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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai military drops "peace bombs" |
| 2004-12-03 |
| EFL.I have my doubts if this will work... Hundreds of Thai school children and air force recruits have loaded an estimated 100 million origami birds onto military transport planes in preparation for a "peace bombing" of the violent Muslim south of the country. Look! Little paper birds, Achmed! They're soooo cute! I'm throwing my AK in the river! The little pieces of folded paper, to be dropped from the air on Sunday to mark the birthday of Thailand's revered king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, are meant to sow peace, harmony and goodwill in the three southernmost provinces, where an 11-month insurgency has claimed nearly 500 lives. Yeah. Good luck with that. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose government has struggled to get to the root of the violence, has defended his paper-bird scheme against opponents who say the government is just dumping 48 plane-loads of rubbish. Point: Opponents. Some people in the mainly Muslim deep south, which has a century-long history of ethnic and religious hostility towards the largely Buddhist administration in Bangkok, question the symbolism behind the gesture. Jeez, I wonder why that might be? In 1948, the Thai air force was called in to bomb parts of the south along the border with Malaysia to quell a rumbling Muslim separatist insurgency. Now that might work. "The paper birds are not a traditional symbol for us," said leader of Abdullaham Abdulsamad of the Narathiwat Islamic Council. "It's a different culture. Our people do not understand what the birds stand for. We will take the little paper birds as a sign to kill the infidels. But, then again, we think everything means kill the infidels. Thaksin's initial intention was to drop 62 million paper cranes, one for every person in the country. A media blitz, which included a cabinet meeting to teach ministers how to fold the birds, sparked origami fever the length and breadth of the land. Origami Fever! Catch it! The birds will be flown to the provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani in Thailand's south, where they will be loaded onto 48 smaller planes for dispersal. Whatever the differences between Thai Buddhists and southern Thai Muslims, who are ethnic Malay and speak a Malay dialect, someone will have to clean up tonnes of paper afterwards. ...and it won't be us...INFIDEL!!! |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #15 Come on, folks. Let's try and look on the bright side of this. Mebbe this is a subtle message from little Sadako and her classmates. "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" is the story of a girl who died of leukemia. On August 6, 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki was just two years old. Though the bomb did not kill her and she suffered no immediate injury, she developed leukemia when she was 11 years old. Sadako had heard that a person could make her wish come true by folding a thousand paper cranes. Wishing for good health, Sadako began folding a thousand paper cranes. But she died at age 12, before her project was completed, it is said, and her classmates finished folding her cranes for her after she died. Children send in cranes they have folded in prayer for peace. Sadako's classmates also collected donations from schools throughout Japan and used the funds to create a monument to children who had been victims of the atomic bomb. Piles of thousand-crane chains sent by people from all over the world surround the monument. To people everywhere, the story of Sadako has come to symbolize the hope that no child will ever again be killed by an atomic bomb. I say, let's give these Thai Muslim rebels (and all other Islamic terrorists) pause to worry that there might be an honest reason to have so many paper cranes folded for them. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-12-03 10:38:43 PM |
| #14 Is this the sequel to Operation Vowel Storm? |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2004-12-03 9:10:42 PM |
| #13 "peace bombs" I like the sound of that. Let's name the next 30,000 pound class bomb the "peace bomb". |
| Posted by: ed 2004-12-03 9:10:40 PM |
| #12 Don' be such cynics. I think it's a wonderful lesson for the children. They will all work very hard, drop their little peace birds and feel very good about the efforts. When the newspaper comes out the next day, they will realize it was unappreciated and unheeded. Too bad, so sad. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-12-03 8:27:19 PM |
| #11 thanks for rubbing that in |
| Posted by: Herb Tarlick 2004-12-03 6:11:42 PM |
| #10 "...and in other fake news today, 48 small transport planes were inexplicably shot down in Thailand's three southernmost provinces, Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani. There were no survivors and it was not immediatley clear who was responsible." |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-12-03 6:04:03 PM |
| #9 hey man could it be that this sounds so 60s and Berkeley, cause like those flower children were wannabe Buddists, and these are like, REAL buddists?? I mean Im not sure its that surprising. And I wouldnt worry, my impression is that the Thais will try the lets all be part of the big boddisatva suffering humanity thing, and when it dont work, theyll come in guns blazing. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-12-03 5:40:55 PM |
| #8 Oh, wow, dude! This is like, so Sixties! I remember when they dropped the Peace Bombs on Hanoi, and they exploded in rainbows and flowers and fluffy kittens, and then we all laughed and laughed and Ho Chi Minh passed around warm chocolate chip cookies and this really great weed, and...uh, I do remember that, don't I? |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2004-12-03 5:38:06 PM |
| #7 Perhaps Thai planes could drop saggy-titted Marin County women on the muslim areas? |
| Posted by: lex 2004-12-03 5:37:44 PM |
| #6 I can't decide which is the dumber, more pointless stunt: this, or a bunch of saggy-titted Marin County women arranging their naked bodies on a hillside to spell out the word "PEACE". |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-12-03 5:12:31 PM |
| #5 There's two on every blog Tu and you're one of 'em. :) |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-12-03 5:03:47 PM |
| #4 Took me a minute, but I finally got it, Ship. I remember the pretty colors. Looks like the Thai's already took your advice. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-12-03 4:51:37 PM |
| #3 Chew the corners with the Mickey Mouse picture. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-12-03 4:45:00 PM |
| #2 "As God is my witness, I thought |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2004-12-03 4:05:02 PM |
| #1 I thought for sure someone from Berkley came up w/this crap. |
| Posted by: Phiter Glolung1555 (aka Jarhead) 2004-12-03 3:59:36 PM |