Richard Littlejohn

[SamuraiBlue]

Interesting to read all your thoughts and nice to be reminded that people care. Was getting depressed after reading all the negative comments around the internet over the past few days.
The crux of it is that 20,000 humans have died here and 250,000 plus are homeless and living with barely enough food and water to survive in the freezing cold evacuation centres. Also, the nuclear power station situation still makes the situation perilous. All that makes it one of the worst disasters of recent times. Except maybe the Sumatra earthquake of course. So I'd say it deserves a minutes silence.

Japan is a major ally to the west these days and the Japanese are some of the politest and most generous (not to mention beautiful ;)) people I have ever met anywhere in the world. Please come to Japan and see!

Compassion for fellow human beings should be enough to make it bother most people. What with the UK being a mix of people from all over the world I would hope compassion for other people, no matter where they come from, is getting stronger.

I get it that people who fought in Japan or suffered at their hands might have a problem forgiving, but I can't understand why anyone born after those times has such hatred and racist feelings towards one of the most peaceful nations in the world. Japanese people don't hate America (or the UK) and instead almost worship the western ideas and culture. Funny that, considering some of the things that the west has done since the second world war.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Some people really haven't understood what I was saying here at all. There's suggestion somehow that there's a racist undertone to what I said and that simply is not the case. What I have repeated several times, and that Harry also says, is that we can understand Japanese POWs not wanting to observe any minute silences. It's not about what their descendants do, I should think there are very few POWs who have brought their children and grandchildren up to share the intensity of their feeling towards the Japanese, but about their right to feel that way and not to face criticism because of it. The New Zealand earthquakes have been every bit as devastating in their own way and in their own locality, it's all relative and in many ways it's similar to the comments about Red Nose Day to some extent - your own personal belief.

 

[Pubey]

The New Zealand earthquakes have been every bit as devastating in their own way

no they haven't.

 

[Rudi Luftwaffe]

Richard Littlejohn is a hateful little ****.

 

[Hotman]

You and OBL aren't the only people I've heard say that, but I can't personally think of any minute silences I've seen being observed at football matches that I've thought were unnecessary.

You obviously haven't seen Liverpool play regularly

 

[MK Shrimper]

Littlejohn is a vile piece of dog excrement.

 

[OldBlueLady]

no they haven't.

Shortsighted viewpoint. Just because the magnitude wasn't as great doesn't mean it's not been as devastating to the people involved.

 

[Pubey]

Shortsighted viewpoint. Just because the magnitude wasn't as great doesn't mean it's not been as devastating to the people involved.

but many more people have been involved in the Japan earthquake, which is what it's had such a bigger impact and such greater coverage on the news.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Littlejohn is spot on. Now back to 'Bridge Over the River Kwai'.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Please come to Japan and see!

Errr, not right now thanks.

 

[canveyshrimper]

no they haven't.

Why make a contradiction when you could argue the case as to why they haven't.
IMO the Christchurch quakes have been as devastating in their way as the Japanese earthquake.
Any consequent loss of human life is unbelieveably tragic, and any help and support that can be given in helping all people rebuild their shattered lives and communities should be afforded.

 

[Firestorm]

If the Japanese need help re-building the railways they had better not ask us for help

 

[SamuraiBlue]

Littlejohn is spot on. Now back to 'Bridge Over the River Kwai'.

I agree my post comes across as being self-righteous but I stand by it. Obviously you and I will never agree on anything to do with this kind of thing.
Looking forward to your visit. xxx

 

[Jedi Shrimper]

Good for you, and yes, that's sarcastic. For such a leading country, situated as it is on such a major fault in the earth's crust, personally I would have expected better warning systems and certainly better vision than to have built nuclear reactors facing out in the direction that a tsunami would likely come. Now, I'm no mathematician, but maybe someone could work out what 182 is as a percentage of the population of 4,296,756 of New Zealand compared to the 29,000 (theoretical) as a percentage of the population of 127,176,667 of Japan? In human terms I doubt it is as significantly different as you believe.

Please stop typing. You're just embarrassing yourself. To compare human loss of life as % is frankly inhuman. What happened in New Zealand is tragic, Japan even more so, the earthquake was bigger, then there was a tsunami - which wiped a town the size of Rochford off the map. I can 't imagine what I'd do if my home was damaged like those in NZ were let alone what I would do if everything I knew simply stopped existing like it has for some in japan. There is nothing to rebuild. You've also suggested that it's their own fault for being born there, and continuing to live there, well it's their home. Mrs DS is from California and has lived through several (much smaller granted) earthquakes, the only reason she left was to live here with me.

Kudos to Samurai Blue for reacting with such reserve.

 

[Uncle Leo]

You and OBL aren't the only people I've heard say that, but I can't personally think of any minute silences I've seen being observed at football matches that I've thought were unnecessary.

Although I respected it, I remember thinking that the one at Roots Hall for those girls - Holly and Jessica - killed by Ian Huntley was unnecessary. A terrible tragedy of course, but I didn't see the need for a minute's silence at a football game.

On the Littlejohn article, I can see why a Japanese POW would struggle to feel any sympathy for what has happened in Japan over the last fortnight, but that doesn't preclude the rest of us from feeling for them, just because you felt sorry for the ladies in Tenko.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Although I respected it, I remember thinking that the one at Roots Hall for those girls - Holly and Jessica - killed by Ian Huntley was unnecessary. A terrible tragedy of course, but I didn't see the need for a minute's silence at a football game.

In some strange way, as a nation we have become somewhat fixated by national grief. When Boris penned his piece in the Spectator about Liverpool "wallowing in grief", he was only wrong in singling out Liverpool. As a nation, we have in recent years abandoned a certain level of sang froid, of stiff upper lip. Our grandfathers wouldn't recognise it, frankly. Littlejohn's piece is deliberately naughty because I suspect that, other than for the passing of a friend or of a member of the royal family, our grandfathers wouldn't have wallowed in a minute's silence for anyone. They'd have paid their respects in their own private ways, and then have simply got on with life.

Why are we like the way we are now? Who knows... Lady Di, the sexual revolution of the 60s, the punk movement... all have played their part in making us a nation less bound by formality and more willing to express our feelings. But that makes sh*te copy for Littlejohn, hence his decision to poke his big stick into the hornet's nest of whether we ought to feel sorry for the Japanese. As his articles go, it is perhaps more sloppy and racist than his standard fare, and for that he should feel a bit embarrassed.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Now, I'm no mathematician, but maybe someone could work out what 182 is as a percentage of the population of 4,296,756 of New Zealand compared to the 29,000 (theoretical) as a percentage of the population of 127,176,667 of Japan? In human terms I doubt it is as significantly different as you believe.

What a totally fatuous exercise. The logical conclusion of that calculation is that a Kiwi life is worth 30 times more than a Japanese life, on account of there being 30 times more Japanese people than Kiwis (and thus their loss is - presumably - more keenly felt).

Even putting to one side that fairly startling parallel which you appear to be inviting, on pure proportions alone, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami was 5 times more devastating than the Christchurch one.

But that is a ludicrous parallel to be drawing. The Kiwi earthquake was dreadful, and any loss of life is a tragedy; however, there is potentially a significant element of human failing to be factored in, given that almost all of the deaths were as a result of the collapse of only two buildings; and, ultimately, only 182 people lost their lives.

29,000 are dead or missing in Japan as a result of a massive natural disaster that no one could have predicted or prevented. That is an horrific human catastrophe on an unimaginable scale. You really can't, nor should you even try, to compare it with what happened in Christchurch.

 

[Uncle Leo]

@davidschneider on Twitter suggests swapping the word 'Littlejohn' for 'Japanese' in paragraph five of the article. It works you know.

 

[chadded]

I'm going to defend OBL here. I think the point she is trying to make is not that human life should be measured in a percentage, but that Christchurch shouldn't be forgotten so quickly as it seems to be. Both events are horrific, of course they are, and anyone can see that OBL agrees with that. What I think she might be getting at, is the sense of loss felt by a New Zealander who lost someone, is the same as that of a Japanese person who lost someone.

As for Littlejohn. What he writes about his Grandfather/Father in law/can't remember might well be true, and if that is that man's (not LJ's) view then fair enough, but it is not a view that should be published in a national newspaper. And anyway, all journo's are vile, disgusting creatures, except maybe Chris Phillips, and MtS's WAG.

AS for silences at football stadiums, you could say that unless it is a national time of mourning, or relavent to the particular club(s), then perhaps we should have less. Relating this point back to the original though, if there wasn't one for the NZ quake, but there was for the Japan quake/ tsunami, where do you draw the line? Just a thought.

 

[BrettieAngell]

In some strange way, as a nation we have become somewhat fixated by national grief. W

Yep, Jade Goody say no more.