Buddhism humiliated by dimwitted film writer

[jxxxl]

Is is illegal to where an image that derides Buddha?

 

Certainly one issue here is that it's the government that's involved in this dispute. In the US, you may get some private religous group after you but certainly not the government.

 

And my two satangs on the OBL and Swastika is there just doesn't seem to be the kind of social pressure to make possibly ignorant people respect certain things. In many countries, if you unknowingly wore a swastika, someone would set you straight quickly.

 

And for those who think wearing a swastika is innocent, it depends on the context. When you see a sastika emblazoned on a german helmet, I doubt that's innocent.

[jasmine]

[color:"red"] Hi,

 

"His t-shirt read "Jesus is my homeboy" and it had a picture of a combination of jesus (as what is commonly portrayed in the west) and bob marley..."

 

But of course as it didn't portray any of the Thais icons in a bad light, it is perfectly acceptable, right?

 

[/color]

 

I posted earlier stating that most of these people don't understand what being said on the t-shirts. However, I also met some Thais who understand the wordings but want to get the attention.

 

I agree with you that respect should be for all people if everything is equal. However, if you count some ignorant people (which many exist in Thailand), it does not mean insult.

 

Just read a story written a couple years ago about the survey of Thai taste in buying caps. There were words in English on the caps and some could be quite offensive. 90% of the caps buyers being interviewed did not care what words they were and didn't want to know what they meant, they just cared about the color and the constructions of the caps!!

 

Of course ignorance is not a good excuse to be insensitive, but how can we change this???

 

Jasmine

[Flashermac]

<< does Thai TV have Muslims, Hindus, Jews etc as newscasters on mainstream TV etc, I doubt it. >>

 

 

So why should they? Affirmative action or something?

 

There is a Muslim who is a Deputy Prime Minister ... a head of the Thai Islamic community with equal standing to the Supreme Buddhist Patriarch. Seats are held open for southern Thai Muslims at many universities. Why should people of different faiths or origins be treated differently???

[pattaya127]

However, if you count some ignorant people (which many exist in Thailand), it does not mean insult.

-------------------------

 

We understand, Jasmine, and no one, especially govnmts, have requested the thai govnmt to clamp down on signs that may offend a foreigner, a christian, whatever, but the thai govnmt dictates other countries when something, even not meant to insult Thailand, brushes them the wrong way.

 

I think that's the crux of our argument here, not really that people are not meaning to insult or offend.

[Khun_Kong]

jasmine said:

[color:"red"] I posted earlier stating that most of these people don't understand what being said on the t-shirts. However, I also met some Thais who understand the wordings but want to get the attention.

 

I agree with you that respect should be for all people if everything is equal. However, if you count some ignorant people (which many exist in Thailand), it does not mean insult.

 

Just read a story written a couple years ago about the survey of Thai taste in buying caps. There were words in English on the caps and some could be quite offensive. 90% of the caps buyers being interviewed did not care what words they were and didn't want to know what they meant, they just cared about the color and the constructions of the caps!!

 

Of course ignorance is not a good excuse to be insensitive, but how can we change this???

 

Jasmine

 

[/color]

 

 

"How can we change this?"

 

Seems the government is VERY interested and involved in "education" regarding this issue, as evidenced by the following quotes in the original post.

 

Maybe the government could start by educating the ignorant within it's own borders re their own cultural ignorance- of others' cultures.

 

If there is not a satisfactory response, perhaps the government can "...seek other means..."

 

********************************

 

"A spokesman for the Thai Foreign Ministry, Kiattikhun Chartprasert, said the Government had lodged an official complaint. "We have asked our consul in Los Angeles to send a protest letter asking the company to pull those posters. If they don't respond, we will seek other means," he said.

 

The Government believes ...

 

"We can assume that blah blah blah," the Deputy Culture Minister, Weerasak Kowsurat, said.

 

The vice-chairwoman of the parliament's religious affairs committee, Anongwan Thepsutin, said: "Our representatives blah blah blah."

[Guest]

"Though i must say that the way we, in the west, have copiously derided our own religions and symbols/images in it, basically taken them out of our daily lives, especially as comes to rituals, make the use of a Jesus as T-shirt pop icon more normal than Buddha, which I don't think his teachings have been derided either locally or internationally so much as christianism. Maybe, we should look into ourselves to find we invited such trivialization. Thais may not be good buddhists or follow the Buddha so intently, but they take him seriously, and see him as foundational to what Thai culture and thainess is.. "

 

Pure crap. Organized superstition is superstiton all the same, be it Buddhism or Christianity. I liked the movie poster and am sorry to see the studio back down.

[pattaya127]

pure crap

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sure enough!