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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 Kingdom of Kush was established in about 1070 BC. The first cultures arose in Sudan before the time of a unified Egypt. Now, days before a new Egypt emerged on February 11, 2011, a new southern nation in the ancient land of Kush/Cush has appeared on the horizon on February 7, 2011. Immolations & Facebook Revolution These are incredible times. The new tomorrows are not over. Other countries, e.g. Libya, Algeria, Yemen, plus more Arab lands and even Italy and Serbia, are feeling the  cries from the people calling for freedom. We have been this way before, of course. While others have noted detailed examinations of the timing , let us observe other specifics beyond the significance of Tahrir Square. The important role of self-immolations in sparking the wave of protests and changes we are seeing in governments cannot be underplayed. It began in Tunisia in December, and quickly spread throughout the Arab world, with immolations in several countries of the region. Egypt...

The Middle East has erupted, set afire, literally, by fire suicides. Today, it was Egypt. Leaders throughout the Arab world do not know what nation will be touched next. The copycat effect is clearly very real. In the past, the news of politically-based self-immolations were spread by television news and newspapers. Today, it is Facebook and Twitter that are telling the word what is going on in the Middle East, in mass protests throughout the region. Reports throughout several Arab countries tell of at least 13 self-immolations having occurred since the fiery suicide of  Mohamed Al Bouazizi, a Tunisian man who helped topple his government. But the Jerusalem Post is stating today that at least six new cases of self-immolations have occurred in Egypt. News services are losing count of the widespread number of reports of immolations.   The 26-year-old Tunisian fruit vendor (shown in hospital before his death) doused himself with gasoline on December 17, 2010, to protest hi...

Politically-related suicides-by-fires are increasing. In the wake of media attention to immolations in China and USA, there's breaking news of fires by a Tibetan monk in Asia, and a man in London's "protest" square. A man apparently set himself on fire outside Britain's Parliament on Friday, February 27, 2009, and he was taken to a hospital with superficial burns, authorities told the UK media. Police said the man was on fire "for a short time" in Parliament Square in the heart of London. Without saying specifically that the man attempted self-immolation, police said they did not believe anyone else was involved. A police spokesman said the man's burns were superficial and "certainly not critical." He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with force policy. There was no immediate word on who the man was or why he would set himself on fire. But it follows two attempts at self-immolation by men who have been reported to be ethnic Tamils bas...

University of Washington, USA: 2008 Now Tibet, again. Three men set themselves on fire at a busy road crossing in Wangfujing, which is close to the famous Tienanmen Square in the heart of Beijing, on Wednesday afternoon (February 25, 2009), according to Asian media reports . The Beijing administration has indicated that they were trying to voice some grievance while making the attempt at self-immolation. But it did not disclose any details. The Beijing government did not disclose the identify of the persons, who ignited themselves inside a car around 3pm. But it said that they came from outside the city in a car bearing a non-Beijing license plate. Xinhua said there were one woman and two men in the car at the time of the incident. The fire assumed significance because it occurred on the Tibetan New Year Day. Now word comes of a Chicago area man who has died in a self-immolation. A 58-year-old Wal-Mart employee who said he "couldn't take it anymore" lit himself on fire ou...

In the wake of the University of Washington self-immolation, another university-related suicide by fire has occurred on the other side of the country on Halloween. (Also, there is an update on the identity of the UW victim.) Is there some key to understanding these deaths, based on their dates? On November 2, 1965, Norman Morrison of Baltimore set himself afire outside the Pentagon office of the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, in direct protest to the Vietnam War. Norman was the executive secretary of a Quaker community in Baltimore, and, according to his wife, appeared to decide on his act after reading an article by a South Vietnamese priest about the bombing of a village there. A week after Norman Morrison's death, on November 9, 1965, another American Roger A. LaPorte, 21, a member of the Catholic Worker movement, died in a self-immolation protest. Norman sat down in front of the Dag Hammarskjold Library at the United Nations in New York, calmly composed himself in the...