Toy pandas bearing swastikas a cultural mix-up

[John Bryce]

This is a good example of how the different cultures in our world can see the same thing quite differently.

Toy pandas bearing swastikas a cultural mix-up (http://cbc.ca/storyview/CBC/2002/12/30/swastika021230)

[headscratcher4]

Clearly, these are atheist toy pandas....;)

[Javalar]

Who could have know that the aryan race was so cute! :p

[Reginald]

for translation.... http://ingeb.org/Lieder/obssturm.html

Ob's stürmt oder schneit,
Ob die Sonne uns lacht,
Der Tag glühend heiß
Oder eiskalt die Nacht.
Bestaubt sind die Gesichter,
Doch froh ist unser Sinn,
Ist unser Sinn;
Es braust unser panda
Im Sturmwind dahin.

;)

[blackpriester]

DUDE, HOW did you find this? It's friggin' hilarious!

[HarryKeogh]

i have hindu neighbors across my hallway in my apt. building. one day i noticed what appeared to be swastika stickers on their door. obviously since they were hindu i kinda figured they werent card-carrying aryans so i looked it up on the web. it's amazing how many different cultures have used a device that resembles the swastika throughout history.

btw. someone took the liberty to rip the stickers off their door a few days ago.

just like hitler ruined the short mustache look for everybody so have the nazis ruined the swastika.

[Kiri]

This immediately provoked a vision of rows of Schmeisser-toting pandas in black SS uniforms, goose-stepping into Paris...

Cute AND deadly!!

[susheel]

Originally posted by HarryKeogh
i have hindu neighbors across my hallway in my apt. building. one day i noticed what appeared to be swastika stickers on their door. obviously since they were hindu i kinda figured they werent card-carrying aryans so i looked it up on the web. it's amazing how many different cultures have used a device that resembles the swastika throughout history.

btw. someone took the liberty to rip the stickers off their door a few days ago.

just like hitler ruined the short mustache look for everybody so have the nazis ruined the swastika.

Not Aryan in the Nazi sense but close enough. The Aryanism of Hindu upper caste has been the root for the oppressive caste system that subjugates a major portion of the population even today.

[The Fool]

Originally posted by susheel


Not Aryan in the Nazi sense but close enough. The Aryanism of Hindu upper caste has been the root for the oppressive caste system that subjugates a major portion of the population even today.
Very true Susheel, If more people new about the consequences of the Caste system there would be outrage. Imagine a group of westerners claiming to be born to rule? and claiming another group was born to serve...oops...

[Jim_MDP]

Martin Walpert, president of Montreal-based Walpert Industries, said the symbol is not what it appears to be.

"It's not the Nazi symbol. It is a Buddhist sign. The Nazi symbol goes in the opposite direction and it's at a different angle," said Walpert.

Not unless that photo is reversed, otherwise, Walpert is an idiot.

Walpert said his company ordered only plain pandas for the crackers from the manufacturer in China.

He said they ran out of the plain ones and filled the rest of the order with the pandas featuring the symbol.

Because the symbol is viewed very differently in China than it is in the Western world, the workers wouldn't have foreseen that a symbol of luck and prosperity would be mistaken for a symbol of hate.

********. China wasn't absent during WWII. They know damn well how Hitler basterdized that symbol. This was business. The order had to ship...ship it.

The swastika, both the clockwise and counter-clockwise versions, is an ancient symbol, appearing in many religions around the world. The Buddhist symbol is called "wan" in Chinese and "manji" in Japanese.

My mistake? I thought the traditional symbol bent left, and AH/Nazis/SS reversed it. ???

The symbol also appears in Hindu, Celtic and Jewish cultures, as well as native cultures in both North and South America.

Web sites devoted to the symbol show diverse examples of pre-Nazi uses of the symbol, such as a "lucky" Coca-Cola watch fob from 1925 in the shape of a swastika and a 1916 girls' hockey team called the Edmonton Swastikas.

Ah, so the blame comes full circle.
Damn Canucks.

:p

[shemp]

Back in the '70s, when loud shirts were popular, I got a shirt as a gift with hundreds of little tiny swastikas on it. They were in the Chinese style, turning left and at an angle. The swastikas were incorporated into the design in a way that they weren't really too noticeable, but if you looked closely they were unmistakable. I wore it a few times before I noticed it. I threw it away immediately. I wish I had kept it, it would be quite a conversation piece today.

[Voob]

Indeed, that's how Buddhist temples are marked on maps in Japan.