Saturday, June 2, 2012
Whatever happened to 'Napalm Girl'?
Vietnam Napalm Girl has Peace 40 Years After Photo
In the picture, the girl will always be 9 years old and wailing “Too hot! Too hot!” as she runs down the road away from her burning Vietnamese village.
It only took a second for Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong “Nick” Ut to snap the iconic black-and-white image 40 years ago. It communicated the horrors of the Vietnam War in a way words could never describe, helping to end one of the most divisive wars in American history.
It was June 8, 1972, when Kim Phuc, now 49, saw the tails of yellow and purple smoke bombs curling around the Cao Dai temple where her family had sheltered for three days, as north and south Vietnamese forces fought for control of their village.
The ground rocked. The threads of her cotton clothes evaporated on contact. In shock, she sprinted down Highway 1 behind her older brother. Then, she lost consciousness.
Ut, the 21-year-old Vietnamese photographer, drove Phuc to a small hospital. There, he was told the child was too far gone to help. But he flashed his press badge and demanded that doctors treat the girl and left assured that she would not be forgotten. A couple of days after the image shocked the world, another journalist found out the little girl had somehow survived.
“I had no idea where I was or what happened to me,” Phuc said.
Thirty percent of Phuc’s tiny body was scorched raw by third-degree burns, though her face somehow remained untouched.
After multiple skin grafts and surgeries, Phuc was finally allowed to leave. For a while, life did go somewhat back to normal. She was accepted into medical school.
But all that ended once the new communist leaders realized the propaganda value of the “napalm girl” in the photo.
She was forced to quit college and was trotted out to meet foreign journalists. The visits were monitored and controlled, her words scripted. “I wanted to escape that picture,” she said. “I became another kind of victim.”
She traveled to West Germany in 1982 for medical care with the help of a foreign journalist. Later, Vietnam’s prime minister, also touched by her story, made arrangements for her to study in Cuba.
While at school, Phuc met a young Vietnamese man. They decided to marry in 1992 and honeymoon in Moscow. On the flight back to Cuba, they defected during a fuel stop in Canada. She was free.
Phuc contacted Ut to share the news.
After four decades, Phuc, now a mother of two sons, can finally look at the picture of herself running naked and understand why it remains so powerful. It had saved her, tested her and ultimately freed her.
Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/viet_napalm_girl_has_peace_6WH3MquaHwCd2Jr8RBNpAJ#ixzz1weqqKaT9
Ribbet!
The first picture is the well known one. The second pic is her in 2006 ;-)
It only took a second for Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong “Nick” Ut to snap the iconic black-and-white image 40 years ago. It communicated the horrors of the Vietnam War in a way words could never describe, helping to end one of the most divisive wars in American history.
It was June 8, 1972, when Kim Phuc, now 49, saw the tails of yellow and purple smoke bombs curling around the Cao Dai temple where her family had sheltered for three days, as north and south Vietnamese forces fought for control of their village.
Ut, the 21-year-old Vietnamese photographer, drove Phuc to a small hospital. There, he was told the child was too far gone to help. But he flashed his press badge and demanded that doctors treat the girl and left assured that she would not be forgotten. A couple of days after the image shocked the world, another journalist found out the little girl had somehow survived.
“I had no idea where I was or what happened to me,” Phuc said.
Thirty percent of Phuc’s tiny body was scorched raw by third-degree burns, though her face somehow remained untouched.
After multiple skin grafts and surgeries, Phuc was finally allowed to leave. For a while, life did go somewhat back to normal. She was accepted into medical school.
But all that ended once the new communist leaders realized the propaganda value of the “napalm girl” in the photo.
She was forced to quit college and was trotted out to meet foreign journalists. The visits were monitored and controlled, her words scripted. “I wanted to escape that picture,” she said. “I became another kind of victim.”
She traveled to West Germany in 1982 for medical care with the help of a foreign journalist. Later, Vietnam’s prime minister, also touched by her story, made arrangements for her to study in Cuba.
While at school, Phuc met a young Vietnamese man. They decided to marry in 1992 and honeymoon in Moscow. On the flight back to Cuba, they defected during a fuel stop in Canada. She was free.
Phuc contacted Ut to share the news.
After four decades, Phuc, now a mother of two sons, can finally look at the picture of herself running naked and understand why it remains so powerful. It had saved her, tested her and ultimately freed her.
Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/viet_napalm_girl_has_peace_6WH3MquaHwCd2Jr8RBNpAJ#ixzz1weqqKaT9
Ribbet!
The first picture is the well known one. The second pic is her in 2006 ;-)
Israel
Even those who aren't particularly sympathetic to Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu could get a good measure of satisfaction from this interview with British Television during the retaliation against Hamas' shelling of Israel.
The interviewer asked him: "How come so many more Palestinians have been killed in this conflict than Israelis?"
Netanyahu: "Are you sure that you want to start asking in that direction?"
Interviewer: "Why not?"
Netanyahu: "Because in World War II more Germans were killed than British
and Americans combined, but there is no doubt in anyone's mind that the war was caused by Germany 's aggression. And in response to the German blitz on London, the British wiped out the entire city of Dresden, burning to death more German civilians than the number of people killed in Hiroshima ...
Moreover, I could remind you that in 1944, when the R.A.F. tried to bomb the Gestapo Headquarters in Copenhagen, some of the bombs missed their target and fell on a Danish children's hospital, killing 83 little children.
Perhaps you have another question?"
Part TWO:
Benjamin Netanyahu gave another interview and was asked about Israel 's
occupation of Arab lands. His response was, "It's our land."
The reporter was stunned - read below.
"Yes, it's our land...
It's important information since we don't get fair and accurate reporting
from the media and facts tend to get lost in the jumble of daily events."
"Crash Course on the Arab-Israeli Conflict." (1.5 minutes to read!)
Here are overlooked facts in the current & past Middle East situation.
A Christian university professor compiled these:
Facts:
1. Nationhood and Jerusalem: Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, two
thousand (2000) years before the rise of Islam.
2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a
Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the
modern State of Israel.
3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over
the land for one thousand (1000) years with a continuous presence in the
land for the past 3,300 years.
4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 lasted no more than 22
years.
5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital.
Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital,and Arab leaders did not bother to come visit.
6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy
scriptures.Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran.
7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to
Jerusalem.
8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward
Jerusalem.
9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to
leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews.
Sixty-eight percent left (many in fear of retaliation by their own
brethren, the Arabs), without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. The ones who
stayed were afforded the same peace, civility, and citizenship rights as
everyone else.
10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab
brutality, persecution and pogroms.
11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.
12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONLLY not absorbed or integrated into the
Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the
100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in
the world that hasnever been absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
13. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are represented by eight separate
nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation.
The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.
14. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of
Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land,
autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.
15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews
were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and
Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all
faiths.
16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council
resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.
17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.
18. The UN was silent while the Jordanians destroyed 58 Jerusalem
synagogues.
19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the
ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like a
policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western
Wall.
These are incredible times. We have to ask what our role should be.
What will we tell our grandchildren about what we did when there was a
turning point in Jewish destiny, an opportunity to make a difference?
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
A Blessed Memorial Day and Honor to Our Troops
In the dark shadow of grey towers
In the dark shadow of grey towers
In the dark shadow of rain towers
You will see me waiting forever
You will see me waiting forever
One day it will come back
Over the lands, over the seas
The blue wind will return
And take back with it my wounded heart
I will be pulled away by its breath
Far away in the stream, wherever it wishes
Wherever it wishes, far away from this world
Between the sea and the stars
Sunday, May 27, 2012
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