Tibetan Olympics 2008 revisited, 4 years after.

      McLeod Dharamsala was the first place (after Delhi) that i visited in my first trip in India, in the early 90's. Since then i wanted to go there again but didn't have the chance to even visit India. And then, sometime in 2008 i got a strong instinct about McLeod Dharamsala. I went into the internet and started checking about the place. That's when i got into a webpage about an event called Tibetan Olympics 2008. It was organised by Lobsang Wangyal, a Tibetan individual who runs an events and advertising company. Having the experience of organising events such as "Tibetan song/ film festival" and "Miss Tibet", he took the initiative to organise a tournament of games in order to remind the world about Tibet's issue and its occupation by China, the host of the Olympics that year. And also to give his fellow Tibetans the chance to have a taste of an event such as the Olympics, the chance to come out to the world and to show that while the land of their country is occupied, the land in their heart is free and alive. For this reason there was an invitation to journalists and reporters from around the world to join and cover the event. So my instinct was right and this was my chance to visit again McLeod Dharamsala and for a cause that touches me also.
      And so i went. The event started in 20 of May and lasted for 5 days. Having only 3 weeks for my India trip this time, i had planned to go around Himachal after the games. But then i decided to stay around Mcleod and expand my photo reportage in depth with the place and the people. Coming back to my country, i found out that no newspaper or magasine was willing to publish my strory-eventhough i had done a very good job. The Chinese and the Greek governements were in big economic business deals at the time and so the so called "free Greek media" were very concerned not to threaten China's image before the Beijing games. Dissapointed and angry, i filed the photos without having fully edited the story
      A few months after, the global economic crisis blew out. Soon, my country Greece/Hellas was attacked and invaded by the crisis-by the people who orchestrate the new world order economic warfare. In a way i can say that since 2009, my country and people is at war with and is occupied by the forces of the economic elite.
      So tomorrow, 20 of May 2012, 4 years after the Tibetan Olympics event in McLeod Dharamsala, i find myself and my people, in some way at the same point as the Tibetans. Ofcourse it's not the same. Everybody loves the Tibetans all the time, while everybody curse the Greeks nowadays! But the feeling a lot of us have in this country is that we are under invasion and occupation.
      This gave me an extra motivation to open up again the file with the photos i took in the Tibetan Olympics. My other motivation was to edit all the pictures i took back then, so that i can fulfill the story by telling it (it's not only my story, it's a story about me too)and by being able to send the pictures to the people who organised, worked, attended and most of all participated as athletes in the games.
      So that's it. Starting from tomorrow 20th, i am going to be publishing each day a collection with the best photos that i took at the same day four years ago.
      I want to dedicate this to Lobsang Wangyal who organised the whole event, to all the people that worked as volunteers, to all the reporters, photographers and filmakers that covered it, to all the Tibetan refugees living in McLeod and all over India and the planet. And specially i want to dedicate it to the young men and women athletes who participated and to two people, who in my opinion, brought the Olympic spirit to the event, each on his/her own way. Shihan Hussaini, of the Tamil Nadu Archery Association, with his warrior-noble athlete spirit and coaching and Aasha Reddy-known also as Aunty among the Tibetans, for her loving care and tender support.

"Aunty" Aasha Reddy

Shihan Hussaini