Vietnam

The NZ Herald has run a story by-lined by John Hall about a supposed Vietnam Veteran found after 44 years of being missing in action presumed dead.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A United States Army veteran has been found living in a remote Vietnamese village 44 years after his plane was shot down and he was presumed dead.

Unclaimed, a documentary by Canadian filmmaker Michael Jorgenson, claims that a frail, elderly man, found in a remote south Vietnam village unable to remember the English language, his date of birth or even the names of his wife and two children, may be Sergeant John Hartley Robertson – a former Green Beret shot down in 1968.

Robertson was working on a special operation over Laos when his helicopter was downed.

Despite his body never being found, he was presumed dead for nearly half a century.

Vietnam veteran Tom Faunce says he was on a humanitarian mission in Southeast Asia in 2008 when he was told of the existence of an “army brother” who had been shot down 40 years earlier, listed as “deceased in action” and forgotten about by the US Government.

Faunce teamed up with Jorgenson to track the mystery man down and find definitive evidence that either proved he was Robertson, or out him as a hoaxer.

The Herald story gives the reader the idea that this is indeed the missing man.  Read more »

The NZ Herald has confirmed all suspicions that they are just a conduit for the Labour party by publishing this article by Rebecca Quilliam today.

I’ll be that plenty of other political parties issued press releases paying tribute to the service of the armed forces. Prime Minister John Key paid a personal tribute in Wellington while attending the dawn parade, while David Shearer was hiding behind the shirt tails of Helen Clark in New York.

It disgusts me that they run a partisan and one-sided, almost word for word Labour’s press release on behalf of the Labour party on Anzac day. it is only one paragraph different, the first one. I can’t believe Rebecca Quilliam put her by-line on it since three quarters of the words aren’t even her own.

How shameful, how embarrassing.

Read more »

Further to my earlier post about Harry Honnor, I have received a few emails. Included was the photo below of Harry Honnor at Nui Dat, two days before The Battle of Long Tan.

Harry Honnor at Nui Dat, Vietnam – Supplied

Read more »

Brig Harry Honnor, CB, MVO

Yesterday while the media and almost the whole of New Zealand watched the funeral of Sir Paul Holmes there was another funeral being held, in Paihia, of a Kiwi war hero, Brig Harry Bowen Honnor, CB, MVO

Shamefully our media have not covered the funeral of a true hero. There are very few images of Harry Honnor, but I found the one in this post of him receiving his Korean Presidential Unit Citation from the Auckland based Consul General for the Republic of Korea, Mr Dae-hee Lee,  in Whangarei on Long Tan Day, 18 August 2011.

My father in law served under Harry Honnor in Vietnam, in the Battle of Long Tan.

The Veteran blogs about it at No Minister:

We said good bye to Harry Honnor on a magic BoI day at Paihia yesterday.   The service was held at the beautiful old stone St Paul’s Anglican Church on Marsden Road just across from the beach.   He was farewelled with full military honours which brought Paihia to a standstill and something different to the many hundreds of tourists who witnessed the event.

Brigadier Harry Bowen Honnor will be remembered with affection by generations who served in the 1940′s, 50′s, 60′s and 70′s as a soldiers soldier, a tough but much respected commander and an icon of the Paihia community where he made his home following his retirement in 1983.  Read more »

Greg Sheridan writes in The Australian about the effectiveness or otherwise of sanctions and isolation on Fiji. This is a refreshing departure from the usual claptrap dished up by the mainstream media on the topic of Fiji:

Take Fiji. Recently Fiji’s strongman, Frank Bainimarama, appointed a constitutional commission under the leadership of the distinguished Yash Ghai to write a new constitution. When Bainimarama saw what it had produced, he tore it up. The international community (I know the word’s an oxymoron, but let it pass) generally condemned Bainimarama without qualification. The most common criticism was that the Fijian leader could not tolerate the constitution’s proposed separation of the military from politics.

Carr’s response was more modulated, more nuanced. He noted, rightly in my view, that the commission had proposed numerous undemocratic elements for a new constitution. One was the revival of the Great Council of Chiefs, which has been the source of so much destructive Fiji nativism, directed primarily at Fiji’s Indian minority. Another was the commission’s proposal for an undemocratic body to sit alongside parliament as a kind of advisory group, also charged with the task of appointing the president.

Carr was then criticised by commentators, many perfectly sensible people, on the basis that he was being too soft on Bainimarama. I think it was more a case of what Amanda Vanstone sagely identified on ABC’s Q&A on Monday as a politician injecting unwelcome complexity into a complex question where many NGOs, activists and some in the commentariat want simple responses.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully was far more robust in his criticisms, so there was some difference between Canberra and Wellington.  Read more »

On the one hand we have the Prime Minister blithely suggesting that we should continue to freeze out Fiji and on the other hand our Trade Minister talking up a storm about free trade agreements with less than democratic nations, showing once again our strange foreign policy hypocrisy to the world:

Trade Minister Tim Groser yesterday announced that New Zealand was joining an initiative to create a huge free trade region.

If the agreement succeeds it would cover an area with more than three billion people, 43 per cent of the world’s population.

Mr Groser has been in Cambodia this week for trade meetings hosted by Asean, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The countries which have agreed to the initiative are the 10 Asean countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines – and six countries with which Asean has existing free trade agreements: China, India, Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Let’s look at those countries shall we…since we insist on forcing Fiji to have a system of government like ours, and highlighting civil rights and free press and independent judiciary:

Indonesia: hardly the stand up country when it comes to human and civil rights. They occupied East Timor for more than 25 years, including massive civil rights abuses of the East Timorese population. They continue to fight seperatists in Aceh and have only had one direct presidential election since Suharto’s resignation, which was held in 2004.

Malaysia: Ostensibly a democracy but with ongoing persecution of opposition politicians in partiucular the persecution on trumped up charges of sodomy against Anwar Ibrahim, and a less than free media.Islamic fundamentalism is growing in Malaysia.

Singapore: Is barely a democracy:

The People’s Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, and governs on the basis of a strong state and prioritising collective welfare over individual rights such as freedom of speech, an approach that has attracted criticism from organisations such as Freedom House.

That is an amazing string of electoral good luck. Tight government controls exist particularly with regards to freedom of speech and freedom of association:

 In 2011, in the World Justice Project‘s Rule of Law Index Singapore was ranked in the top countries surveyed in “Order and Security”, “Absence of Corruption”, and “Effective Criminal Justice”. However, it scored very low for both “Freedom of Speech” and “Freedom of Assembly”. All public gatherings of five or more people require police permits, and protests may only be legally held at Speakers’ Corner.

Brunei: The personal fiefdom of teh Sultan of Brunei, with few if any democratic processes in place. The country has been under martial law since 1962. Despite a lack of democracy the government regularly fetes the Sultan of Brunei and allows him to maintain an extensive property portfolio in Auckland, and travel with freedom in his own jet which is often parked up at Auckland. Media are tightly controled:

The country has been given “Not Free” status by Freedom House; press criticism of the government and monarchy is rare.^[

Myanmar (Burma): A military dictatorship, where the NZ Government is more than happy for SOEs like Kordia to make millions from a government that is rife with human rights abuses and of course actively and violently suppresses the opposition.

The United Nations and several other organizations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country, including genocide,child labour, human trafficking and a lack of freedom of speech. In recent years the country and its military leadership have made huge concessions to democratic activists and are slowly improving relations with the major powers and the UN.

Thailand: Any government in Thailand serves at the pleasure of the King. They have had more coups since the formation of the country than any other in the region. Yet New Zealand already has a Free Trade Agreement with them. Since the country was founded in modern times in 1932, ironically by a coup, they have had coups and/or insurrections in 1932, 1933, 1938, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1957,  and 1973.

The history of Thailand from 1932 to 1973 was dominated by military dictatorships which were in power for much of the period.

The most recent coup was in 2006 when Thaksin Shinwatra was overthrown, and a in 2010 there was a “judicial coup”:

Immediately following what many media described as a “judicial coup”, a senior member of the Armed Forces met with factions of the governing coalition to get their members to join the opposition and the Democrat Party was able to form a government, a first for the party since 2001. The leader of the Democrat party, and former leader of the opposition, Abhisit Vejjajiva was appointed and sworn-in as the 27th Prime Minister, together with the new cabinet on 17 December 2008.

In of April 2010, a set of new protests by the Red Shirt opposition movement resulted in 87 deaths (mostly civilian and some military) and 1,378 injured. When the army tried to disperse the protesters on 10 April 2010, the army was met with automatic gunfire, grenades, and fire bombs from the opposition faction in the army, known as the “watermelon”. This resulted in the army returning fire with rubber bullets and some live ammunition. During the time of the “red shirt” protests against the government, there have been numerous grenade and bomb attacks against government offices and the homes of government officials. Grenades were fired at protesters, that were protesting against the “red shirts” and for the government, by unknown gunmen killing one pro-government protester, the government stated that the Red Shirts were firing the weapons at civilians.

There is far more of a coup culture in Thailand but we are yet to see travel bans for members of the government, travel warnings or sanctions, instead New Zealand gave them a FTA.

Cambodia: is recovering from the legacy of the Khmer Rouge regime and subsequent Vietnamese occupation.

Hun Sen and his government have seen much controversy. Hun Sen was a former Khmer Rouge commander who was originally installed by the Vietnamese and, after the Vietnamese left the country, maintains his strong man position by violence and oppression when deemed necessary. In 1997, fearing the growing power of his co-Prime Minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Hun launched a coup, using the army to purge Ranariddh and his supporters. Ranariddh was ousted and fled to Paris while other opponents of Hun Sen were arrested, tortured and some summarily executed.

In addition to political oppression, the Cambodian government has been accused of corruption in the sale of vast areas of land to foreign investors resulting in the eviction of thousands of villagers as well as taking bribes in exchange for grants to exploit Cambodia’s oil wealth and mineral resources. Cambodia is consistently listed as one of the most corrupt governments in the world.

Laos: A single party communist dictatorship. Their human rights record is appalling. no democracy here, no press freedoms, no indepedent judiciary…but welcome into a Free Trade Agreement while we shun Fiji.

Vietnam: A Single party communist dictatorship controlled by the military. Media freedoms are non existant:

Vietnam’s media sector is regulated by the government in accordance with the 2004 Law on Publication. It is generally perceived that Vietnam’s media sector is controlled by the government to follow the official communist party line, though some newspapers are relatively outspoken. The Voice of Vietnam is the official state-run national radio broadcasting service, broadcasting internationally via shortwave using rented transmitters in other countries, and providing broadcasts from its website. Vietnam Television is the national television broadcasting company.

Since 1997, Vietnam has extensively regulated public Internet access, using both legal and technical means. The resulting lockdown is widely referred to as the “Bamboo Firewall.” The collaborative project OpenNet Initiative classifies Vietnam’s level of online political censorship to be “pervasive”, while Reporters without Borders considers Vietnam to be one of 15 global “internet enemies”.

Philippines: The only real democracy in the countries listed above. Still not without a history of military control at some points and some coup culture.

When you see it all listed there you really wonder why we continue to freeze out Fiji when it appears we are quite prepared to deal with Military Dictatorships, Communist states and corrupt demagogues. It must be interesting to try and justify all that inside MFaT while at the same time running the silly policies we have against Fiji.

One of the things that I am doing now that I am earning money again is paying a tenth of what I earn to charity.

I decided that I wanted to do good things with my donations and one of the first projects I have given money to is the ADRA project in Vietnam that invests in cows and creating a Cow Bank.

Tay Ninh Province is one of the poorest in Vietnam. Agriculture is the main source of income in the province but the land is very low in nutrients and is easily eroded and this is one of the main causes of poverty in the area.  Many households do not have access to clean water sources and are lacking the resources, skills and opportunity to change their lives.

ADRA aims to increase livestock incomes for 2,350 people through the establishment of a cow loan program and improved technical skills for livestock husbandry, which will reduce dependency on crops. ADRA also supports the community’s own initiatives for development which include clean water access, environment, health, child and women’s rights protection, and other activities organised through Village development Committees run by the villagers themselves.

Each cow costs NZ$495 to provide to each family.

To enhance personal ownership and commitment to the objectives of the project, cow bank recipients will be required to provide financial and in-kind contributions. Financial contributions, which are based on a percentage of the total cost, assist in covering risk, administrative and associated costs. In-kind support comes in the form of returning the first female offspring back to the loan pool for support to another poor farmer. In addition, recipients will be responsible for contributing their efforts to awareness-raising activities, as well as training support to follow-on health safety and safe farming workshops as it is expected that farmers will continue to safely raise livestock in the project areas.

 Essentially each family that receives a cow gets not only the cow but also they are trained on Small Enterprise Development (SED), cow husbandry and other income generating techniques. This has ensured that:

A farmer in Tay Ninh Province, one of the poorest in Vietnam.

Check back later as I explain the Cow Bank initiative.

How to make Vietnamese Coffee:

The Atlantic

Most people have a low opinion of the French especially when it comes to matter military…there is even a website dedicated to French Military Victories (there aren’t many). But how did this state of affairs come about…an attitude where even The Simpsons mocks the Frogs as Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys.

The Simpsons crystallized American Francophobia a decade before the Iraq War with a 1995 show calling the French “cheese-eating surrender monkeys,” a reference to their purportedly snobby tastes and weak military. In fact, per capita cheese consumption is almost exactly the same in France as it is in the U.S., and the French military managed to conquer most of Europe, as well as northern and western Africa. (Americans needed British, Russian, and yes French help to take the same lands that Napoleon Bonaparte had seized with no major ally.) But the phrase stuck — how many other one-off Simpsons jokes made it into the Oxford quotation dictionary twice? — not because it was factually true but because it perfectly encapsulated the American perception.

There are however two main theories, even if they are untested:

I also learned, when I asked about this phenomenon on Twitter, that everyone – everyone – has a theory. The armchair theories tend to fall into two categories: the “thankless French” argument that Americans resent France for being insufficiently deferential or grateful for U.S. assistance in Vietnam and both world wars, and the “American inferiority” theory that we are intimidated by France’s superior politics, culture, and health care.

Both of those popular answers are really about how Americans views themselves; the former says we are better than the world gives us credit for, the latter says we’re not as great as we think. Either theory could be applied to American attitudes toward any wealthy country — it doesn’t even have to be European. But neither really tells us about the particular U.S. attitudes toward France. Maybe that’s the most revealing thing. France and America are possibly the only two countries in the world that truly believe it’s all about us, that assume our own greatness, either as something to be respected or perfected. That kind of attitude doesn’t really accept peers; there can’t be two pinnacles of Western social development. It’s one of the many traits we share and one of the many things keeping us apart.