Last week in Wisconsin six hunters were killed by another hunter originally from Laos, and a member of a persecuted minority group, the Hmong, I think, that sought protection in the States years and years ago. Apparently, the Laotian hunter had wandered over onto their land and had shacked up in one of their look-out posts. Arguments ensued. Shots were fired. People, more than a handful, died.
(Because I'm an erudite, sophisticated guy, the first thing I thought of when I heard the story was that scene in Ivan Reitman's Stripes, where Bill Murray is trying to convince Harold Ramis that the two of them should take the military vehicle they are guarding out for the weekend into neighbouring Czechoslovokia. Ramis is worried about the danger. "It's Czechoslovakia," Murray says. "It's like going to Wisconsin." Ramis replies: "Yeah, well I got the sh-- kicked out of me in Wisconsin once, so I'm not going." Which proves that a) we always bring our own past, personal experiences into any situation, that b) I don't know much about Wisconsin if the first thing I think of is a twenty-year old movie, and that c) I watched Stripes way too many times as a kid.)
The thing that interests me about this story is not necessarily the killing; sad as it is, people go utterly, completely ballistic more frequently then we would like to admit. (Larry King, interviewing America's Most Wanted's John Walsh about Scott Peterson, the man charged, now convicted, of killing his pregnant wife, asked how someone could commit such a hideous, un -
speakable act. Walsh, who lost his own son to a nut, and has made a living looking into the dark heart of man, said: "Larry, it happens all the time.") No, what interested me about this was the fact that some of the accused's friends and relatives maintained that he was a good man, an honorable man, even a magic man.
What's that? A magic man?
That's right -- they believe that he has special powers, can connect with the spirit world, the whole deal.
Many Cambodians, whose country borders Laos, would nod their head in agreement, in sympathy and solidarity.Most of Cambodia is rural, which means that most of the country is poor, and uneducated, and not able to compare news stories featuring complex human emotions with old Bill Murray movies. They believe in magic. Hell, it's not even magic, the way we think of it -- it's reality.
There was this 'magic' cow a few months back out in one of the more remote provinces, and when people were sick, ailing, even dying, they could visit the cow, and be licked, that's right, licked, and all would be cured.
And if you read the papers often enough hear, you'll come across quite a few stories that relate how this or that villager was arrested or beaten up on suspicion of being, that's right, say-it-to-
gether-now -- a sorcerer.
The tragedy in Wisconsin is fascinating for a number of reasons. It brings into play questions of nationalism and regionalism, of racism and territorial rights. The Laotian say he got lost, and was up in the hunter's perch while trying to find his way home; he says the other hunters taunted him, using racial epithets, in addition to firing first. In Laos, apparently, the idea of hunting on pre-determined sections of land doesn't really exist; I guess it's kind of a free-for-all on open land. The surviving hunters say this dude shot first, unprovoked.
Who knows what happened. But this is an example of what can happen when you take a person from a very, very different culture, like Laos, and expect him to understand, even after ten, twenty years, the customs and conditioning of a country like the States.
Don't get me wrong -- no matter how you cut the dice, the guy has serious mental problems, and there's no question that he fired first, in my opinion, or that he will have to face the consequences of killing six innocent people. I think he snapped, is all, and I think he'll pay the legal price. He'll go away for a long time.
And yet the underlying racial tensions that were dug up to the surface won't go away. The questions will linger. He is from Laos, and they are Wisconsin boys, born and bred, and never the twain shall meet. There are many Laotians in Wisconsin, apparently, and the inevitable fallout from this little incident serves as kind of a tragic microcosm of what can happen when cultural misunderstandings collide. Both the States and Canada are immigrant countries, always have been, always will be, and until people start accepting that we are, well, different, then we'll never be able to recognize and celebrate the more common similarities.
Bottom line, the idea of him having 'magical powers' is ridiculous. He comes from a culture that believes in reincarnation, that believes that the sins we commit in this life will have bearing on the form and presence we will take in the next life. If you are bad, you will be a low, filthy creature in the next life. Our karma takes us from one plane of existence to the next, until finally we get it right.
How absurd. Every good Wisconsin boy knows that there is no such thing as reincarnation. A good Jewish boy in the Middle East died a long, long time ago, and then he came back to life, and if you don't believe in what he's offering, well, you're going to burn in hell for all eternity. Simple as that. You give your life to him and his father, or you pay the consequences down below.
How can all those Laotians (and Cambodians, and Thais, and about, oh, two, three billion others) have everything so mixed up?
Stepping outside of your own religious and cultural mindsets and beliefs is very, very difficult to do, and I suspect that the Laotian community, unfortunately, is not helping their friend or their own welfare by stating their belief concerning the accused's powers, no matter how sincere their intentions are. When a violent act like this occurs, people don't want to read or hear excuses -- let alone mystical ones. It's hard enough understanding another race's beliefs in the best of circumstances.
In the end, it's necessary to remember that concepts like 'magic' and 'faith' are relative.
Six people dead from gunshot wounds are not.
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