Many of us on this site have from time to time posted stories of individual events or personal tragedies in our lives. The general response is always of sympathy to the individual, to show we care and to hope that what we do or say may provide some little piece of comfort. I can say that for me such words helped me hugely when I have had bad things happen to me. Maybe these words were the "crocodile tears" that you refer to, 666, but I don't think so. I tend to think people were being genuinely kind.

I hope it won't happen of course, but if you or someone in your family fell victim to some awful illness or accident I would feel desperately sorry for you and I would try to convey this to you in some way. If somebody told me that I shouldn't really do such a thing unless I did the same to everybody in the world, known or unknown to me, who was suffering a similar plight I would tell them not to be so bloody stupid.

So don't be so bloody stupid.

You two on the first tee must be some craic.

And they give you legal clubs

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 7 hours, 4 minutes ago
Many of us on this site have from time to time posted stories of individual events or personal tragedies in our lives. The general response is always of sympathy to the individual, to show we care and to hope that what we do or say may provide some little piece of comfort. I can say that for me such words helped me hugely when I have had bad things happen to me. Maybe these words were the "crocodile tears" that you refer to, 666, but I don't think so. I tend to think people were being genuinely kind.

I hope it won't happen of course, but if you or someone in your family fell victim to some awful illness or accident I would feel desperately sorry for you and I would try to convey this to you in some way. If somebody told me that I shouldn't really do such a thing unless I did the same to everybody in the world, known or unknown to me, who was suffering a similar plight I would tell them not to be so bloody stupid.

So don't be so bloody stupid.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
That's my point; there's apathy for those who we don't know, whose lives we don't recognise as like our own, yet one-minute national silence for those that we're local to. Why are we only sympathizing now it's France affected?

Sorry if you didn't know about the other atrocities: they were reported albeit not to saturation like Paris was and is.

The minutes silence was part of a general standing together with the French to show unity with them in OUR. fight against terrorism. The events in Paris are easy for us to understand as they have happened here and are likely to happen here again. What happens in the Middle East has happened all of our lives so we are accustomed to seeing it. It is also very hard to understand who's who in the ME so hard to relate too. Paris has affected us directly, either through relatives or just having a second thought about going to a pub, firework, cinema etc.
Crocodile tears for some but a feeling of unity for most.

When something occurs close to home inevitably it has more impact: if your next-door neighbour died in a car crash it would have a greater effect than the same thing happening to someone in a different part of the country. The attacks in Mumbai had a similar level of coverage: these are big new items because we know a similar thing could happen here. If it did we would all be pretty upset about it: would that be wrong too?

It's just sour small-minded carping for no good reason. I don't give you a hard time for stuffing your face with pasties when there are starving people around the world. We all have our lives to lead and we can't weigh up the morality of every single action and divide our decent feelings around the world according to what 666 feels is appropriate. A good deed is a good deed.and there is no need for a "Yeah, but....".

I've no idea why you have not yet picked up on my repeated statement to the following effect, so here it is again in capslock:

I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THE SHOW OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE VICTIMS OF THE PARIS ATTACK.

Where my problem is (at the risk of repetition) is that we just accept the slaughter in other areas of the world, at the same hand, and dismiss it 'because it's always been so'. I appreciate the old analogy that 'dog bites man' will never pique the interest like 'man bites dog' but, as free-thinking people are we so disaffected by the tumult in the Middle East that we're only bothering to spare it a thought when it directly affects us, despite the sporadic bombing of our fellow humans?

Sorry if all the "Yeah buts" are making you realise how shallow our world really is

You tend to be agreeing with Jeremy Corbyn quite a lot on this thread, 666. Good on ya

When you say "we just accept the slaughter" 666, who do you mean by "we"? This thread was about the singing of La Marseillaise at a football match which you now say you have no problem with. Well ain't that big of you. Who are you directing your ire at? Yourself? You assume that because people want to sympathise with the French that they are not capable of simultaneously considering the Middle East and thinking about the impact of Western nations' foreign policy there. It's constantly in the news as it happens. I don't really know what you are asking for: a minute's silence? More debate? Initially your complaint on this thread was that more publicity isn't given to the murder of white South African farmers. Why are you more concerned about white South Africans than others around the world, I wonder? 4,000 white South Africans since the end of apartheid is a very small number of people compared to those murdered around the world in the same period. I understand why you are more concerned about white South Africans than other nationals, it's closer to you. I'm not going to call you a hypocrite, you're just a human being like the rest of us. We all have our causes celebres. It's not a contest of who cares more about what.

No.

My point was never about farmers specifically, I merely used them as an example of the numbers involved which go by unreported and unnoticed by the wider world. There are slaughters happening everywhere across the globe, so why specifically do the victims of the Parisian attacks warrant national mourning in this country? They don't. It's still very sad and I'm sure the global outrage and sympathies extended to the families of those murdered was and is greatly comforting, but their pain is no more nor no less than those of the barely-reported atrocities.

If being concerned at the lack of outrage of the less-popular mass murders renders me a hypocrite, then buy me a badge with "Hypocrite" writ large upon it and I'll wear it with pride... perhaps Facebook will create me a special filter for my profile pic

"My point was never about farmers specifically..."

"There's effectively a cull of white farmers..."

Official statistics state that 38% of farmers murdered in South Africa are not white, yet you only appear to be concerned about the white ones. You seem pretty selective about those who are worthy of your own compassion, don't you? Get yourself a nice big badge with a big "H" on it, you've earned it.



Just saying.

Garbage. Farm workers are not the same as farmers any more than nurses are surgeons. The official figures include all murders on farms but the actual statistics show that a white farmer is twice as likely to be murdered than a policeman: it's the highest professional murder rate in the country.

On the plus-side, all Premier League matches this weekend are also playing the French anthem so you'll have a jolly old self-satisfied karaoke session when MoTD is on.

"Farm workers are not the same as farmers".

Too right. One is black and one is white. Guess which one 666 cares about, readers. Incidentally, 280,000 South Africans died of AIDS in 2010, virtually all of them black. The HIV rate in the black population is around 15% nationally and way higher than that in many townships. About 0.3% of the whites in South Africa have HIV. The great majority of black South Africans with HIV receive no treatment for the condition so most die from its effects.

But I guess they are not white farmers so we don't care too much about that, do we?

Don't be so embarrassed by your ill-conceived and meaningless gestures that you feel obliged to cast wholly unfounded aspersions on the character of others: the topic, your topic, was around the murder victims of the Paris attacks. Not quite sure if they mentioned it in your medical courses but dying of aids isn't classed as murder, unless you've recently been ragdolled around by Charlie Sheen obviously.

Minute's silence before the Cardiff match: another opportunity to show your empathy to all the victims' relatives in attendance, ie none at all.

If, as you say, the topic is simply about the Paris victims then why did you choose to chirp up about something different? It was you who chose to denigrate the sentiment by talking about others who are denied such pity. Is a painful death from AIDS less worthy of our sympathy than a murder now? The point I'm making is that it is very easy for a small-minded individual to make endless snide comments of the "Yeah, but" variety until you end up chasing your own tail. There will always be someone you've left out, someone equally worthy of mention, like the black AIDS victims you appear not to give a stuff about. Expressing sympathy about something worthy of that sympathy can never be a bad thing, however much you carp.

Where've I said it's a "bad thing" to express sympathy?

I've merely enquired as to why some seemingly deserve countless anthems, silences and general sackcloth and ashes whilst others evidently from the 'wrong' demographic don't warrant so much as an afterthought. Even the policedog has had more column inches than the 120 Kenyan students massacred earlier this year ffs: where's the 'humanity' in that?

No it didn't. The Kenyan students received massive publicity.

I agree that the media reaction is way over the top and therefore gives ISIS exactly what they want. It's a strange war we are fighting. The press just love a good shooting.

i don't think it was massive: it was certainly reported but nothing like on this scale.

It doesn't sell as many adverts

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34877069

A ton appel, Mali,
Pour ta prospérité
Fidèle à ton destin
Nous seron tous unis,
Un peuple, un but, une foi.
Pour une Afrique unie
Si l'ennemi découvre son front
Au dedans ou au dehors
Debout sur les remparts
Nous sommes résolus de mourir.
CHORUS
Pour l'Afrique et pour toi, Mali
Notre drapeau sera liberté.
Pour l'Afrique et pour toi, Mali
Notre combat sera unité.
O Mali d'aujourd'hui,
O Mali, de demain
Les champs fleurissent d'espérance,
Les cœurs vibren de confidance.
Debout, villes et campagnes,
Debout, femmes, jeunes et vieux
Pour la Patrie en marche
Vers l'avenir radeiux
Pour notre dignité.
Renforçons bien nos rangs,
Pour le salut public
Forgeons le bien commun
Ensemble, au coude à coude
Faisons le chantier du bonheur.
CHORUS
La voie est dure, très dure
Qui mène au bonheur commun
Courage et dévouement,
Vigilance à tout moment,
(repeat previous two lines)
Vérité des temps anciens,
Vérité des tous les jours,
Le bonheur par le labeur
Fera la Mali de demain.
CHORUS
L'Afrique se lève enfin
Saluons ce jour nouveau.
Saluons la liberté,
Marchons ver l'unité.
Dignité retrouvée
Soutient notre combat.
Fidelès à notre serment
De faire l'Afrique unie
Ensemble, debout mes frères
Tous au rendez-vous de l'honneur.

Not quite as bloodthirsty as Vidals' current favourite anthem but at least he's got the accent down

Yes. Another one to sing along to. With both this and La Marseillaise, if anyone is joining in and is struggling to remember all of the words, they will find that the phrase: "Six six six: quel oinkeur, quel oinkeur", provided it is sung in the appropriate French accent, a handy alternative which will show their solidarity with all right-thinking individuals.

ISIS wins in their economic jihad, assuming of course that we have a national minutes silence for each instance of their murderous campaign which we shan't, given that most of their victims look nothing like us. Vive la difference.