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Smiling in the face of danger

EvilAmericanMan

Grizzled Veteran
Nov 27, 2005
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Palm Coast, FL
OK so this is probably going to be a fail thread but. I just feel I need to bring this to everyone's attention.

Look at this man. LOOK.

ss-100410-thai-01ss_full.jpg


That's right. This man has possibly hundreds of pissed off people in front of him, some of whom have their hands on his riot shield probably trying to harm him. He is grinning. I mean, I for one can't see a single shred of hostility in his face. He's got to be smiling!!

Discuss?
 
I wouldn't exactly call it a smile to bare your teeth like that, but he's probably just doing it for the camera. And he's probably got a couple dozen similar guys behind him, wearing helmets and armed with batons, teargas - or guns. He's got no major reason to be afraid.

Those Thai riot police are sadistic bastards though, so I'd say he enjoys beating up other people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8612783.stm
 
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In South-East Asian cultures smiling is often a facial signal for stress or fear.

At school I had a Burmese classmate (who gloried the name of Mark Honeybun - but that's another story.... poor sod) who would smile when one particular English teacher had a go at him... a mean sadistic teacher, at that. Mark just smiled and this just made the teacher angrier and, so, the student smiled more. In the end, we had to step in, risking bringing the teacher's wrath on our own heads to explain that he wasn't being cocky or anything - that was just what he did.

Apparently a lot of US troops found the same thing in Vietnam - some going so far as attacking ****-scared natives 'cos they were 'laughing at them'.
 
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"Meet another culture" has never been the strong point of the U.S. Army, has it.

Quite frankly it's not strong point for many persons out of the blue. Last December when there was a small 'exhibition' (so to speak) in my school that had some asian cultures in there aswell, when one of them showed direction to the other booth she did it with her middle finger (spontaneously) and alot of people found it very offensive and alot these "oh i know so much about asians yadayada"- persons were also shocked about how she could do that - which on the other hand I found very amusing due lack of knowledge.

In case if someone doesn't get the point, AFAIK it's quite common in some Asian countries to point out or show a direction with a middle finger (doesn't refer the common middle finger gesture as it's commonly understood).
 
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In regards to the photo, my money is on this..

RedGuardist said:
the photographer has just managed to shoot in the second of an "an unintentional expression".

..he could have been in the act of yelling, or grimacing, and the camera just happened to catch what looks like a smile.

Also, I'm pretty positive any human being in a situation like these riot police find themselves in would feel a certain amount of trepidation. Over the last couple of days I've seen plenty of footage of soldiers being separated from their group, surrounded by protestors, and then beaten mercilessly.


Off topic edit - I just wanted to add this to my post... My thoughts and condolences go out to all of the people of Poland in light of their recent loss. What an unbelieveable tragedy.
 
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Apparently a lot of US troops found the same thing in Vietnam - some going so far as attacking ****-scared natives 'cos they were 'laughing at them'.
The Vietnamese smile at everything. They have no rhyme or reason for their smile. Confusion, shyness, anger, ignorance....... Its hard for westerners to comprehend.
 
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"Meet another culture" has never been the strong point of the U.S. Army, has it.

Yeah, they're just a bunch of over-aggressive baby killers. No concern at all for anything but the orgasmic bliss they must feel every time they bayonet a woman or toss a small child off the top of a building.

amirite?

:rolleyes:


No, Pete. Read it again, since you are missing my point. I was not trying to demonise or slander the American soldier, since that is what you obviously though I was trying to do. My point was, brought to a head, that maybe a lot of that unavailing and demoralizing violence could have been avoided for good, if the knowledge of foreign culture they were meant to help - from their own perpective - would have been better. Same goes for the recent wars too.
 
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