Viet-Nam, Laos, Cambodge, Nhan quyen
1988 · Bondage BR 018 · Paris, France
- Artist
- Bérurier Noir
- Title
- Viet-Nam, Laos, Cambodge, Nhan quyen
- Release
- Viet-Nam, Laos, Cambodge, Nhan quyen
- Year
- 1988
- Label
- Bondage # BR 018
- Format
- Single
- Language
- French
- Country
- Paris, France
- Genre
- Rock · Punk Rock
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Punk Rock group formed in 1978 in Paris, France. They disbanded in May 2006. The song "Viet-Nam, Laos, Cambodge, Nhan quyen" (Bondage Records # BR 018), dealt with conflict in Cambodia, Laos, and of course Vietnam, looking at the perspective of refugees, asking what they could remember: "don't you remember anything, were are the bronze drums... elephants... where are the Pagodas". The people were put into "education camps", as "families fleeing war...castaways then refugees", behind "barbed wire". The narrator asked: "where is your freedom?". The refugees are then in a "new country, new life... a tower of Chinatown". The song called for resistance and human rights. Also note the reference to the use of napalm: "what is left of Vietnam after the tons of napalm" - chemical weapon Napalm B - a jellied gasoline mixture, with polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Declared a war-crime since 1980, the US government extensively used this weapon during the Vietnam conflict, dropping 388,000 tons on Indochina between 1963 and 1973.123Sources1Napalm: An American Biography (Robert M. Neer, 2013)↩2Times Higher Education: Napalm an american biography by robert m neer↩3Napalm, An American Biography (book website)↩
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: Once upon a time there were Khmers / Massacred / Put in irons / Tell me, little Laotian / Don't you remember anything? / Where are the Bronze Drums / And the Million Elephants? / Behind the suicide of the Bonzes / Hides the cry of the children / Where have the Pagodas gone / The Dance Troupes of Cambodia? / The faces of the Temple of Angkor / Have survived Death / What is left of Vietnam / After the tons of napalm? / The re-education camps / Flight as the only solution / Vietnam / Laos / Cambodia / Nhan Quyen oh Nhan Quyen / If the Mekong spoke to you / It would bear witness to horrors / To the corpses it has carried / To the Khmer Rouge and the mass graves / Tribes of Montagnards / Who resist in the black night / Families fleeing war / Exodus and Hell / Castaways, then refugees / Penned in behind barbed wire / Terrible ghettos of steel / Where is your freedom? / A young girl with almond eyes / Raped by Thai pirates / Tried to kill herself / She can no longer endure... / Vietnam / Laos / Cambodia / Nhan Quyen oh Nhan Quyen / Oh little Vietnamese girl / Struggling in the streets / In life as in your dreams / You are looking for the lost Dragon / Oh little Vietnamese girl / I am Eurasian at heart / Listen to me because I love you / You will be my little sister / Exiled like your parents / New country, new life / But do you know that the West / Is not paradise? / Such roots and such culture / Deep is the rift / In a tower in Chinatown / Nobody understands your tears...…
About the artist
French punk band formed 1983 in Paris. [Source: Wikipedia]