Greenpeace sorry for Nazca lines stunt in Peru
(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/79651000/jpg/_79651375_79651327.jpg)
Activists from the organisation placed a banner next to a figure of a hummingbird, carved more than 1,500 years ago
They were hoping to increase pressure on UN negotiators currently meeting in Lima.
The Peruvian government said it would prosecute the activists who took part.
The ancient depictions of animals, including a monkey and a hummingbird that are etched into the arid plain of Southern Peru are a vital part of the county's heritage.
Visits to the site are closely supervised - ministers and presidents have to seek special permission and special footwear to tread on the fragile ground where the 1,500 year old lines are cut.
Earlier this week 20 Greenpeace activists from seven countries unfurled a protest banner very close to the location of the lines.
'Slap in the face'
"With our message from the Nazca lines, we expect politicians to understand the legacy we need to leave for future generations," said one of the activists, Mauro Fernandez, on a video produced by the organisation.
"It is not a legacy of climate crisis."
Unfortunately, according to the Peruvian authorities, the legacy of the stunt was damage to the ancient site.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10405254_678386932281056_6278009936544655480_n.png?oh=39d00442cd47e0f4b4e326438db65c0f&oe=54FD79CB&__gda__=1427718466_e7a43422fc6d7ce5be62b486579545c0)
John Chewter: "Just look at the damage that will be there for thousands of years!"
They say the green group entered a strictly prohibited area and left footprints. The government is asking for the identities of those involved and threatening prosecution and six years in prison for the offenders.
"It's a true slap in the face at everything Peruvians consider sacred,'' Deputy Culture Minister Luis Jaime Castillo said, speaking to news agencies.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30422994
THIS is one of the A Holes who did it
(http://i.imgur.com/5TPwjc8.jpg)
Very stupid move on the activists' part.
The Basic Law of Humanity
If there is a way to crew up something good... SOMEONE will do it
Back in Toronto (70's I think it was) there was a group of Animal Rights activists that decided they would protest the new Toronto Zoo...
Now that zoo had created awesome natural habitats for the animals. The wolf pen was there target. These wolves had been born at that zoo only knew captivity in their awesome large environment.
These nuts decided it would be a good idea to release the wolves. The zoo was adjacent to a huge ravine that led out of town. So their "logic" was that after they released the wolves they would flee up the ravine to freedom
Well the wolves were terrified as these nuts had to scare them out of the pen to make them go. They did not run to the wild ravine but headed for the houses in the area. They were scared, they had no idea where to go....
End result was the police and rangers had to shoot most of them
Nice going guys Wat to save the wolves
Forest Gump put it wisely...
"Stupid is as Stupid does!"
Trivial..
Quote from: thorfourwinds on December 11, 2014, 10:13:08 PM
Very stupid move on the activists' part.
Leaving any sign of being there is stupid, including footprints.
However, the Message worked. :P
The rest of the story is trivial, to be sure; thank you Sinny.
It is always a shame to see a group of otherwise well intentioned people become what they fight, and embrace extremism to the point of damaging the very thing they claim to cherish.
Sometimes, I think fighting fire with fire just results in everyone going up together....and harming what is being protected, to protect it, makes me question the sanity, if not the motives of the whole group involved.
I find it crazy that we live in a society where 'leaving foot prints' is considered 'extremism'..
I recall seeing wagon wheel tracks in Death Valley from over a century ago as clear as anything. It's amazing how long that sort of thing lasts.
I suppose its pretty extreme to the Peruvians tho.
Quote from: Sinny on December 13, 2014, 12:47:00 AM
I find it crazy that we live in a society where 'leaving foot prints' is considered 'extremism'..
I suppose we could just paint graffiti over Petroglyphs too... After all graffiti is our wall scrawling and the cave men are no longer around so what does it matter?
(http://www.ablogabouthistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/vandalism.jpg)
And while we are at it lets just push over those balancing rocks because they sure are unsafe
Boy Scout Leaders Destroy 200 Million-Year-Old Rock Formation And Laugh About it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gT3WsCOIJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gT3WsCOIJc
Buddhas of Bamiyan
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Afghanistan_Statua_di_Budda_1.jpg)
The Buddhas of Bamiyan (Persian: – but hay-e bamiyan) were two 6th-century[1] monumental statues of standing buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, 230 km (140 mi) northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet). Built in 507 AD, (smaller), and 554 AD, (larger) the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art.
The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which wore away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands and folds of the robes; the larger one was painted carmine red and the smaller one was painted multiple colors.
The lower parts of the statues' arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix while supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks or casts. Rows of holes that can be seen in photographs were spaces that held wooden pegs that stabilized the outer stucco.
They were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban government declared that they were idols. An envoy visiting the United States in the following weeks explained that they were destroyed to protest international aid exclusively reserved for statue maintenance while Afghanistan was experiencing famine, while the Afghan Foreign Minister claimed that the destruction was merely about carrying out Islamic religious iconoclasm. International opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas, which in the following years was primarily viewed as an example of the extreme religious intolerance of the Taliban. Japan and Switzerland, among others, have pledged support for the rebuilding of the statues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan
Well heck can't go having Idols that don't reflect Allah
So Blow em up
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/Destruction_of_Buddhas_March_21_2001.jpg)
Check this guy for dynamite.
(http://img.slate.com/media/47/Before.jpg)
Well I guess if the Taliban can do it, so can the Christians 8)
Q: Why did the Taliban dynamite the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas?
A: According to Taliban Mullah Omar, they were idols that offended God.
Now an Overland Park, Kansas Christian, David Engle, has determined that the Buddhas in front of the Asian exhibits at the Kansas City zoo are likewise "idolatry" that are "infuriating to God."
http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/979947.html
One wonders why the statues have heretofore escaped the notice of such a furious all-powerful deity.
According to Mr. Engle, not all idolatry is bad. Just the kind he disapproves of. "We can't have a cross or a nativity scene on public property. It is phenomenal to me that the zoo would put up Buddha statues."
Well, Dave, you can have a cross or nativity scene on public property.
You can also have your belief in God professed on your money, in the Pledge of Allegiance, in court-administered oaths, and in prayers said before the assembly of legislative bodies and at presidential inaugurals. You can have Bible quotations engraved on the sides of government buildings, too.
Because you can have all that, there can also be little Buddha statues outside the Asian exhibit at the zoo.
They are decorative and not intended to promote religion.
Dumbass.
http://thecrustybastard.blogspot.com/2009/01/check-this-guy-for-dynamite.html
Sharia requires the destruction of the Statue of Liberty
Posted on March 2, 2011 by R.D. Walker
Ten years ago today, March 2, 2001, the Taliban dynamited the Buddhas of Bamiyan, 1,500 year old statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan. They were the largest standing Buddha statues in the word. The Taliban government declared that they were "idols" and, therefore must be destroyed.
Here are before and after shots of the taller of the two statues.
Islamists aren't done with statue destruction. They have a plan to dynamite the Statue of Liberty too.
The Statue of Liberty, designed by Frederic Bartholdi, stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbor; representing Libertas, the Roman (false) goddess of Freedom, it is symbolic of the rebellious nature of the US constitution that elevates the command of man over the command of God.
In Islam, the public veneration of idols and statues is strictly prohibited. This has forced sincere Muslims to develop realistic plans that will aid in the removal of the Statue of Liberty.
Due to the scale of the task at hand, it is highly likely that rigorous safety checks will need to be employed before the demolition of the Statue of Liberty can commence; thus as a temporary measure, it is proposed that a large burkha is used to cover the statue, thereby shielding this horrendous eye sore from public view as well as sending a strong message to its French creators.
Post demolition, it is recommended that a minaret be built as a fitting replacement, allowing the glorification of God to be proclaimed daily as well as act as a powerful reminder of the superiority of Islam over all other ways of life.
http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=41284
The Library of Alexander
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Alexandria/Alexandria-CosmosReconstruction1.jpg)
Some regard the death of Hypatia as the final destruction of the Library. Others blame Theophilus for destroying the last of the scrolls when he razed the Temple of Serapis prior to making it a Christian church. Still others have confused both incidents and blamed Theophilus for simultaneously murdering Hypatia and destroying the Library though it is obvious Theophilus died sometime prior to Hypatia.
The final individual to get blamed for the destruction is the Moslem Caliph Omar. In 640 AD the Moslems took the city of Alexandria. Upon learning of "a great library containing all the knowledge of the world" the conquering general supposedly asked Caliph Omar for instructions. The Caliph has been quoted as saying of the Library's holdings, "they will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous." So, allegedly, all the texts were destroyed by using them as tinder for the bathhouses of the city. Even then it was said to have taken six months to burn all the documents.
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/02files/Library_Alexandria.html
'Destroy the idols,' Egyptian jihadist calls for removal of Sphinx, Pyramids
(http://images.alarabiya.net/ce/ec/640x392_52727_249092.jpg)
By AL ARABIYA
An Egyptian jihad leader, with self-professed links to the Taliban, called for the "destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt," drawing ties between the Egyptian relics and Buddha statues, local media reported this week.
Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Islamist leader twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such "idols."
"All Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam to remove such idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues," he said on Saturday during a television interview on an Egyptian private channel, widely watched by Egyptian and Arab audiences.
"God ordered Prophet Mohammed to destroy idols," he added. "When I was with the Taliban we destroyed the statue of Buddha, something the government failed to do."
His comments came a day after thousands of ultraconservative Islamists gathered in Tahrir Square to call for the strict application of Sharia law in the new constitution.
But in retaliation to Gohary's remarks, the vice president of Tunisia's Ennahda party, Sheikh Abdel Fattah Moro, called the live program and told Gohary that famous historic military commander Amr ibn al-Aas did not destroy statues when he conquered Egypt.
"So who are you to do it?" he wondered. "The Prophet destroyed the idols because people worshiped them, but the Sphinx and the Pyramids are not worshiped."
Gohary, 50, is well-known in Egypt for his advocacy of violence, Egypt Independent reported.
"He was sentenced twice, one of the two sentences being life imprisonment. He subsequently fled Egypt to Afghanistan, where he was badly injured in the American invasion. In 2007, he traveled from Pakistan to Syria, which then handed him over to Egypt. After Mubarak's fall in early 2011, he was released from prison by a judicial ruling," the newspaper added.
In recent months, fears have surfaced that the ultra-conservative Salafi political powers may soon wish to debate new guidelines over Egyptian antiquities.
Islamists have swept the recent presidential and parliamentary elections in the country's post-revolutionary stage, with the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists rising to political power.
"The fundamental Salafis have demanded to cover Pharaonic statues, because they regard them to be idols," Egyptian author on ancient history Ahmed Osman told Al Arabiya English, explaining that Salafi Muslims follow conservative religious principles which view statues and sculptures as prohibited in Islam.
"But so far the government has done nothing to indicate what is the future of Egyptian antiquities," adds Osman.
Many hope that Egypt's new President Mohammed Mursi will help usher better preservation of Egypt's proud cultural heritage. Egyptian officials have recently announced the country will reveal more of its ancient buried treasures.
The tomb of Queen Meresankh III, the granddaughter of Khufu, of Great Pyramid fame, is set to be opened to tourists later this year, with the last resting places of five high priests also slated to be put on show.
Officials are also believed to be reopening the underground Serapeum temple at Sakkara, to the south of Cairo.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/12/249092.html
Extremist calls for destruction of Egyptian antiquities
CNN NEWS
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/12/world/wedeman-ancient-monuments/
Who cares right? Its all just old crap of no use.
In Tibet when the Communists took over many temples were destroyed and books and art burned. The British managed to remove a lot for safe keeping.
Today China claims that Tibetans are their own people so they have stopped destroying the works and seek to preserve it... A bit to late but hey better than nothing And at least the Monks had memorized most of it so they could rewrite it
We here seek answers and the truth... but the stuff we need to get to that truth is being destroyed faster than we can find it
Oh well... I will be worm food soon enough... no need to get all worked up over it
No one cares 8)
Quote from: Sinny on December 13, 2014, 12:47:00 AM
I find it crazy that we live in a society where 'leaving foot prints' is considered 'extremism'..
When made in a place that is already marked with footprints, even if not extremism, it's at least stupidity.
UPDATE
Bit By Bit, Afghanistan Rebuilds Buddhist Statues
(http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/07/27/buddha_afg_an_001_slide-166eb7c74ac802455aa4264fa7ab2b710217de73-s800-c15.jpg)
When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan a decade ago, they were fanatical about eliminating everything they considered un-Islamic.
Their biggest targets — literally and figuratively — were the two monumental Buddha statues carved out of the sandstone cliffs in central Afghanistan. One stood nearly 180 feet tall and the other about 120 feet high, and together they had watched over the dusty Bamiyan Valley since the sixth century, several centuries before Islam reached the region.
Despite international opposition, the Taliban destroyed the statues with massive explosions in 2001. At the time they were blown up, the statues were the largest Buddha carvings in the world, and it seemed they were gone for good.
But today, teams from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, along with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, are engaged in the painstaking process of putting the broken Buddhas back together.
Up to half of the Buddha pieces can be recovered, according to Bert Praxenthaler, a German art historian and sculptor, who has been working at the site for the past eight years. He and his crew have sifted through 400 tons of rubble and have recovered many parts of the statues along with shrapnel, land mines and explosives that were used in their demolition.
But how do you rebuild the Buddhas from the rubble?
"The archaeological term is 'anastylosis,' but most people think it's some kind of strange disease," said Praxenthaler.
For those in the archaeology world, "anastylosis" is actually a familiar term. It was the process used to restore the Parthenon of Athens. It involves combining the monument's original pieces with modern material.
On a recent day, Praxenthaler was leading a group through a tunnel behind the niche where the smaller of the two statues once stood.
"We are now on top of the Buddha," he explained. "There was just a wall and a small opening to sit on the top, or the head, of the Buddha. But now there is no head."
The workers were busy removing scaffolding after months spent reinforcing the wall where the Buddha's head once was.
Mixed Feelings About Project
Bamiyan is an extremely poor and remote land in one of the world's most underdeveloped countries. The Buddha statues were once a major tourist attraction, but Afghanistan has been at war virtually nonstop for more than three decades. The fighting drove away the tourists years before the Taliban blew up the statues.
The restoration project is designed to rebuild the historic site, as well as bring back the tourists. The project has the support of Habiba Sarabi, the popular provincial governor. And there are reasons to be hopeful. Bamiyan is now considered one of the less dangerous places in Afghanistan.
Yet others, like human rights activist Abdullah Hamadi, say the empty niches where the Buddhas stood are a reminder of the Taliban's fanaticism, and should be left as they are.
"The Buddha was destroyed," said Hamadi. "If you made it, rebuilt it, that is not the history. The history is the broken Buddha."
Hamadi is from the nearby district of Yakawlang, where the Taliban massacred more than 300 members of a minority group, called the Hazaras, in 2001. Those killings took place just two months before the Taliban blew up the Buddha statues.
While Bamiyan is much safer today, the Taliban can still strike. Recently, Taliban insurgents kidnapped and beheaded Jawad Zahak, the head of the Bamiyan provincial council, while he was driving his family toward Kabul, about 150 miles to the southeast.
Some in Bamiyan say they would rather see the money for the restoration project go toward services like electricity and housing, which are in desperately short supply.
Homeless Take Shelter In Caves
In fact, the caves at the site of the Buddha statues are the only shelter some Bamiyan residents can find. Homeless villagers like Marzia and her six children are living in one of the caves, while the family's goats bleat nearby. Marzia, who like many Afghans uses only one name, said she has no use for the statues.
"We don't have a house, so where else can we live?" she said.
A few enterprising villagers have found ways to make money off the story surrounding the Buddhas. One is Said Merza Husain, known around town as the man who was forced to help the Taliban blow up the statues.
He said he had no choice but to obey the Taliban a decade ago. If he had resisted, they would have killed him. One of his friends refused to take part, and the Taliban shot him.
But that is the only information Husain will share for free. To hear more of the story, he charges anywhere between $20 and $100.
Meanwhile, Bert Praxenthaler's team was about to halt their work temporarily during the scorching Afghan summer. One longtime worker, Ali Reza, was picking up his pay. He signed his name and received a wad of Afghanis.
Praxenthaler also handed him a certificate and thanked him first in Dari, then in English. Piecing together Bamiyan's Buddhas will take many more years. After a summer break, Praxenthaler's team plans to resume their work in the fall.
This story was partly funded by a Knight Luce Fellowship for Reporting on Global Religion.
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/27/137304363/bit-by-bit-afghanistan-rebuilds-buddhist-statues
(http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/07/27/buddha_afg_an_003_slide-a52acefc78f50a1ff77e0d892e9c8525f7397fbe-s800-c15.jpg)
Afghan children living in a small cave near the destroyed Buddha statues, in 2006. Homeless people in the area sometimes move into the caves. They say that new homes are more important than restoring the Buddhas
(http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/07/27/buddha_afg_an_005_slide-b7f505617e7028151a665c402727e298e262c222-s800-c15.jpg)