Myanmar Cyclone (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter Bjerknes
- Start date
What do you expect? Totalitarian regimes typically consider their own citizens perfectly expendable. And that's not all, Burma is one of the most closed and isolated states in the world, rivaling North Korea almost, so no wonder you're not getting a lot of press on this, it's hard to even get in there.
While all of this is said and known, I was just making a point. It's pretty sad that nobody even mentioned the fact that 100,000 people just died, but when some moron shoots herself in the head at a football match, people give their useless "RIP" and the imbecile receives all the attention on this forum.
On a side note - I remember reading an article here after Katrina hit that made the point the United States is less civilized than the rest of the world. It strikes me a little odd that, while our response to the disaster was less than remarkable, someone has the nerve to label us uncivilized when you look at a place such as Myanmar. Doesn't make any sense really.
On a side note - I remember reading an article here after Katrina hit that made the point the United States is less civilized than the rest of the world. It strikes me a little odd that, while our response to the disaster was less than remarkable, someone has the nerve to label us uncivilized when you look at a place such as Myanmar. Doesn't make any sense really.
Well I think your outrage at this is maybe even more futile than their sympathy or lack of sympathy in those circumstances. None of us are exposed to all the horror in the world, and those who live in war torn countries (especially those who grew up in nice and quiet places like Europe and the US) don't always emerge with their minds in one piece. It's just too much to handle. So if you want to grieve over someone losing (or taking) their life, that's fine. And if you want to grieve over 100,000 victims that's fine too. And almost no matter how many of these incidents you feel affect you there will always been many more around the world that people don't seem to be appropriately sad about.
I don't think there exists a meaningful argument for how sad you should feel about the various disasters that happen.
I don't think that when people were saying the US is less civilizes (kind of a strange term to use), they were comparing you with states like Myanmar. I mean that's not a very flattering comparison and if that's what you thought then you didn't get it. It's like when people say that Molinaro sucks. They don't mean he's worse than Paramatti and Dimas, just that by a certain standard of expectations that comes with being a Juve player, he sucks.
I don't think there exists a meaningful argument for how sad you should feel about the various disasters that happen.
I don't think that when people were saying the US is less civilizes (kind of a strange term to use), they were comparing you with states like Myanmar. I mean that's not a very flattering comparison and if that's what you thought then you didn't get it. It's like when people say that Molinaro sucks. They don't mean he's worse than Paramatti and Dimas, just that by a certain standard of expectations that comes with being a Juve player, he sucks.
That's not exactly what I'm trying to do, and my point wasn't that you should mourn people you don't know. But rather, my point is that it's just a little strange that I could blow my own head off at a football match and get useless RIPs instead of innocent people not seeking attention. I'm more outraged that stupid people get the press all the time, or at least on this forum for that matter.
I've read the article and I do believe in my limited intelligence. The article was filled with bullshit. If the writer would have limited his criticism to just the government, perhaps I'd agree with him. But instead, he tried bridge the argument to the people in general being uncivilized, which was just plain wrong. In no fashion did he state throw out places such as Myanmar, or Sudan, or what have you. The article was written with the intent to throw us all together as an entire uncivilized bunch in comparison to yes, the entire rest of the world.
I've read the article and I do believe in my limited intelligence. The article was filled with bullshit. If the writer would have limited his criticism to just the government, perhaps I'd agree with him. But instead, he tried bridge the argument to the people in general being uncivilized, which was just plain wrong. In no fashion did he state throw out places such as Myanmar, or Sudan, or what have you. The article was written with the intent to throw us all together as an entire uncivilized bunch in comparison to yes, the entire rest of the world.
But why is one useless RIP better than another? It does nothing, right? And the only thing we really care about is things that affect us, so all the Western tourists in Thailand and stuff when the tsunami occurred. And yes, you can't differentiate between the tourists and the locals in good faith, especially because there were so many tourists and locals who helped each other and all that. But otherwise would there be such an uproar? If it wasn't our favorite holiday destination? What about Bali, lots of Western (well, Australian, but they qualify as one of us) tourists there too.
I agree that this psychology of sympathy is pretty interesting, because people don't know how to react. Heck, when I see these things I don't know what I should be doing myself. If someone shoots themselves isn't that sad? I mean the circumstances that must have led them to do this can't be happy can they? They must either have gone through a rough time or had mental health issues, neither of which are particularly cheerful. So what is wrong with sympathizing with that? Isn't that maybe something we relate to more easily than a natural disaster we could do nothing about?
So who wrote it, where was he from? If he was European I'm fairly confident he was comparing you with Europe, and maybe a couple of other countries like Japan etc that we feel have a similar standard of living. In other words "our world". Not with Myanmar, in fact people who would argue the US is less civilized than Myanmar probably don't exist, because they don't know what Myanmar is.
I agree that this psychology of sympathy is pretty interesting, because people don't know how to react. Heck, when I see these things I don't know what I should be doing myself. If someone shoots themselves isn't that sad? I mean the circumstances that must have led them to do this can't be happy can they? They must either have gone through a rough time or had mental health issues, neither of which are particularly cheerful. So what is wrong with sympathizing with that? Isn't that maybe something we relate to more easily than a natural disaster we could do nothing about?
So who wrote it, where was he from? If he was European I'm fairly confident he was comparing you with Europe, and maybe a couple of other countries like Japan etc that we feel have a similar standard of living. In other words "our world". Not with Myanmar, in fact people who would argue the US is less civilized than Myanmar probably don't exist, because they don't know what Myanmar is.