By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, August 21: The American R &B (rhythm and blues) artist Curtis James Jackson III alias 50 Cent has angered several Tibetans and supporters by posting a picture of a Tibetan man who self immolated in March 2012, on his official Instagram account, apparently questioning the authenticity of the image.
“Oh s*** who made this? (smiley) ok now you know I’m gonna get crazy right. Season 3 POWER on the way, #EFFENVODKA#ERIGO#SMSAUDIO,” read a post on the singer’s Instagram account.
Jamphel Yeshi self immolated at Jantar Mantar just days ahead of Chinese president Hu Jintao’s visit to the Indian capital in March 2012.
The Instagram post by the singer has hurt the sentiments of Tibetans around the world as is evident from the comments left by users on various social media platforms.
Tashi Dhondup from Delhi wrote, “This Instagram post is offensive and disrespectful. 50 Cent may be unaware of what is happening inside Tibet but after all the requests people made below the post, no expected step has been taken by him”.
Another user Wangchuk Tsering from United States vents a more direct reaction, “Ignorant heartless fool! No (t) worth even 50 cents”.
Another Tibetan wrote on Facebook where the picture was shared by several users, “He used this to promote his vodka (written in his caption). He must be broke to use this pic to promote himself”.
While the outrage is uniform on many sites, a Tibetan girl has resorted to a more activist tune setting up a petition urging the rapper to take down the post. The petition featured on the site ipetition since August 19 is signed by 146 people and has 70 comments till now.
The ‘offensive’ post has been deleted the same day (Aug 19) but the no apologies or retraction notes by the musician or his PR team has come as of now.
Tenzin Woesel, the petitioner expressed appreciation to the people who signed her petition. “Gratitude to those who signed the petition, we did this together, It’s good to see our people and the supporters raising our voice against this discourteous act”.
A staggering total of 142 known cases of self immolation have been reported from Tibet since 2009.
