Beijing 10 - Detainee Info

Florian Norbu Gyanatshang

Florian Norbu Gyanatshang, 30, is half Tibetan and half German and was born in Neuss, Germany and raised at Lake Constance. He currently works in Stuttgart as a software developer.

As a Tibetan from Germany who has human rights, including the right to speak out, Florien believes that traveling to Beijing and taking action for Tibet at this critical time is the least that he can do. He feels it is critical to stand in solidarity with his Tibetan brothers and sisters who are undergoing the worst crackdown in decades at the hand of the Chinese government and are sacrificing everything, even their own lives, for freedom.

As a German, Florian also feels a sense of responsibility to speak out given Germany’s history of the 3rd Reich and the Nazi Games of 1936. He feels the Olympics are a platform to bring about political change and a time when the Chinese government cannot ignore Tibetans’ calls for freedom and justice.

Brian Conley

Brian Conley been shooting video since 1997. He began working in video with the hope of telling interesting stories that might not otherwise be seen. Although he first imagined himself as a narrative filmmaker, he soon moved to documentary and journalism work. In 2004 and 2005, through screenings of his film “Libertad y Justicia para Todos”, he raised money for an initial trip to Baghdad in October of 2005. After producing written and video work on his own in 2005, in 2006 he began the second phase of Alive in Baghdad (http://aliveinbaghdad.org). At the end of 2006 Brian formed Small World News with Steve Wyshywaniuk, in the hopes of expanding the Alive in Baghdad model to establish similar projects, or bureaus, around the world. In November ‘06 he travelled to Oaxaca City and elsewhere in southern Mexico to begin SWN’s next project, Alive in Mexico.

Jeff Goldin

In his own words: “I’m a 3rd/4th generation NYer born and raised in and around Manhattan- I currently live somewhere between Los Angeles and Manhattan, NYC. I was raised to be a Jew but my Christian nannies made sure I knew about Jesus so by the time I could think I began to question religion in general..I traveled a LOT at an early age and it’s safe to say i took the path less traveled on most occasions.

Why am I doing this? Not something I can easily type but… imagine if some people stood up to Hitler’s Germany when the death camps started? And got the media involved ( that’s my answer for my Jewish parents ) but my personal reason is something like… for all the religions in the world that I’ve heard of and know something about…the basic teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama are the best example of how I try to live my life on a daily basis. and what I personally believe life is all about… and the voice of the Tibetan people MUST be heard - non violence is the only true way to peace so I’m ready to lend a hand.”

Jeff Rae

Jeffrey Rae was born and raised just outside of Philadelphia in Wayne, PA. He graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2003 with a degree in photography. Over the years Jeffrey has spent much time documenting social and economic movements both in the United States and abroad. In November of 2006 Jeff went to Oaxaca, Mexico with Alive in Baghdad founder Brian Conley just after the murder of their friend and videographer Brad Will by local police there. They had been planning to go to Oaxaca for months to work on a video blog, “Alive in Mexico”. In the last 5 years since college Jeff has been working full time doing communications for labor unions and now resides in New York City.

Jeremy Wells

Jeremy Wells, 38, was born and raised in and around Boston, MA, but has also lived in Iowa and Washington for many years. Jeremy currently resides in New York City with his partner Suheyla Zubaroglu and works as an event planner for the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Manhattan.

Jeremy’s involvement with the Tibetan movement is relatively new. He decided to take action in Beijing this summer because he believes this is a unique opportunity for the Tibetan people in their struggle for human rights and freedom, but also a chance to expand global consciousness of the continued oppression of people worldwide who are struggling for their right to self-determination.

John Watterberg

John Watterberg, 30, was born in South Carolina to an Air Force fighter pilot father and a wonderful stay at home mother. As a result of his father’s career, John grew up all over the world with long stays in the Deep South, the Southwest, and across Europe. He currently lives in Brooklyn and has been an “activist” since his father was killed in a routine flying exercise six months after his return from Gulf War I. He had spent months there bombing the Iraqi frontlines and it was after understanding the extreme dissonance between his Christian faith and the hundreds killed by his hands that John renounced war completely; he was thirteen years old.

John’s abhorrence for war, combined with his extreme reverence for nature, led to his gradual deeper involvement with environmental organizations. From there it was a natural transition into social justice. John has been looking forward to the opportunity to support SFT from the time he first heard of the Tibet issue and was slapping Free Tibet bumper stickers on his first car in high school. He is taking action for Tibet in Beijing this summer because he believes all humans deserve freedom, dignity, justice, and a voice. It is the responsibility of all people of conscience, especially those in positions of privilege, to lend a voice to those who have been denied one.

Mandie McKeown

Amanda (Mandie) McKeown, 41, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Her family moved to Hemel Hempstead, North London when she was 18 months and it is there where Mandie grew up and went to school. She lived in London for nearly 20 years and now resides in Bristol with her husband and two children (Hamish 5 and Niamh 3).

Mandie’s support for the freedom of Tibet started when she was in India in 1995 (trying to study Hindi) and was placed in an area where many Tibetan families were living in exile. She has now worked with the Tibet movement for nine years and has been involved with many different Tibet Support Groups (TSGs) and has known and supported SFT and its staff for the duration of this time.

Michael Liss

Michael Liss does film programming and business development for the Vail Film Festival, and is a freelance project manager in New York City. He has traveled extensively around the world, and spent time in Tibet with an SFT board member. If you’re reading this now, then it’s his first time being detained. Go Red Sox.

James Powderly

James Powderly started this shit back in the year of the dragon, 1976, on the edge of Summit landfill in Ooltewah, TN. He has been making creative technology and media in the fringes of robotics, graffiti, tattoos, chemistry and rock n roll, since 1992. For two years, James was a research fellow in the Eyebeam R&D OpenLab developing tools for graffiti artists and activists and releasing them in the public domain. Currently, he is working as a research director at the Free Art and Technology Lab, which he co-founded in 2008.

Back in the day, James was engineer and the Director of Technology Development at Honeybee Robotics, a Manhattan-based NASA contractor. He was a part of the team that developed the Mars Exploration Rover’s Rock Abrasion Tool and built a wall drilling robot for Diller + Scofidio’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. For his own work, James has been awarded a few grants, fellowships and commissions, including an Award of Distinction in 2006 from Ars Electronica for co-founding the Graffiti Research Lab. His work has been featured in the NYTimes, Wired, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Digg.com and on the front page of YouTube. His projects have been exhibited at the MoMA and the Tate Modern and his first feature-length film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. But you, dear reader, can find his work year-round on the web, forever on the surface of Mars and on other people’s property all over the world.

Tom Grant

Tom is a documentary filmmaker who grew up in New York City. His work as a filmmaker has taken him to India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan….anywhere there is a story to be told.
Most recently Tom has been working on a documentary on the international Polio epidemic for Google.org. In January of 2002 Tom traveled to Afghanistan to document the lives of families and children affected by the US bombing of Afghanistan. Tom was first camera and co-producer of the resulting documentary which won an Emmy Award. Tom is a regular contributor to Rollingstone.com.