From The Australian Financial Review:
Cool:
bq. Thailand makes paper birds for peace
Thailand's often irascible Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has ordained an unusual effort to make peace with a restive Muslim minority: by making origami birds.
bq. A flock of at least 63 million cranes - one Japanese-style water bird of folded paper for each Thai man, woman and child - will fly to the Muslim dominated south on Thai air force planes on Sunday, the birthday of the country's revered King, Bhumibol Adulyadej.
bq. If all goes according to plan, the bomb-bay doors will open and a symbolic payload of peace will flutter to the populace below.
bq. Mr Thaksin put his nation up to this exercise last month as a gesture to heal the wounds of Thailand's troubled southern provinces, a region dominated by Muslims.
bq. More than 500 people there have been killed this year in violence among Muslims, Buddhists and police. According to Japanese tradition, paper cranes bring peace and hope to those who lay eyes on them.
Emphasis mine... Clueless??? Care to take a guess???
bq. "These birds will mean nothing to the people here, even if you made them out of paper money," says Hama Mayunu Abdul, a Muslim civic leader who runs a chain of tiny radio stations in Narathiwat. "Don't they know that Muslims cannot worship symbols, only Allah?"
Not even no worship, the devout Muslim cannot use symbols or graven images.
Video and photography is an anathema to a true devout Muslim.
You are not supposed to worship these, you are supposed to THINK!
I have had the great pleasure in my life to know some true Muslims. The people causing the problems for everyone are medieval apostates and need to be put down like the pigs they are. True Muslims are a generous, open minded and gracious people.
Here is a photo of the Cranes from Yahoo/Reuters
A Royal Thai air force private rests among some tens of millions of paper birds the air force is transporting from a hanger to planes in Bangkok on December 3, 2004. Bags full of the origami cranes, made all-over Thailand, are scheduled to be air-dropped in the Muslim majority southern Thailand on December 5, as part of a government campaign to promote peace in the restive south where nearly 500 have died this year. The air drop also coincides with Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulydej's 77th birthday. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
