June 10, 2002
After our arrival in Iceland several days ago, it finally became sunny yesterday. That was the first time for us to go to the lawn in front of the government building, to start doing the exercises in public. After several hours, the Icelanders moved us deeply. We saw that they were so closely allied with us, and almost every one of them said, "We watched TV [Falun Gong related reports] a couple of days ago, and we support you." They also said they would watch the truth-clarification programs [that we had given them on a VCD] after they returned home. Many people expressed their feelings of confusion at their government's refusal to grant visas to Falun Gong practitioners with Chinese and Taiwanese passports. Icelanders are very kind, uncomplicated and upright, and they themselves would never want to do this [refuse the visitors]. This incident happened because Jiang Zemin's group applied high pressure on the Icelandic government. Jiang Zemin has a guilty conscience, so he instructs his minions to make it so that he can avoid meeting practitioners. The Icelanders do not like Jiang. Several citizens said, "If (Jiang) doesn't want to see you, then he can stay at home. Our Icelanders like Falun Gong."
The people of Reykjavik sat on stools beside the exercise site and watched us performing the exercises. They read our flyers and carefully listened to our truth clarification. No one refused to listen or to take a flyer. A student said he is against the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong. When he learned that Jiang Zemin unreasonably requested that he should be shielded from seeing anyone wearing yellow or blue in Germany, he expressed revulsion toward Jiang's behaviour. He also said that he has a yellow T-shirt, and if Jiang comes, he will wear it.
After demonstrating the exercises, our practitioners sat in a circle and began singing Dafa songs. More and more people gathered around and some even wrote down their phone numbers and addresses and passed them to our practitioners. Soon after, two news reporters came unexpectedly and immediately began taking pictures. Another reporter interviewed a practitioner, who seized the opportunity to promote the Fa [the teachings of Falun Dafa] and clarify the truth. In the end, the practitioner stated, "I hope the Icelandic government will grant visas to Falun Gong practitioners with Chinese and Taiwanese passports as soon as possible. I hope the Chinese government (Jiang Zemin's group) will stop persecuting Falun Gong as soon as possible."
At 4:00 p.m. local time, we did Fa Zheng Nian [a type of meditation]. Four children around the age of three sat in our circle, just filling up the centre. The children also imitated us and held their hands in the same posture. By this time, more and more children were in the park and they looked at us with curiosity. Every child happily accepted our bookmarks.
As we were getting ready to leave, a group of middle school students, around 15 years of age, were laughing and walking on the sidewalk, close by us. I approached them with flyers in my hand and talked to them. I gave each of them a bookmark and they asked me to teach them to read the Chinese characters on the bookmarks. Quickly, they learned the characters, "Falun Dafa" and "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance." Then, I told them about the situation of the Chinese government's irrational persecution of Falun Gong. They were very sympathetic. I asked if they want to try our exercises, and they nodded in agreement. So we taught them right away. Thus over a dozen students stayed for more than an hour to learn the exercises. We taught them all five sets of the exercises. They learned very seriously and attentively. It was indeed a beautiful scene. A middle-aged man was playing with two children, and after he saw we were teaching the exercises, he "naturally" began learning, too. During this period, passers by all looked at us. Unfortunately we had run out of flyers and had to explain the persecution and situation of Dafa verbally.
After we finished teaching the exercises, a cordial conversation ensued. A middle-aged woman walked toward me and asked if I practice Falun Gong. She wanted to greet a practitioner. I asked further and learned that she is a local high government official, and tomorrow she will meet with our practitioners. I sincerely said to her, "Falun Gong will bring tremendous benefits to Iceland." I also gave her truth clarification pamphlets and a VCD, which she happily accepted. She saw with her own eyes the peacefulness of Falun Gong practitioners here and how well her fellow Icelandic people like Falun Gong.
A practitioner wanted to take a picture of us. As we were talking, a man who I guessed was a news reporter came over and asked us to stay a little longer, for he has already called news reporters to come and interview us. Later, the news reporters came and they interviewed the local students and took pictures of us. The next morning, as I walked downstairs, my landlord said to me excitedly, "You guys are in the news." I looked at the newspaper and saw that we were on the front-page, in the headline. A large picture accompanied the headlines that included the students, the middle-aged man and us. In the picture, we all held our hands in the Heshi position, with both of our hands in front of our chest. This newspaper reaches 70% of the residents. The headline read that "the government should not make it difficult for Falun Gong."
We love the people from the bottom of our hearts. They seem to have more connection with the characteristics of the cosmos, "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance." From the people to the news reporters to government officials, all of them here approached us on their own and we had a very harmonious relationship.
I can imagine how much the Icelandic government would have welcomed us, the Dafa practitioners, who travelled thousands of miles, had it not been for the evil's pressure. The Dafa practitioners are bringing a bright future to the people of Iceland. We hereby also sincerely hope that the Icelandic government will become more steadfast, follow her democratic policies and not be threatened and controlled by the power of a foreign dictatorship.
The reason we came to Iceland is to call for the Chinese government to stop the persecution of Falun Gong, and also in the hope to bring a bright future to the Icelandic people, who are kind, uncomplicated and upright.
Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/6/12/23026.html
Chinese version available at http://minghui.cc/mh/articles/2002/6/11/31571.html
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