Re: Iconoclasm & Heresy in Bangkok

On 27 Mar 2006, at 11:17 am, Eisel Mazard wrote:

> The fact that it isn't being reported is perhaps more
> significant that the proposition itself.  I also find the
> assumption/assertion that he was "deranged" a rather sudden
> lurch of judgement on the common man's part.

That isn't so. On the day after the incident the man's
father testified that his son had had a decade-long history
of mental illness. Given the problems in the South of the
country it was prudent of the local media to emphasize his
being mad rather than the fact that he was a Muslim.

> That is precisely the point that none of the press seems to
> observe: a human being was murdered -- and that is rather
> more deserving of investigation and criminal prosecution
> than the smashing of a 1956 plaster idol, that was pretty
> well a tourist-scam operated at a profit by a
> hotel-corporation to begin with.

Though it is located on hotel ground, the Erawan shrine is
in fact maintained by Moonniti Than Tao Phrom, a highly
respected charitable foundation that supplies equipment to
rural hospitals, and much else.

www.mahaprom.org/index_eng_history.htm

Best wishes,
Dhammanando