"The Flute Player"- Cambodia

[ComradeMan]

There was a documentary on TV the other evening about a Cambodian man, Arn Chorn.

He was taken to the "killing fields" as a child, he never saw his parents again. He played the flute to calm down the people before they were axed to death by the Khmer Rouge. On the documentary it was really harrowing. A film was made about him and I found this trailer,

"The Flute Player".

http://www.pbs.org/pov/thefluteplayer/

Has anyone seen the full film?

In watching the trailer there were some things that connect to some of the ideas in the hip hop thread in OI.

[Robert]

I'm sure it's interesting and valuable, but every time I read or hear anything about the Khmer Rouge, I just want to give up.

[ComradeMan]

I'm sure it's interesting and valuable, but every time I read or hear anything about the Khmer Rouge, I just want to give up.

I felt so sorry for him- you could see how haunted he was in the documentary and to have to live throught that as a child....

[ComradeMan]

The whole thing about playing music to drown out the screams of people being butchered in front of their eyes and not being able to show any emotion... that's terrifyingly wicked and disturbing.

He also talks of how anyone over the age of 65 was killed on the evacuation of the city as they would be useless.

[danyboy27]

Sadly, this is this kind of shit that make us take the easy way toward morality and make us totally miss the point about those horrible thing.

I said it in the past, and i am gonna say it again, the danger with those kind of horribles events is to go staight to the moral issue and totally miss the bigger picture of the whole thing.

The really disturbing thing with nazi germany wasnt the million of people killed by it, but how it have been able to send thousand of avearge, relatively sane people to do it.

same goes for the pol pot regime. The number of death dosnt really matter, its why and how that is really an issue.

[ComradeMan]

Sadly, this is this kind of shit that make us take the easy way toward morality and make us totally miss the point about those horrible thing..

What was the point?

How do you mean "toward morality"? I don't follow....

[danyboy27]

What was the point?

How do you mean "toward morality"? I don't follow....

its easy to be blinded by the sheer horror of something and start to demonize a person or a group of peoples for being the cause of it.

the real issues are why it happened and how.

this is the only way to avoid future mistake and learn from the past has human being.

israel is a sound exemple of what happen when the citizens of a society focus on the emotional issue. They have been repeating the verry same horror they condemn about the holocaust beccause of it.

Nationalism, militarism, treating their neighbor has sub-human, preemptive strike.

Some people never learn from the past and only remember the horror.

[ComradeMan]

its easy to be blinded by the sheer horror of something and start to demonize a person or a group of peoples for being the cause of it..

Yeah... and like are we not supposed to say anything? If people are committing sheer horror then perhaps we are in our rights to call them out... no?


the real issues are why it happened and how.

Okay, but the real issues for a lot of people are why their friends/relatives were butchered by a sadists who seized power... don't you think? The dry academic view is all good and everything but you can't forget the human involvement.


israel is a sound exemple of what happen when the citizens of a society focus on the emotional issue. They have been repeating the verry same horror they condemn about the holocaust beccause of it..

I don't know of any gas chambers in Israel or of 6 million dead Palestinians- I'm not saying Israel hasn't got a lot to answer for but comparing the conflict in Israel to the Holocaust is not okay.


Some people never learn from the past and only remember the horror.

How would you feel if you were that man? People are right to remember the horror and try to work so that horror doesn't happen again.

[danyboy27]

Yeah... and like are we not supposed to say anything? If people are committing sheer horror then perhaps we are in our rights to call them out... no?
.
yea, we have to call them out and understand why it happened and try has best has you can to leave your emotion aside.




Okay, but the real issues for a lot of people are why their friends/relatives were butchered by a sadists who seized power... don't you think? The dry academic view is all good and everything but you can't forget the human involvement.

the real issue is to make sure such thing will never happen ever again. Its indeed really important to understand the suffering and the situations, but that should never make us stray from the real goal of understanding the whole thing in its detail.



I don't know of any gas chambers in Israel or of 6 million dead Palestinians- I'm not saying Israel hasn't got a lot to answer for but comparing the conflict in Israel to the Holocaust is not okay.

i am not making a complete comparaison, israel didnt killed that many people in such fashion and the hitlerian regime was definitively more barbaric in practice, but overall the israeli state is repeating the same mistake the german state did during the nazi era.

really, what is fuelling the israeli palestinian conflict? strong nationalism, militarism, isolationism and imperialism.

all key coponents of the german nazi state had, and ultimately caused the state to be destroyed and overrun by its ennemies and caused a senseless number of death in the process.

sure israel didnt killed 6 million palestinian, but trought their nationalism and imperialism, they created a fucking powerkeg and one day or another, its gonna blow up, and will again lead to countless of victims.

that why its important to understand the past in its every detail, to avoid further suffering and bloodshed.




How would you feel if you were that man? People are right to remember the horror and try to work so that horror doesn't happen again.
an individual who have been victim of such a crime should try to find closure and move on, and work to avoid such things to happen again.

I have been the victim of an horrible thing in the past, it took me year to get over it, i found closure and today i can speak about it and truly understand why it happened and how society should work so that such thing dosnt happen to someone else.

Sure i could have lived with hatred and sadness forever, but you dosnt learn a damn thing living in your own manure of negativity.

[Robert]

the real issue is to make sure such thing will never happen ever again.

Agreed, but how do you know that it really happened?

We've had denials of the Ukraine and Chinese famines and Stalin's purges who claim it's all made up by a capitalist controlled press. Maybe they made up the Khmer atrocities to discredit communism.

[danyboy27]

Agreed, but how do you know that it really happened?

We've had denials of the Ukraine and Chinese famines and Stalin's purges who claim it's all made up by a capitalist controlled press. Maybe they made up the Khmer atrocities to discredit communism.

that why evidences and critical thinking is essential.

[ComradeMan]

I have been the victim of an horrible thing in the past, it took me year to get over it, i found closure and today i can speak about it and truly understand why it happened and how society should work so that such thing dosnt happen to someone else.

Sure i could have lived with hatred and sadness forever, but you dosnt learn a damn thing living in your own manure of negativity.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

But this man, Arn Chorn, does not appear to be full of hatred and resentment- if you watch the trailer linked in the OP and the documentary I saw the other day, okay- the sadness is there, but then that's natural. He was dragged away from his parents as a child and forced to work in a slave labour camp where he played the flute to drown out the screams from the executions... don't you think he is entitled to at least feel a little bewilderment and sadness? He was only a kid when it happened.

I've done some more research on this man and it seems he is a great humanitarian and does a lot to promote peace and harmony. I don't think you could say he is living in the "manure of negativity".

[danyboy27]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

But this man, Arn Chorn, does not appear to be full of hatred and resentment- if you watch the trailer linked in the OP and the documentary I saw the other day, okay- the sadness is there, but then that's natural. He was dragged away from his parents as a child and forced to work in a slave labour camp where he played the flute to drown out the screams from the executions... don't you think he is entitled to at least feel a little bewilderment and sadness? He was only a kid when it happened.

I've done some more research on this man and it seems he is a great humanitarian and does a lot to promote peace and harmony. I don't think you could say he is living in the "manure of negativity".

well, its alright to feel sadness, its part of the whole closure process.
he is probably doing that to help other to find closure has well.