. The
person who seemed to be in charge tried to take the material away from them and
told them not to take it. He turned to us and said, "China and France are
friends." We told him that we were not against the relation between China and
other countries; but China must respect human rights.
Over the whole course of the conversation, although they appeared to be
harsh, we felt that they had eagerly been waiting for this conversation.
On the way back, we talked to the taxi driver about Falun Gong. He said,
"They (the Embassy officials) hate you." We said to him, "Maybe so. But we don't
hate them. Because we cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, we
only want them to know the real facts about the persecution. Because they are
poisoned by the Jiang regime's propaganda, we are worried for them and their
families."
After the Chinese Embassy encounter at Sainte-Lucie, we were more determined
to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to the justice department, media and local
citizens. We decided to take action immediately and deliver materials to
governmental departments and media.
Unfortunately that day the parliament was holding a special meeting and
department ministers were not in their offices. We passed a few information
packages to the secretaries of the Education Minister, the Health Minister, the
Minister for Public and Domestic Affairs and the Prime Minister. We also went to
the office of the High Commissioner and left some material with his secretary.
As we were doing this, the High Commissioner returned and arranged with his
assistant to see us. We talked with him about the persecution of Falun Gong in
China. We also asked him to pass along a paper lotus flower to the Commissioner.
We then went to a local newspaper publisher. A journalist warmly received us.
He was having his lunch at the time, and he put it to one side to interview us
immediately. By coincidence, he had stayed in China for a few days before and he
could not move freely there. He was very sympathetic to the situation we
introduced to him and wrote down many details. He said that as soon as this
article about Falun Gong appeared in the newspaper, he would immediately send us
a copy. When we told him about our experience at the Chinese Embassy, he was
very surprised and said he wanted to call them.
On the morning of our third day, we called the local radio and TV stations.
We informed them about our activity in Sainte-Lucie and told them about the
persecution of Falun Gong in China. RCI and HTS TV stations interviewed us by
phone, and the Sainte-Lucie Radio station made an appointment to see us.
At the beginning, all the recording rooms were occupied at Sainte-Lucie Radio
station and they could not interview us that day. Because we were leaving
Sainte-Lucie at 5:00 p.m. that day, we suggested recording us so that they could
report it later. Then the head of the current news department interviewed us in
English and in Creole. After listening to our interview, a second journalist
came to interview us in Creole. When we were talking to the head of the current
affairs department, we showed him an investigative report by WOIPFG (World
Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong). He was very shocked
by a picture of a practitioner who had been tortured.
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When we mentioned to him our experience in the Chinese Embassy, he
immediately wanted to call the Embassy while we were there. He found the
telephone number and called them. When connected, he requested to talk to the
Ambassador. The Ambassador was busy at that time so he asked the Ambassador to
call him back. The embassy asked him what it was about. He told them that it was
about Falun Gong.
After leaving the Sainte-Lucie Radio station, we decided to go back to the
library again and leave some Falun Gong newspapers there. When the lady at the
reception asked us if the newspapers were free, we said yes.
On the beach near the Castries airport, we organized a demonstration of Falun
Gong exercises. Many people came to see us practicing.
During our stay in Sainte-Lucie, we distributed Falun Gong leaflets to taxi
drivers, bus passengers, city government officials and policemen, passers-by and
other government organizations. Many people came themselves to ask for the
leaflets. We distributed over eight hundred.
Before leaving for Sainte-Lucie, we also sent a complete information package
to the Chinese Embassy in Sainte-Lucie via the post office. We also made some
paper lotus flowers and gave them to many people. We explained to them that
these lotus flowers symbolize the hope, peace and justice of Falun Gong
practitioners. When the ship was leaving the Sainte-Lucie port, we all felt that
we had planted a lotus flower in the heart of every person we met.
Source:
http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200409/22101.html
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