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#chinese

86 posts7 participants48 posts today
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Ms. Que Banh

#Transcription of my #speech for #deaf folks - as it wasn't provided on vid.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for showing up with #community #solidarity, to call for a #PermanentCeasefire in support of #Palestinians who are suffering #famine & #genocidal violence under #Israeli occupational forces.

My name is Que & I'm a survivor of the #USinvasion #WarOnVietnam. I was a #WarChild conceived & born under active shelling & had #IntergenerationalTrauma pre & post birth.

We were #displaced from our homes & survived in a #RefugeeCamp in Indonesia for a year. We were sponsored to come to Canada in late 1979 as #WarRefugees, seeking #asylum.

My patriarch family lived in #Cholon the #Chinese District in #Saigon & my matriarch family lived in a tiny village near Can Tho near the Hau River in #SouthVietnam. Both sides of my family had already lived through multiple foreign invasions & foreign militarized imperialism & colonialism by the time the US invaded & occupied our lands.

Many of us living Vietnam war civilian survivors can relate so well to the many struggles, the suffering, the violent foreign occupation & also the passionate resilience & resistance of the Palestinian peoples.

Throughout the 1960s into the 1970s both areas that my family lived in were carpet bombed. My Matriarch family village was bombed out of existence by 1970. The rebuilding took 18 years. Cholon was #CarpetBombed twice & the scenes from those aftermaths are eerily similar to the scenes from #Gaza after #Israel carpet bombed the area.

The #USmilitary used #Vietnamese #civilians as involuntary guinea pigs. They tested out never used before #WarMunitions including #biochemical warfare like #AgentOrange & #NerveGasBombs on our peoples.

Our peoples, our lands, our waters - still suffer the toxic & deadly effects from the illegal - illegal #biowarfare chemical uses by the #USA to this day & our peoples & especially our children are still suffering from the many leftover war munitions, exploding, maiming & killing innocent civilians.

Israel is treating the Palestinian peoples very much like the USA had treated our Vietnamese peoples. Like we are not human. We do not deserve to live. The dehumanization of Palestinians is too similar to how the USA dehumanized our Vietnamese peoples. We're savages. We are vermin. We're stupid tunnel rats. We're gooks & we deserve to die.

The USA bombed our #schools, our #hospitals, our #temples, our #ResidentialAreas - just like Israel has bombed schools, hospitals, temples & residential areas in Palestine. The USA has more powerful weapons of mass destruction while fighting resistance forces with much less firepower. The Vietnamese #ResistanceForces also used #TunnelSystems & some of them are now part of an #educational #LivingMuseum.

Vietnam is now #SovereignNation because the occupational militarized US forces left which opened up our path to #DiplomaticNegotiations. Palestinians deserve their true path to diplomatic Solutions too. They deserve a sovereign state. That can not happen without a permanent - not a temporary - a permanent ceasefire - an end to #IllegalOccupation by Israel.

You cannot occupy & oppress a people & claim you are a #democracy. True #Democratic states do not occupy & oppress people for decades. True Democratic states do not jail, murder & deny #PressFreedom to #journalists. True democratic states do not arrest, vilify, nor illegally detain their own citizens with dissenting voices. True democratic states don't continue to violate multiple #InternationalLaws so openly & so disrespectfully.

Israel has become too #arrogant that's mainly due to the Western powers like the USA & #Canada continuing to put their #WarProfiteer interests over #humanitarian & global #PublicInterests.

At a time when we need an arms embargo on Israel, the US & Canada sent billions more in war munitions & funding to Israel. It is shameful.

Our politicians tell us there's not enough money to fund more essential health & medical service needs. There's not enough money to increase the pay scale of essential medical staff. There's not enough money to fund environmental protection & cleanups. There's not enough to help our seniors & disabled not live in poverty anxiety. There's not enough to fund safer, more inclusive, accessible education. There's not enough to provide more low income & some more support of housing for our most marginalized citizens. These are all citizen needs that our governments have told they cannot afford to fully fund but they can find billions to fund ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. That is not okay & that is not in our public interest.

I urge everyone here to please keep contacting all of your local provincial & federal representatives in every way possible & ask them to please push Trudeau to call for both a permanent ceasefire & to initiate an arms embargo on Israel - NOW.

Please keep having the conversations with people you know & people you don't know about Palestine. The conversations are important. Please keep standing in solidarity with Gaza & all Palestinians.

The antidote to despair is action. This here is humanity in action & I thank all of you for showing your humanity & your ongoing support of Palestinians because remember, no democracy can exist without the freedom of citizens dissenting voices and I appreciate all of your voices dissenting, against our government who is still supporting genocide.

Free Palestine!

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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 25

There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.

It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.

It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.

The Tao is great.
The universe is great.
Earth is great.
Man is great.
These are the four great powers.

Man follows the earth.
Earth follows the universe.

The universe follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only itself.

Screenshot of Same chapter 25 text as in post
#Tao#Taoism#TaoTeChing
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 24

He who stands on tiptoe
doesn’t stand firm.
He who rushes ahead
doesn’t go far.
He who tries to shine
dims his own light.
He who defines himself
can’t know who he really is.
He who has power over others
can’t empower himself.

He who clings to his work
will create nothing that endures.

If you want to accord with the Tao,
just do your job, then let go.

Screenshot of same chapter 24 text as in post.
#Tao#Taoism#TaoTeChing
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 23

Express yourself completely,
then keep quiet.
Be like the forces of nature:
when it blows, there is only wind;
when it rains, there is only rain;
when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.

If you open yourself to the Tao,
you are at one with the Tao
and you can embody it completely.
If you open yourself to insight,
you are at one with insight
and you can use it completely.
If you open yourself to loss,
you are at one with loss
and you can accept it completely.

Open yourself to the Tao,
then trust your natural responses;
and everything will fall into place.

Screenshot of chapter 23 text from post
#Tao#TTC#TaoTeChing
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 22

If you want to become whole,
let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight,
let yourself be crooked.
If you want to become full,
let yourself be empty.
If you want to be reborn,
let yourself die.
If you want to be given everything,
give everything up.

The Master, by residing in the Tao,
sets an example for all beings.
Because he doesn’t display himself,
people can see his light.
Because he has nothing to prove,
people can trust his words.
Because he doesn’t know who he is,
people recognize themselves in him.
Because he has no goad in mind,
everything he does succeeds.

When the ancient Masters said,
“If you want to be given everything,
give everything up,”
they weren’t using empty phrases.
Only in being lived by the Tao
can you be truly yourself.

#Tao #TTC #TaoTeChing #Dao #Chinese #Philosophy #Books
#Emptiness #Zen #Taoist

Screenshot if chapter 22 text as in post
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 21

The Master keeps her mind

always at one with the Tao;
that is what gives her her radiance.

The Tao is ungraspable.
How can her mind be at one with it?
Because she doesn’t cling to ideas.

The Tao is dark and unfathomable.
How can it make her radiant?
Because she lets it.

Since before time and space were,
the Tao is.
It is beyond is and is not.
How do I know this is true?
I look inside myself and see.

Screenshot of same chapter 21 text as post
#Tao#TTC#TaoTeChing
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 20

Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?

How ridiculous!

Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don’t care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.

Other people have what they need;
I alone possess nothing.

I alone drift about,
like someone without a home.
I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

Other people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Other people are sharper;
I alone am dull.
Other people have a purpose;

I alone don’t know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I blow as aimless as the wind.

I am different from ordinary people.
I drink from the Great Mother’s breasts.

#TTC #TaoTeChing #Tao #Dao #Taoist #Chinese #Philosophy
#LyingFlat #TangPing #Taoist

Screenshot of text from post
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 19

Throw away holiness
and wisdom, and people will be a hundred times happier.

Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.

Throw away industry and profit,
and there won’t be any thieves.

If these three aren’t enough,
just stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course.

#TTC #Tao #Taoism #Dao #Zen #philosophy #history #anticapitalist

Screenshot of chapter 19 text in post
#Chinese#anarchy
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Ron Hogan #translation

Ch. 18

When people lose touch with Tao,
they start talking about
“righteousness” and “sanctity.”

When people forget what’s true,
they start talking about
“self-evident truths.”

When people have no respect
for one another,
they start talking about
“political correctness”
and “family values.”

When the nation is unstable,
people start talking about “patriotism.”

Screenshot of text in post
#TTC#Tao#Taoism
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 17

When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists.

Next best is a leader who is loved.

Next, one who is feared.

The worst is one who is despised.

If you don’t trust the people,
you make them untrustworthy.

The Master doesn’t talk, he acts.

When his work is done, the people say, “Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!”

Screenshot of same Ch. 17 text as in post
#TTC#Taoism#Tao
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 16 2/2

If you don’t realize the source,
you stumble in confusion and sorrow.

When you realize where you come from,
you naturally become tolerant,
disinterested, amused,
kindhearted as a grandmother,
dignified as a king.

Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,
you can deal with whatever life brings you,
and when death comes, you are ready.

2/2

Screenshot from same Ch. 16 text that is in post.
#TTC#Tao#Taoism
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell #translation

Ch. 15 1/2

The ancient Masters were profound and subtle.

Their wisdom was unfathomable.

There is no way to describe it;
all we can describe is their appearance.

They were careful as someone crossing an iced-over stream.

Alert as a warrior in enemy territory.

Courteous as a guest.

Fluid as melting ice.

Shapable as a block of wood.

Receptive as a valley.

Clear as a glass of water.

1/2

Screenshot of same Ch. 15 text that is in post
#TTC#Tao#Taoism
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

#TTC

Ch. 14

Look, and it can’t be seen.
Listen, and it can’t be heard.
Reach, and it can’t be grasped.

Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable, it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.

Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can’t know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.

Screenshot of same Ch. 14 as in post
#Tao#Taoism#Taoist
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell translation

Ch. 13 2/2

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?

Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self.

When we don’t see the self as self, what do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.

Have faith in the way things are.

Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.

2/2

Screenshot of same Ch. 13 text that is in post.
#TTC#Tao#Taoism
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Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson

Tao Te Ching
Stephen Mitchell translation

Ch. 13 1/2

Success is as dangerous
as failure.

Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure?

Whether you go up the ladder or down it, your position is shaky.

When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance.

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?

Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self.

When we don’t see the self as self, what do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.

Have faith in the way things are.

Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.

1 & 2

Screenshot of same text from Ch. 13 as in post
#TTC#Tao#Taoism
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