Geri said:
yes,very selfish.
2minute silence..Shh Don't mention the War
- Thread starter Gumbert
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yes,very selfish.
Geri said:
Today, tomorrow and every day 30,000 people will die because of wholly preventable poverty. Excuse me for not getting all choked up that people died in London. Unlike your fine, morally impeccable self I don't rank the lives of rich white British people above those of poor Africans or all the brown folk getting blown to bits in Iraq every day or all the thousands of other people who die or are killed for fuck all reason each and every day. Like it or not this silence is an act which implies a greater value of British lives over others, something I cannot condone.
HarrisonSlade
say NO to the vaccine
I think that many people will be remembering the bombings of Iraq whilst contemplating these events. A great deal of the people in the UK did not want the war, and now feel that our innocent brothers within this Island have been punished. It is important that the people of Britain do not make the mistake of those in the USA who would bring their hearts and minds together and fight for the flag they are praying under.editor said:
This silence is in respect for those who died and the fear caused, but also for all of us to realise what it means when a bomb could go off at any time on your own doorstep.
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
No it isn't. It's perfectly in order to say that certain things touch you in ways that other events, though of equal or greater magnitude, do not. If I died, the people who went to my funeral would say they valued me. One could make the case that this meant they were implictly saying I was of more value than people whose funreals they didn't attend, but would it? Or would it just mean that I loomed larger in their particular lives?poet said:
I'm no great admirer of the "minute's silence" culture, but I shall observe this silence today (probably in no more dignified spot than the side of a busy roundabout in Swansea city centre). But I'm from London and I was on the Underground that morning and I find myself moved by last week's bombings in a way that I can't be if I didn't know the particular places that were bombed, if I hadn't had to make phone calls to check on friends and loved ones, if I hadn't received phone calls of that nature myself.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Well, following your own form of 'logic' you shouldn't be bothered by the 30 000 daily deaths as they have 'piss all to do with you', in the same way as the London bombs have 'piss all to with you' (an utterly specious piece of reasoning on its own, have you not noticed the state using the issue to tighten security and surveillance of every oppositional group, the almsot 100% certaintly that ID cards and new, more restrivetive legislation will be pushed though in the very near future - is all this 'piss all to do with you?). Yet you seem to be. Don't you care about Africans and Iraqis poet?poet said:
There's a massive gaping contradiction at the heart of your argument, and you've just drove right through it yourself - whilst shouting racist at everyone who doesn't agree with you of course, and making rather insulting assumptions about their politics, their activity and their motivations. This of course, without even mentioning that proximity and knowing people involved does actually add a little emphasis.
Did you leave an importat part of your brain lying in some field somewhere near Gleneagles?
El Jugador
will leave bed for food
Hearing you poet - Though it hardly matters what other people may or may not be holding their silence for, and I will be holding mine for the murder of innocents The World over ...and if I wasn't so easily distracted by my lucky and happy life, I would be holding one every. fucking. day.poet said:
fucthest8
Cool people die horrible, preventable deaths.
Hollis said:
Okay, to take me slightly less completely fucking literally, if you have read BKs posts, you'll see this might be a useful tool in her starting a healing process. Something sitting at home thinking about it - which I suspect she's done rather a fucking lot of lately - won't deliver.
Get it?
Badger Kitten
oof
right that's fucking it, I've had it
FFS. Take the cheap political point scoring and the smug cynicism the fuck away from me until we have buried our dead and had our two minute silence.
It is two damn minutes I ask of you, two minutes to shut the fuck up out of simple human respect.
Yes, I will be remembering the bombs. Here. In Iraq. Everywhere. I will be doing it out of simple respect for the dead and the injured here and everywhere else however rich or poor their country, whatever the colour of their skin
And yes, because I was there, I will be particularly thinking of those I had to leave screaming behind me, dying in a verminous, choking tunnel 100 feet underground whom I could not help or save. Who took the bomb for me. They and all victims of bombs deserve two damn minutes of your time.
Thank you.
FFS. Take the cheap political point scoring and the smug cynicism the fuck away from me until we have buried our dead and had our two minute silence.
It is two damn minutes I ask of you, two minutes to shut the fuck up out of simple human respect.
Yes, I will be remembering the bombs. Here. In Iraq. Everywhere. I will be doing it out of simple respect for the dead and the injured here and everywhere else however rich or poor their country, whatever the colour of their skin
And yes, because I was there, I will be particularly thinking of those I had to leave screaming behind me, dying in a verminous, choking tunnel 100 feet underground whom I could not help or save. Who took the bomb for me. They and all victims of bombs deserve two damn minutes of your time.
Thank you.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
"i'm not eating black men!"Japey said:
butchersapron said:
The political response to the action will affect me, the action in itself hasn't. I don't know anyone involved, I've spent just as much time in Beijing or Gaza as I have London, I see no more reason to mourn the dead in London than I do any other dead people. I'll campaign against any authoritarian policies introduced "as a result" of these bombings but they are not a consequence of the action but a consequence of the political climate in which it happened. I set aside time every day to meditate on the suffering of people wherever it happens, I see absolutely no reason to be coopted into some official display of grief because I'm told to. I care about murdered people everywhere but I'm not going to stand there for two minutes and mourn an arbitrary group of murdered people because it happened in the country in which I live and because the man on the TV told me to. I will demonstrate my emotions in the way I choose. My argument is perfectly reasonable.
>>fucthest8
Not at all, but I do agree with what Sunspots said too ...
Not at all in agreement with poet's hysterical ranting ....
Not at all, but I do agree with what Sunspots said too ...
Not at all in agreement with poet's hysterical ranting ....
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
It may be reasonable, it's not logical though is it? I ask again, why don't you care abnout the 30 000 people that die daily that you mentioned. Or if you do, as you now seem to claim to, on what basis - as they 'have piss all to with you' remember, which is the same basis on which you decieded to call people who don't agree with you racists on. Why do you "set aside time every day to meditate on the suffering of people wherever it happens" if those deaths have 'piss all to with you'?poet said:
Im glad Badger Kitten replied. I imagine she knows more than any of us how it feels to be involved.
During the two minutes I will be silent. I will be thinking how sad it is to be in a world where we can be surrounded by such incredible intelligence and achieve such a high level of technology, and then use it to do the least difficult and most disgusting thing of all.
Kill.
During the two minutes I will be silent. I will be thinking how sad it is to be in a world where we can be surrounded by such incredible intelligence and achieve such a high level of technology, and then use it to do the least difficult and most disgusting thing of all.
Kill.
poet said:
Bit in bold : this is virtually an accusation of racism and it's out of order IMO.
Read Badger Kitten's post and have another think.
Why does turning your thoughts towards victims of the London bombings have to be mutually exclusive from caring about what happens in Africa and Iraq??
Unnecessary polarisation.
But I do agree with Sunspots about officially ordained silences -- people should be able to do as they see fit, at a time of their own choosing.
HarrisonSlade
say NO to the vaccine
People are free to do what they like. I remember at my last work place during the 2 minutes silence for Rememberance Day, someone forgot to turn the music off, and everyone had a bit of a chuckle about it. Usually, especially in London, many people do not recognise the silences (especially parts where there are so many tourists aorund).Hollis said:
It is not expected of you to shut your mouth for a couple of minutes, but it would be nice if you did. It's nice to have a couple of minutes where everyone just shuts the fuck up and thinks about why these senseless things happen, rather than opening their mouths and coming up with scapegoats and halfbaked theories. You have to listen to that kind of bulshit all the time, and very few people complain about their civil liberties there.
It is not illegal to shout and scream through this silence, but then again it is not illegal to goto a funeral wearing a clowns costume and a swivel bowtie, and sing music hall songs, but it would be bad manners, and you would end up looking like a bit of an arse.
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
I don't see any reason why anybody should have to take part in this if they don't wish to. If I see people talking during the silnce I won't be rushing after them afterwards to harnague them for it. I do, however, think people might recognise that the distress involved is sufficiently widespread, deep and legitimate that it would be at least, courteous to allow us to get on with with without either being disruptive or calling into question our motives. I know many Westerners value life differently according to what colour skin it wears. But that has nothing to do with what I shall be doing at noon today and I think I would like that acknowledged.
madzone
Physically unfavourable
El Jugador said:
Actually this is something one of my family used to do (he's dead now) Every day at midday he would just sit in silence for one minute and contemplate the suffering going on in the world and thank his lucky stars that he wasn't about to die of some hideous poverty or war related situation that day.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
It's not virtual, it is an accusation of racism. And not just as Geri, but at everyone who has disagreeed with whatever substantial points poet has managed to make.William of Walworth said:
butchersapron said:
Well I don't know what else poet's been posting in other threads, but I do see your point and I agree, having reread poet's rant ....
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