Piece Of Art

An act of protest from the Vietnam War lives on in this photograph and in modern incidents. 15 August 2011   Last updated at  08:44 ET BBC News Share this page Tibetan monk sets himself on fire in China Continue reading the main story A Tibetan monk has set himself alight in China's Sichuan province, amid claims of a crackdown on monasteries in the region. Western-based activists said the monk, who they named as Tsewang Norbu, had died from his injuries. A similar action sparked weeks of confrontation earlier this year in another town in Sichuan. Unrest is fuelled by a widespread belief that the government wants to suppress Tibetan culture. The argument has been going on for decades, with many Tibetans accusing the government of forcing monks to attend re-education camps, encouraging the migration of Han Chinese to Tibetan areas, and crushing any sign of dissent. But the authorities say they have brought relative wealth and prosperity to a region that was a rural backwater. Th...

The revolutions and overthrowing of governments across the Arab world that have been sparked by self-immolations may result in a danger for ancient treasures. The Egyptian A rmy reportedly has secured the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, in an attempt to protect the treasures from the era of the pharaoh kings, including the death mask of the boy king, Tutankhamun, according to a bulletin from Reuters.

Worldwide, we are in the midst of a wave of political immolation copycats, with at least seven  deadly incidents being recorded since  the spark was ignited a month ago in Tunisia. As I wrote  in The Copycat Effect , one of the most imitated public and political forms of self-death is the fire suicide. More protesters set themselves on fire in Egypt, Mauritania and Algeria on Monday, January 17, 2011, in apparent copycat fiery suicide attempts inspired by the act that helped trigger a popular uprising in Tunisia. Besides the Tunisian and Egyptian accounts, reports of fire suicides...

I have pointed out that in China (and Japan), due to their strict firearms laws, such countries tend to manifest their "copycat school violence" in terms of "stabbing" series. Will this current stabbing spree spread to Japan or other Asian nations? April 2010 appears to be turning into a prime example. The media has referred to these, very openly, as "copycats." Of course, the underlying theme of these events ending in suicides or parasuicidal incidents is no surprise for readers here. Here's is a summary of the latest news: Five incidents in a little over a month and three attacks in three days have left at least 9 children dead in China, all by knife-wielding older males. 1) Wang Yonglai Friday, April 30, 2010 This attack occurred in the small village of Shangzhuang, near the city of Weifang in the northern province of Shandong. Just before eight o'clock in the morning, April 30, 2010, a man named as Wang Yonglai, a local farmer, age unknown, b...