In Thailand for some odd reason dropping paper birds out of a plane does not stop people from committing violence. In other breaking news spitting into the wind does not keep your face dry.
"A massive airdrop of paper birds intended to promote peace failed to halt violence in Thailand's restive south, with a spate of new attacks Monday that targeted soldiers and local officials.
The bombings, shootings and arson attacks came hours after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Sunday's airdrop of nearly 100 million Japanese-style origami cranes over the predominantly Muslim region had achieved an 'enormous, positive psychological effect' toward peace."
The perpetrators of the violence are referred to as "Muslim separatists" in the article. For some reason they didn't seem to appreciate the might, power & out & out compelling message of the air dropped origami.
"[Prime Minister] Thaksin [Shinawatra] said Sunday the paper bird airdrop showed residents of the three southern provinces that they are part of Thai society, and that their countrymen care for them.
Hours after Thaksin spoke, the owner of a tea shop in Pattani was slain by gunmen, grenades were thrown at the homes of two policemen in the same province and arsonists set fire to a state school in Yala and a teacher's house in Narathiwat."
I don't know which is worse: the Thai government thinking dropping a bunch of paper birds would erase all evil & hatred from everyone's heart or this new story which seems to think this was a credible strategy. Hell, for a moment I thought it was a tongue in cheek jab with the government’s idea being almost self ridiculing until I found this paragraph:
"Bangkok's heavy-handed response has not helped the situation.
The government came under strong criticism after 85 Muslim demonstrators died on Oct. 25, including 78 who suffocated or were crushed when soldiers bound and stacked them on top of each other in military trucks."
Now I'll be the first to say that people dying at the hands of a government is a bad thing most of the time. This wouldn't be one of the exceptions. But I cannot see how it has anything to do with the peace cranes not working. Nor do I think that the murdering bastards in question (that'd be "Muslim separatists" for anyone in the press or on the lef - wait; that was almost redundant) would have been satiated had the government not murdered several score of protestors.
It's really not that difficult to understand; some people make a choice to try & kill you until they either succeed or you submit to their demands. Pace cranes won't stop it. Joining hands & lighting candles won't stop it. Singing Cum Baya won't stop it. You can either let yourself be killed, submit to their demands, or kill them before they kill you.
Then again maybe if the peace cranes were made out of recycled paper....?
Posted by Publicola at December 7, 2004 01:28 AM