King Norodom Sihanouk has died

[Kev Bar]

"It is true that I have been an authoritarian head of state, or more exactly a blend of Sukarno of Indonesia and Nasser of Egypt. But I have never been in the same class as Amin Dada of Uganda or Macias N'Guema of Equitorial Guinea, even less their undisputed master of cruelty, Pol Pot of Democratic Kampuchea. Neither have I been this insignificant and feckless 'little king' depicted by some right
-wing French newspapers, which see me as a kind of 'negro king'...with yellow skin...Quite simply, I am a man. With his good points and his bad. I am neither more or less virtuous than my brother men, created in the words of 'Genesis', in the image of God, but having to assume the inheritance of original sin."--King Norodom Sihanouk portraying himself in his 1981 memoir 'Souvenirs Doux et Amers'.

[Kev Bar]

A good depiction of the mourners, what they are mourning and their make-up.

http://fainegreenwood.com/2012/10/23...s-in-cambodia/

King Sihanouk will be cremated in Feb.

[Kev Bar]

Another good wrap up of the gig so far.

http://ltocambodia.blogspot.ie/2012/...uk-day-16.html

In fact, it would be hard not to argue that the author has impeccable taste.

[Kev Bar]

Excuse the indulgence of a little repetition:

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/opinion...tar-king-5146/

[Sam Lord]

Could we not just bury the dude and be done.

[Kev Bar]

Could we not just bury the dude and be done.

But Sam...there's my feelings to take into consideration.

And besides he won't be cremated til Feb.

So dig in, pal.

[Kev Bar]

For weeks, Cambodians have filed into the capital, ending a pilgrimage which for most is a once in a lifetime event. The streets along the riverside are jammed with traffic while in the parks outside the Royal Palace children dressed in white with black ribbons play and pray with their parents.

From a distance the palace gates _ adorned by portraits of the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk _ appear like an entrance to a castle in a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. The palace is tastefully lit against the night sky, its spire pointing at the moon above and shrouded with smoke from the millions of incense sticks burning below.

Sihanouk’s legacy is mixed. But as his people see it, he delivered them from Japanese occupation in World War II, won Cambodia independence from France eight years later and finally delivered peace after decades of bitter regional and internal conflicts.

Sihanouk, who abdicated the throne in 2004 due to ill health, died at the age of 89 in Beijing in mid-October after reportedly suffering a heart attack.

It is the kind of farewell that Sihanouk would have wished for _ emotional, convivial and forgiving of past sins.

Outside the gates women, young and old, weep. Men tend to be a little more reserved. Expectations are that half of the country’s 14.3 million people will travel from all corners to pay their final respects by the time of the cremation in February.


Mr Kid Ryder - I trust you note the half the population reference.


http://bomborra.com/productions/?p=2...54zP8.facebook

[Sam Lord]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1H913UqQ6w"]Stewart Lee - Princess Diana - YouTube[/ame]

[C. Flower]

A good depiction of the mourners, what they are mourning and their make-up.

http://fainegreenwood.com/2012/10/23...s-in-cambodia/

King Sihanouk will be cremated in Feb.

If I want make up tips, I'll head to beaut.ie.

[Kev Bar]

Stewart Lee - Princess Diana - YouTube

I know it is very difficult for you Sam.



Super Sam.

No blue bloods need apply.

But could I just....

Yeah.

Sorry.

...I know it's confusing.

I know you are not getting younger.

I know good staff are hard to find.

And I know Queen, prince, king, princess are all the same when they are headless.

Swing that axe.

Ye wild colonial boyo.

But.

Yeah.

Back to but.

We were talking about a King not a Princess.

And one of the founding members of the Non Aligned Movement.

But no point talking to you about that.

The horoscopes are on the back page.

And your hair looks lovely Sam.

And I love your spirited flicker.

A lonely light in a world of darkness.

In fact.

Sam.

It seems to me that you live your life

Like..

(Come on Political World)

...a candle in the wind.

The Sam of smarts.

Anyhow it may be Dianesque.

But if we were to listen to one of your fellow travellors and proponents of belligerent ignorance, we would be led to believe that there would be few mourners outside of the......drum roll....hiss....boo....they are behing you....over there...there...there...no...yea...elites.
Elites.
And monarchist fetishists.
I can't remember what other fictitious figments were concocted by stupidity with attitude.

At least I take it, we have firmy established that the man was hugely popular.

That OK with you Sam?

Does the Kid have anything to say?

Errors of your way etc etc

Thought not.

Requires a bit of backbone to acknowledge talking through your hole.

Yep.

I'd imagine there's not a lot of mourning for him going down.

You said it.

Kid.

And you're bang on.

Nailed it.

Insightful.

Soon you'll be almost Sam worthy.

[Kev Bar]

A lovely piece from Julia Wallace


In one post, Sihanouk offers his theory for why the French soccer star Zinedine Zidane head-butted the Italian player Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup final: It must have been in response to “words of very grave, extremely grave insult.” [pdf] In another, he professes his support for homosexuals: “I respect and adore them”.

Sihanouk’s favorite online topic might have been sex. He often reflected on the attractiveness of Cambodian women, musing over whether they had grown more beautiful since the days of his great-grandfather’s harem. Once, he reminisced about a girl, nicknamed Little Cutie, with whom he went to elementary school. Of her getting soaked one rainy day in an all-white outfit, he wrote: “This ‘interested me’ tremendously!! What ‘precocity’!!”

Thanks to his penchant for neologisms — he called the Khmer Rouge, with whom he had once allied himself, “Diabolical K.R. Polpotian Monsters” — and an ebullient use of parentheses and exclamation points, the hundreds of posts on Sihanouk’s Web site reflect his joie de vivre, omnivorous curiosity and impish sense of humor. Perhaps they reveal as well “his bottomless narcissism and his neediness,” says David Chandler, a professor emeritus of history at Monash University in Melbourne whose job as an attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh in the 1960s was in part to observe Sihanouk.

http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ef=global-home

[Kev Bar]

Blew that.
You win some etc etc

[Sam Lord]

Have they still not burned that putrefying corpse?

It's bad enough having to endure royalty when they are alive.

[Kev Bar]

Have they still not burned that putrefying corpse?

It's bad enough having to endure royalty when they are alive.

It's cool.
You can rest in peace now.

[Kev Bar]

Well almost...

A nice setting piece from Faine Greenwood

Outside the blocked-off area near Cambodia's royal palace, hundreds of thousands of eager mourners jockeyed for a path inside to pay their final respects. Street toy and snack vendors plied the crowd, and the city's usually-off fountains burst into life for the occasion.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...remated-photos