It's common knowledge that Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 before taking his own life. Doing the dutiful diplomatic doodah resulted in our government offering condolences to the US by way of the following statement (which can be found as reported in the Daily Mirror here). "The Government of Sri Lanka condemns, in no uncertain terms, the appalling, senseless killing of 31 innocent students and teachers, at the Virginia Tech University in Virginia, USA recently. As citizens of a country deeply conscious of the value of non-violence, we share the feelings of grief borne by the people of the United States of America. We convey our deepest sympathies to the families of those who lost their loved ones in this tragedy and to all those who were, either directly or indirectly, affected by it." Wouldn't a little bit of the professed "chinthana" have gone a long way and prevented causing considerable embarrassment to the Sri Lankan people? I also wonder whether our government sends out condolences to Iraq, Sudan, and other places where such numbers and then some are killed on a daily basis by disturbed suicidal people. I guess it's a case of lust after the sexiest arse. After all, kissing a miserable, unshapely one is not gonna be of any use. |
Tuesday 24 April 2007
Virginia Tech Massacre - Our Government's Fuck Up
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7 musings:
err....ok?
Unfortunately it is not the number that counts. It is the value. As an example if you lost 31 $ you may worry more than for 31 Rs. I’m not saying that is how it should be – but that is how it is.
i couldn't agree more..it's all words.. and talk is cheap.
i think you make a great point about which country the govt chooses to send its condolences to. What's 32 people in Virginia compared to 100s of people in Iraq everyday? not to undermine the value of a life of course, a death is a death, but is an American death more important than an Iraqi death? Obviously to our government it is.
and to Sam, i must say, that first, the value should be in having the courtesy to get the number right. and secondly, im not understanding your example. are you saying a dollar, in this case an American, has more value than a ruppee, in this case a sri lankan? i don't see how you can draw parallels between monetary values and how human lives.
T,
I just don’t draw the line. I don’t think line is good. But I see that line every day.
Yes. In real world, some human lives value more than others. That can be base on nationality, wealth or skills. Some lives are so cheap, you can even use them as suicide bombs – while some lives protected by sacrificing others. Even we have legal mechanism to condom lives too. That is the brutal truth.
Just think about Sri Lankans in Lebanon while America and UK rescued their citizens. We save money by not chattering a ship. Cost of a ship exceeded the value of Sri Lanka lives in that case. I’m not happy about it. But that is how things roll in real world. Some people are just more valuable than others.
thanks for the comments guys.
yeah i agree with u sam...its like what was said in animal farm. "all animals are equal, some more equal than others"...
unfortunately, some lives ARE more valuable than others. which results in our leaders, whether genuinely or not, mourning for the loss of human lives of a people who will obviously be more valuable to our leaders in the long run. I mean, they arent gonna score any points by sending out any condolences to iraq, iran, afghanistan, etc.
See this is what frustrates me. What good have america been to us? do they send us condolences each time a suicide bomber creates havoc over here? why haven't they intervened in our war on terror?
another thing is i wish we as the sri lankan ppl would pay more attention to detail to the small things, which would go a long way. for example the number of dead ppl in our condolences. fair enough if u want to selectively send out condolences, but get ur facts right! show that it was done with care, and not for the sake of sending it. agh!
I guess the thing that strikes me the most is about ours being a Buddhist nation that practices non-violence... how much non-violence do we actually practice?
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