Posted on 10/24/2002 11:21:20 AM PDT by tallhappy
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State
Oct. 23, 2002, 12:37PM
By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
Two Galleria-area hotels have canceled reservations of Falun Gong practitioners in Houston to demonstrate against
Chinese President Jiang Zemin when he visits here this week.
"I don't understand what the problem is," said Lisa Nappi, a Falun Gong practitioner from Virginia. "This is America. This is a free
land."
Practitioners from around the world have come to Houston to peacefully protest what they consider Jiang's attempt to
eliminate their belief system. They say the Chinese government pressured the hotels to cancel their reservations because Jiang does
not like Falun Gong. The hoteliers said the Chinese government did not contact them.
Late Tuesday night, several hundred practitioners had a candlelight vigil outside the Inter-Continental Hotel, hoping to rent a
conference room there. Their contract to rent the room had been canceled earlier in the day.
"We think this is discrimination against Falun Gong practitioners," said John Nania, a practitioner visiting from Minneapolis,
Minn.
Tuesday, practitioners planned a meeting in the conference room, but late in the afternoon, hotel
staff said the practitioners did not show up on time. Jiang is scheduled to stay at the
hotel, in the 2200 block of West Loop South, beginning today.
Monday, practitioners said about 50 of their reservations were canceled at the Homestead Studio Suites next door to the
Inter-Continental. A Homestead spokeswoman said the hotel had overbooked the rooms and offered the practitioners accommodations at
the company's other Houston hotels.
Nappi said she paid $3,710 to use the conference room at Inter-Continental. She booked the room several weeks ago under the name of
her nonprofit group, FGM Public Media Inc., which she said produces programs about Falun Gong and traditional Chinese culture.
But late Tuesday, a hotel representative told her the reservation was canceled.
Inter-Continental spokeswoman Pamela Gilbert said Nappi's
group did not show up until about 3 p.m. but their contract required they begin at 6 a.m. The hotel returned the money to Nappi.
Gilbert said hotel management did not know that Nappi's company was connected to Falun Gong until some members asked to
be let into the conference room for their meeting Tuesday.
Gilbert also said that some practitioners asked hotel managers several weeks ago if they could protest on the property when Jiang
arrived.
Hotel staff did not want Falun Gong to use the room, saying the hotel "reserves the right" to protect its guests from disturbances,
Gilbert said.
"Since they had requested to protest earlier, we decided not to set up the (conference) room again," Gilbert said.
Monday, Falun Gong practitioners who had reserved rooms at the Homestead Studio Suites said hotel staff told them the
reservations were canceled because there were not enough rooms.
Homestead spokeswoman Karen Burk has said management at the company's Galleria hotel overbooked the rooms to make sure as many rooms
as possible were occupied if some people did not show up.
The Chinese government banned Falun Gong in July 1999, saying the belief system is a cult that uses mind control and manipulation
while openly challenging Chinese law. Practitioners have been arrested and jailed. Some claim they were tortured. Others said
practitioners have been killed.
The alleged treatment of Falun Gong members in China has gained the sympathy of the international community and some members
of the U.S. Congress.
This is silly. If you ran the hotel, what would you do if you found out that dozens of guests publicly stated their intention of disrupting the stay of one or more other guests?
Forget politics. It would be bad for business (long after the Chinese president leaves).
But "everything will be better if we just elect Republicans"...
Jiang is a totalitarian scumbag. These people are cultist whack jobs.
I'm not sure dumpsters and cardboard boxes qualify as "hotels."
They didn't say this.
They protest a fair amount and never do that.
You are making things up.
You are simply inventing things. There is no indication there would be any inconvenience for any other guest.
Probably less so than the Jiang visit itself. That would be more inconvenient.
Falun Gong are extremely considerate, polite and peaceful in all their demonstrations. They even clean up everything after themselves.
Your comments just reinforce this impression.
And no American business should take a dime of Red Chinese money.
They protest a fair amount and never do that.
Not in those exact words -- but the fact of their protest at the hotel, no matter how peacefully, is disruptive to the other guests (not just Jiang). Remember -- I'm asking you to look at this from the perspective of the hotel's owner.
You are making things up.
You're such a meanie for saying that.
That can occur by people without booking a room.
It's still a free country.
And how was their conference room going to bother other guests?
And, if this is a problem, a visiting head of state will make more problems for guests than people hanging around with candles.
Jeez, that's less hassle than 99% of conventioneers you'll get.
You guys are full of it.
Your arguments are stretching it and don't hold water.
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