Posted on 05/24/2014 11:11:46 PM PDT by mojito
A Vietnamese woman belonging to an outlawed Buddhist movement died Friday after setting herself on fire in protest against China's actions in a territorial dispute with Vietnam, according to activists and local media.
The woman, 67-year-old Le Thi Tuyet Mai, surrounded herself with seven banners denouncing Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea before dousing herself in gasoline and setting it alight early Friday morning in front of the Reunification Palace in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.
[....]
“I offer my body as a torch to light the path of all patriots,” one of the banners displayed by Mai read, according to the group.
(Excerpt) Read more at rfa.org ...
Have you ever been so angry that you just had to set yourself on fire? Me neither, and I have been pretty pissed off these last five years!
the word used to be,,,, “inscrutable”
That oughta show ‘em.
Bush’s fault.
i can’t bear to get a spot of hot grease on my finger - how do these people choose this? The worst.
You know I do wonder what's going through their head, do think they ever wonder "damn, I smell like bacon!"..............Sorry, I couldn't help myself, a little sick humor to go with a very morbid subject.
mojito wrote:
“Things are getting hot.”
I refer you to 1965, South Vietnam. Buddhist monks did this, in response to government actions, too.
Now, a Vietnamese Buddhist, “of an outlawed Buddhist sect”, (by the government), Ho Chi Minh City, which I think was called Saigon at one time, and in front of ‘The Repatriation Building’ no less, puts herself to the torch, complete with banners.
The Vietnam War, with the backing of the Soviet powers, and Red China, came to a close in 1975, with South Vietnam being ‘repatriated’ by North Vietnam.
Now, the unified Vietnam is standing up to the Communist Chinese, in issues of some idea of self-determination and self-identity. (pretty good, huh? Commie vs. Commie?)
Bottom line, things did start heating up, once monks and clerics began self-immolating.
“Now, the unified Vietnam is standing up to the Communist Chinese, in issues of some idea of self-determination and self-identity. (pretty good, huh? Commie vs. Commie?)”
Red China invaded northern Vietnam before; in 1979 they invaded in what they called a “punitive expedition” after the Hanoi government invaded Kampuchea (Cambodia) putting a stop to “The Killing Fields” (Red China was an ally and trading partner of the Khmer Rouge, trading weapons for rice - hence the starvation in Cambodia - which was basically run as a giant farm from 1975-1979).
I remember this sort of protest going on in Vietnam in the days before the full-blown Democrats’ war there. They were usually Buddhist monks, IIRC.
Cannot imagine a more painful way of suicide.
I’ve been to Hue, where the monk from that iconic Viet Nam era came from. They have his car on display a bit outside the city up the Perfume River. I was but a kid when it happened but remember it vividly.
Never understood why idiots set themselves on fire or go on hunger strikes or ride bikes naked through the street in protest. It’s all about MEEEEEE! rather than their cause.
China must be mad to consider invading Vietnam. How do you defeat people capable of such fanatical zeal? Short of during them of course.
It's a cultural thing. These gestures resonate in Vietnam. The self-immolation of the monks did immeasurable damage to the South Vietnamese cause during the Vietnam War. The impression we have of Oriental societies is that they are all about the collective. In reality, they are all about the individual. Nobody is willing to stick his neck out because it might get chopped off. In the West, that the greater good is worth sacrificing for is a given. Not everyone is prepared to risk his life, but enough have done so that tyranny is no longer a part of the West, and never was, in the sense of Oriental despotisms. In the Orient, nobody wants to risk it all for somebody else's benefit. So this kind of self-immolation can be viewed as heroic - a supreme sacrifice, a call to arms. Many Vietnamese will shrug it off as foolish and naive, but if the reaction to similar self-immolations during the Vietnam War was any indication, this may be to Vietnam vis-a-vis its territorial disputes with China what the Alamo was to the Texian cause - a rallying cry.
Communist China, in its maoist zeal, killed off Christian clerics, Buddhist and Taoist monks in its desire to make the state god.
Dying for the state can be translated to the ‘one death’ syndrome, where the state is through with you, once you die.
Those that have any belief in any life after death, cannot be trampled under by the state, because there is no fear of death, because it is a beginning, not an end.
The state calls those, imbeciles, fools, and insane people.
I remember the fly-ins of equiopment and supplies, into Cambodia from my airbase.
I remember the drives into Battambong, which was about 35 miles from the sirbase, due east from Rayong Province.
“I remember the fly-ins of equiopment and supplies, into Cambodia from my airbase. I remember the drives into Battambong, which was about 35 miles from the sirbase, due east from Rayong Province.”
Incredible; I wasn’t in school yet when the war ended in 1975.
kearnyirish2 wrote:
<<“I remember the fly-ins of equiopment and supplies, into Cambodia from my airbase. I remember the drives into Battambong, which was about 35 miles from the sirbase, due east from Rayong Province.”>>
“Incredible; I wasn’t in school yet when the war ended in 1975.”
How do you find it ‘incredible’? The U.S. was supporting the legitimate free republic of Cambodia, against the incursion and invasion of the Communist Khmer Rouge. This is who we were, before the likes of 0bama.
“The U.S. was supporting the legitimate free republic of Cambodia, against the incursion and invasion of the Communist Khmer Rouge. This is who we were, before the likes of 0bama.”
I thought we were officially neutral as far as Cambodia was concerned (and they were officially neutral as far as Vietnam was concerned).
kearnyirish2 wrote:
“I thought we were officially neutral as far as Cambodia was concerned (and they were officially neutral as far as Vietnam was concerned).”
Cambodia was NOT a Communist country, as was also SOUTH Vietnam, both being sovereign republics, after the French moved out of IndoChina, until the Khmer Rouge overran it, therefore, we respected the sovereignty of a free nation. We did supply Cambodia’s military, and did train them, but we did not have a formal presence there, as we did in its neighbor, Thailand.
Thailand and Cambodia share a long history of origin, over several hundred years worth. Although Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy after WW2, it was threatened by both Thai Communist operations in the north, and Malayan Mohammedan operations along the southern peninsula.
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