MovieChat Forums > A Bright Shining Lie (1998) Discussion > Col Vann's misuse of aid material is exe...

Col Vann's misuse of aid material is exemplary


The Doug Elders character sees that the village school has a leaky roof and children have to catch rain in buckets. Big deal. So he and Col. Vann use Col. Dinh's stuff to repair it which understandably pisses off Col. Dinh. So Vann threatens and then slaps Dinh in front of his men.

As a result of Vann's ignorant move, the whole village ends up being destroyed with just about everyone killed, including the school teacher and the kids - the very people they, in the well-intentioned way, were trying to help.

Doesn't take a genius to make this observation, but it seems symptomatic of many western visitor's misplaced attempts to fix foreign problems they don't really understand.

I once stayed in a bungalow on the coast of southern Thailand and noticed a parade of red ants on the bathroom wall. To "fix" this I brought in a can of insect spray to nail the bastards, although my Thai wife advised to leave them alone, you will only make it worse. I sprayed into cracks in the wall and doorway and watched the ants drop off dead. Cool, problem solved. Then hours later I came back in the bathroom and there were at least 10 times more ants from every corner of the room and a few toxic centipedes and later on a scorpion popped out of the drain. Critters:1 Humans:0

Stop trying to "solve" problems by using your own set of pre-conceptions in an environment you don't understand. Small lesson =)

Grasshopper, snatch the pebble from my hand

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[deleted]

Actually, a very perinent lesson for today, what with all our meddling in foreign lands

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The Viet colonel was selling materials intended for use at no charge. The Viets were corrupt and making money from the war effort. That is why Vann slapped his face. This was the tip of the iceberg.

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