Burning questions and the Lord's fiery love.

national | history and heritage | opinion/analysis

Thursday August 24, 2006 19:56

by +

Suicide by dousing oneself in petrol is a relatively recent option.
Logically since refined petroleum has only been available to the mass population for a relatively short time. Just as long as Irish people have enjoyed the institution of the christian brothers they have been able to purchase parafin and diesel.

The first newspaper headline grabbing suicide with petrol was on October 5th 1963 in Saigon, a buddhist monk Quang Duc had had enough of the South Vietnamese government led by Ngo Dinh Diem.
His action was copied more times than anyone cares to remember.
In May 1966, 5 such suicides were recorded in just one week. a 17 year old girl followed a 19 year old girl who herself followed another monk.

The South Vietnamese government was unpopular, so the USA went in to sort it out.

Quang Duc started it all off in 1963. He was a buddhist. Apparantly they treat the little kiddies very badly.

Because they did nothing by half measures they also sorted out Noth vietnam as well, and Cambodia & Laois and made Thailand safe for hitch-hikers.

In the last 3 years the almost forgotten suicide ritual has popped up at World Trade conferences, (a South Korean farmer had enough with everyone including you) & of course Ecuadorian prisoners always on teh look out for headline grabbing publicity include self-dousing with petrol along with prison yard crucifixtions and sewing their lips together.

Obviously only big problems start this type of thing.

Ireland is new to this type of protest, and reportedly one has been aborted in the sleepy south riding of Tippereary in the market town of Roscrea, but traffic has been diverted nonetheless probably spoiling peoples' holidays.

Maybe we could ask the USA to sort out the Christian Brothers?

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Comments (3 of 3)

"brother quank duk"....."isolated incidents"....."culture & movies"....."Phuket Beach"

by analytical commentator iosaf with the sickening style & - & stomach churning cynicism.

Thu Aug 24, 2006 21:03

Let us reflect on how long it took for the Buddhists to tackle the problem. Brother Quang Duk's suicide was photographed & filmed & not only made TIME magazine front cover but became iconic. Yet immediate debate focussed more on the morality of recording a suicide or death in celuloid than any responsibility on behalf of the Buddhist brothers to alter their behaviour or at least make a statement . But they desisted, claiming they did'nt really have anything to do with politics or the press, thus paving the way for the snuff hits of today's mid asia photo-journalism & really wicked internet sites. However, such Bruddhist reticence did nothing to ward off the journalistic zeal of young reporters mostly in the USA who finally suceeded in getting a statement from the buddhist brothers after 5 teenagers (mostly female) burnt themselves to death in 1966.

Of course many younger readers will miss the obscure references to the Vietnam war. But older collectors amongst us will still have a few of the later computer games. Nevertheless it is very important to remind the young that Bangkok and Phuket beach haven't always had good reputations. Leaving that aside for the moment, Ireland's economy is no longer totally reliant on "the August Ring of Kerry tourist & foreign visitor circuit" and our pensioners will survive the loss of state and small business income as tourists on the trans south riding of tipp. route

It is peculiar isn't it? like head fucking iconic ironic. that this last year of Ireland's public and private life have seen protests & evictions featuring mature men in such poses as :-
* bell ropes around their neck
* doused in petrol.
* sure who'd need a hunger strike with that?

thank you for your attention.
not my gig. don't like the bruddhists.
but they say the Garda negotiators are very good with this type of thing.

all forgotten about. that's the thing with karma, you forget it & it come back as this bruddhist mandala reminds us.

the Roscrea siege is over.

by news topping

Fri Aug 25, 2006 13:29

Tourists are now being bothered by Ireland's 2nd airport terror alert this summer. Of course we all remember the Kerryman who said he had a bomb in Dublin airport - don´t we? & that was before the British made that sort of thing credible.
Anyway the man in Roscrea surrendered peacefully to the trained garda negotiators who have now put him on heavy drugs and in a straight jacket as one would expect from the only EU state whose psychiatric care gets into Amnesty International reports. It turns out the man is not actually a native of Tippereary's south or even north riding but hails from nearby Limerick. He's described as being "50 years-ish" which is the new age profile for "very upset Irish citizen". As long as indymedia ireland doesn't attract that age group we'll have no problems. Seemingly he wanted to be a christian bruddhist a long time ago, but got sexually abused in whatever you call a seminary for people who don't become priests. Nothing strange in that you might say - but that's because we're a worldly lot. But no-one has been very interested in his story, it being pretty typical and lacking a human angle, he got frustrated and doused himself in petrol when his eviciton came round.

And so the story will be all forgotten about . Except of course for one thing :-

If you're upset, indeed very upset and want headlines and are threatening to burn yourself just like a Buddhist teenager, remember you can only operate consciously and effectively covered in petroleum for a short time. The fumes are very heady. If you don't ignite yourself, you'll get drowsy - & Ireland's psychiatric care and huggy jackets will be your's quicker than you can recite a brevery.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0824/roscrea.html

Self-immolation

by PDA

Fri Aug 25, 2006 21:55

How fecking flawed people can be. The state or offices of the state-the bureaucracies
do not listen and desperation and will control our every move. Now why is that?
Ask the people who are driven to use the body for expression when all avenues have failed-

Except that a lot of them are dead.

Four young men in Gitmo- on suicide watch manage to hang themselves
(very slowly) five minutes, slow-strangulation.
The two prisoners in the Joy one hanging, one OD.
or the violence done to bodies through hunger -strike or that
specialist control peculiar to young women, anorexia.

The women in the Town of Roscrea, Interviewed by a commercial news-service were
complaining about not being able to return to the houses, pressing matters (the washing up,
the tv, the ironing-never mind that someone in desperate pain was threatening to kill
themselves on their doorstep) surely thats only a cry for help, there are a variety of placebos
to deal with such issues, most of them provided by the pharmaceutical firms or the
breweries.

They were probably right, suicide tends to me a quiet ritual. survivors will describe the
auto-pilot that their head went into. The weeks of intense preparation, every small
detail taken care of. Some would describe it as a 'Last act of Love' or in the case of the
stoics. The only sacrament of stoicism (Baudelaire) or the enforced suicide
(Seneca, Socrates).

He did not mean to kill himself. It was a public cry for help. Only trouble is
often people who do these cries tend to follow up at a later and more private stage.

The picture of the monk is very good.

Another survivor of church/state abuse declared jihad on the Catholic Church....

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Burning questions and the Lord's fiery love.

Comments (3 of 3)