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Richard Littlejohn

Forums New posts
Pubey said:
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.
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How about when Lady Diana died?

That wasn't just a minute's silence, but games were actually called off FFS.

Martin Carruthers said:
You obviously haven't seen Liverpool play regularly
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Exactly. They'd hold a minute's silence for a dead chicken.
 
A minutes silence at a football club that 99 per cent of japs will never have hear of is laughable.. Who are we tryin to make feel better .. them or us..
Also there is the compulsion to join in if you dont want to , for what ever reason.. Maybe you got woken up in the middle of the night by your ex pow father screaming in his sleep.. Maybe you had a great uncle who refused to take his shirt of on the beach due to the scars on his body.. or maybe you just dont give a ****. Why should you have endure a minutes silence just to show your respect, or your respect of other peoples respect.. If you want to show you care there are better places to do it than at a football match.. I would imagine we lose a few lifelong season ticket holders each season.. Maybe they need to die in more spectacular fashion to get noticed .
 
Pubey said:
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.
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The cynic in me wonders if this has more to do with the impact on the global economy or not and the fact that Japan is a far more significant world player than New Zealand is.
Uncle Leo said:
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.
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That's exactly what I've said James, and I don't think they should be criticised for that viewpoint. What they lived through is simply unimaginable to us and I fully understand why some (not all) cannot find forgiveness.
Drastic Sturgeon said:
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.
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Embarrassing for feeling empathy towards elderly Japanese POWs? I don't think so, you have misunderstood me completely and the only reason I brought percentage value into it was because others were talking about comparisons and what I suggested was that I would have expected there to be better contingencies in place because of where they live not that it was their fault.
Matt the Shrimp said:
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.
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A life lost to an earthquake is a life lost to an earthquake Matt, regardless. I was comparing the direct losses per population and trying to illustrate that they are more comparable than people think.

chadded said:
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.
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Thank you, finally we seem to be developing a degree of understanding!
 
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OldBlueLady said:
A life lost to an earthquake is a life lost to an earthquake Matt, regardless. I was comparing the direct losses per population and trying to illustrate that they are more comparable than people think.
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as there are so many nips we can lose more of them than the sheep shaggers to make it comparable?
 
OldBlueLady said:
Embarrassing for feeling empathy towards elderly Japanese POWs? I don't think so, you have misunderstood me completely and the only reason I brought percentage value into it was because others were talking about comparisons and what I suggested was that I would have expected there to be better contingencies in place because of where they live not that it was their fault.
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I wasn't debating whether former Japanese POW's should feel sympathy for Japan, that's entirely their business, I wouldn't presume to second guess their feelings either way. What I was debating was your assertation that people should not treat the Japanese with any more sympathy than those who suffered in New Zealand.

Both were tragedies, undoubtedly, however the scale of the earthquake & the damage it caused in Japan was much greater. Japan has THE most sophisticated warning systems in the world, but that's all it is, a warning system. The Tohoku region had a population of 9.7m impossible to evacuate, you can't outrun an earthquake. It is probably only down to Japan's technolgy that AS FEW as the estimated 29,000 died. The earthquake itself was 9.0 in magnitude (Christchurch was 6.3) - one of the 5 most powerful in recorded history (it moved Honsho 2.4m east, and shifted the earth 10cm it's axis), it then caused a 10m Tsunami (again warnings were issued) which hit about 20mins-30mins after the quake and travelled up to 10km inland (again, try outrunning that).

Maybe I'm banging my head against a brick wall, maybe I'm mistaken and you are sympathetic to the people in Japan's plight, you're perfectly entitled to feel as equally sorry for New Zealanders if you want but your assertion that those of us who feel Japan's tragedy was worse feel nothing for Christchurch is utterly wrong and in my opinion the media is correct to give greater coverage to Japan than NZ (incidentally I do have relatives in NZ).
 
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