Badass of the Week: Lone Cambodian Hero Takes on More Than One Million Landmines

reply to post by primus2012


The countries that actually signed the convention agreed that if they ever fought each other, that they would follow the guidelines. Germany said "we won't use mustard gas anymore", and all of the signees said "we will use full metal jacket ammunition" so as to limit the destructive power of a soft lead shell (loss of limbs and such).
You can't enforce a thing onto a country who hasn't and never intends to sign it.

To all of you... ask yourselves why we go to war in the first place!

We go to war because we the DUMB STUPID IDIOTS have not yet learned that we are the ones that decide. Not our government. If we truly held our governments to account, there would be no war.

We should lead the way (us here at ATS), by writing, phoning, talking to friends, and demanding that we all stand up and shout from the rooftops that we are sick of the wars, the killing, and the insanity that is fighting.

We will always be doomed to make the same mistakes until we start to shout out that we are tired of it, and will play no part in it.

If you really belive that you can make a difference, do so.

Your taxes pay for war, so stop paying them. If that means going to prision so be it. After a while the prisions will be full, and then what wil the gov't do with the rest of us that don't pay?

Get a pair of balls. That's right, get yourself a pair!!!! Go out every day and do something that really helps your community - just like Mr Ra. No excuses, do it.

It's people like this that get me fired up and inspire me to go out every day and help people in my community too!

Peace.

[edit on 13-2-2010 by dampnickers]

reply to post by TokiTheGreat


I know, but if we are attacking someone else on their soil, just because they aren't following the rules, doesn't mean we have a free pass not to.

That would be like a cop shooting an unarmed suspect because his buddy cop just got killed during a similar arrest.

The idea of the Geneva convention was a noble one. There's no need for total destruction of the enemy's troops in battle. The white flag can be waved and most of the wounded will survive, go home, and go on with their lives.

I bet his wallet says "Bad Motherf#@$^& on it!

Seriously this guy is nuts, but apparently he knows what he's doing. 50,000 landmines found/disarmed all with a stick, and a few small tools.

He's the man.

[edit on 13-2-2010 by Nola213]

There is a fine line between bad ass and crazy ass, and I think aki ra just crossed that line.

Originally posted by Tifozi
reply to post by ANNED

 

It's called safety.

There are anti-disarm mechanisms in mine. Some have two triggers (one for pressure, other in case the mine is lifted).

[edit on 13/2/10 by Tifozi]

you were inside my head werent you!

When he lifted that mine i was about to crap!

I'm just guessing this cat knows which have anti-lifting measures and which dont.

Still wouldnt want to be within 50 feet of that dude on a bad day!

Helluva guy though. He's burning off karma but fast!!!!

Originally posted by Tifozi
reply to post by ANNED

 

It's called safety.
[edit on 13/2/10 by Tifozi]

I'm going to step out on a ledge here and assume that since this guy spent the first 20+yrs of his life planting these things, and since he has successfully diffused 10,000s of them since, he probably knows what he's doing.

Let's say he does screw up, and blows himself to bits. He'll still have died as one of the biggest heroes alive today.

On a humorous note...



[edit on 13-2-2010 by mattifikation]

I just want to say that this dude is bad ass! Thats such an awesome thing he's doing. I am glad to see the world still has people like this in it. People sometimes forget that it is those with good intentions that run the world, even though all the ones that may stand out to us are the bad ones. If it wasn't for people with good intentions we would not have many of the things we have today.

Originally posted by DigitalDisaster
i read the whole article and all i can realy say is,i bow to this man.
the world needs a lot more people like him...

Indeed!!! Inspiring.

And the world needs each one of us, in our own way, to have the compassion and courage to diffuse situations we encounter in our daily Lives.

Originally posted by dbloch7986
If it wasn't for people with good intentions we would not have many of the things we have today.

True. Aki Ra has answered his personal call to do a big task. We must not forget that our own tasks, big or small, must be done. The Universe does not measure the size of the task, but rather demands that each task presented to each of us be done to our best efforts.

That is why one must never miss a day to help humanity grow. We might deem our own tasks small, but to the Universe it is the drop of rain for a thirsty world.

The question for each of us is, "How have I been a badass today?"

May the Heavens bless this good man for time and for eternity.

The First World has just as many landmines, but in the first world such landmines come in human form as the banksters, the outrageously wealthy, the indolent, filthy rich, the governing boards and CEOs of the multi-national corporations, the pharmacology-intelligence agency terrorist organisations, the proponents of the military-industrial complex and so on, and so on.

So whose going to be 'Aki Ra' and neutralise the aforementioned bastards?

reply to post by supyo


No, he doesn't.

He thinks he does, because he made it so many times, but bomb squads are careful because you never know what can happen.

Explosives are to be handled with care because they are everything but stable.

Even the ones that are usually stable, can be influenced by something and could change properties. He could be handling the 1001 mine and it may have something different, and there goes a "hero".

Like I said, the UN guys or any other bomb squad, aren't slow, aren't untalented. There is a reason for them acting slowly.

[edit on 13/2/10 by Tifozi]

Even the ones that are usually stable, can be influenced by something and could change properties. He could be handling the 1001 mine and it may have something different, and there goes a "hero".
[edit on 13/2/10 by Tifozi]

Why put hero in quotes? Are you denying that he's a hero? Remember the guy was trained by the UN, so I'm sure he's aware of the risks involved. Does it make him less or more of a hero if he knows the risks and continues to do it anyway? Some people genuinely care more about others than themselves. The way you put hero in quotes, it's almost like you think he's just stupid or something.

Aki Ra is a true hero in that he is using his expertise in planting and working with land mines for many years to disarm them now. Good for him !

A landmine actually saved my grandfathers life !
How you might ask ?
He was a military policeman in the Wehrmacht (German Army), he would scout out roads for tanks to pass thru upon on his BMW motorcycle.
He Hit a landmine and was wounded and sent back to Germany.
His entire platoon was later wiped out in Russia.
No Survivors.

My Dad lost a few school mates in post WWII Germany from unexploded bombs which was very common place. The forests and fields were just riddled with unexploded bomb craters. In fact, some still exist and people find WWII bombs deep in the forests of Europe to this very day.

Yep, war does suck. Good for Aki Ra for helping the cause of those disabled kids too.

I just got done watching The Hurt Locker (recommended) . I'll bet he gets an awesome adrenaline fix from doing this. My hat's off to the man!
I know it's minimal but I had to say it.

reply to post by supyo


I do think he is stupid. In a good way, but stupid.

I've training with explosive, and I know why we have mine-sweaping tanks with full extra-armor. If you see how IED's work in Iraq, you see a clear pattern. They are "easy" to dismantle. The problem is, and this is the core reason for the safety policy, is that you never know what it's underneath one of this things.

Luck is not measured by numbers, it's measured either it happens or not. Maybe in a few days, or in a few years, we will read about the Aki Ra that blew up, because he touched a mine that wasn't his.

But by all means I'm saying that this guy isn't a hero.

What I'm saying is that ALL the other people that do this job daily, are not less of a hero just because they take some more minutes to disarm a bomb.

[edit on 15/2/10 by Tifozi]

wow... being a retired EOD guy... this guy is astounding... my hat goes off to him in a major way...

he is doing what a lot of us only dreamt of doing ... but we were not allowed to disarm the itmes we placed....

I almost opened my first thread but ATS search shows you already know this guy.

Anyway here is the story written by Aki Ra himself. This wasn't linked in the OP's source article:

When I was about fourteen, I had another experience that I will never forget. The Khmer Rouge outnumbered us one day and many of our soldiers had been killed leaving the rest of us to run for our lives. While we were running, we dropped ammunition from the magazines of our AK47s onto the ground. These appeared to be loaded with ammunition. However, we had added poison to the bullets so that when the guns were consequently tired, they would give off a toxic gas. We later returned to find the Khmer Rouge choking on the poisonous fumes and we killed them all.

www.landmine-relief-fund.com...

reply to post by lilwolf


I pulled some security details for you nutters in Iraq and I didn't like being anywhere NEAR UXO and mines. I mean within 500 meters of the crap.

This dude is out with a shovel and a stick???

I got no idea how he gets his pants on in the morning- his cojones have got to be HUGE!