Grief Tourism!

mike65

Whats for f*ck is the world comming to?

I was watching the news reports on the people comming from far and wide to lay flowers in the churchyard in Soham and have thier pictures taken (:eek:) at various relevant locations like the
community hall, my own reaction to this is one of abject horror, how can these middle-england trash feel grief for ppl they never knew?

You can certainly feel sympathy for the families but grief requires
deep personal engagment you can't just make that up to be part of a popular process, which has developed since the death of Princess Diana.

David Beckham said he dedicated his goal in the West Brom game
to the girls memory now he might even belive that but no
remotly worldly, sophisicated person could do so with a clear
conscience.

Is it me, am I too old-fashioned, do I belive in keeping it all in?
Or is what we are seeing something particular to the times we live in, where individuals now only find a sense of belonging by
gathering to emote? Sigh.

Mike.

ykt0di9url7bc3

2 girls die and i wish the world would help 3rd world countries

what happened in Soham was a tragedy, but whats happening in Africa is a disgrace to humanity

again the media is to blame, such coverage on the ordeal was bound to get a response.....

why cant they visit ethiopia and help there!

Venom

The whole media frenzy surrounding the tragic events Soham is disgusting. Can they not just leave the family of those two little girls alone so they can try and say goodbye to their daughters and grieve in peace.

David Beckham is a stupid attention seeking cúnt for making remarks like that. I am at a loss to comprehend how no one told him to cop on to himself at the press confrence. But sadly this is not the worst thing to happen in the last few days in Soham.

Some complete and utter peice of human filth stole one of the condolence books from the church the funeral mass's were said in. How anyone could do such a thing ? I hope I never understand what those children's family must feel like when this sort of thing happens. It must be unberable for them at the worst time in their life to realise pople are using there suffering as a media gimick.

Some asshole's are even trying to get there photo taken next to the altar where the picture's and some belonging's of the little girls are laid out. What sort of sick fúck would want something like as a memmento?

It at times like this, that I realise the human's are a race really suck. Maybe the insect's can do a better job.

SearrarD what the hell is your malfunction? The plight of people in the third world has nothing to do what was mentioned in the original post. If you have nothing to add to a tread like this, then just shut up.

bugler

Easy tiger!

The point has relevance. Thousands of children die each month around the world, and how much press do they get? Very little. This Soham business has got (and will get) huge amounts of coverage, despite the fact that only two children died. Our world is celebrity obsessed, and lets face it, slightly masochistic about terrible crimes like this. All those people working themselves into a) a furious rage, or b) a terrible pit of despair over two children who died, and yet none of them probably bat an eyelid when told that maybe a million kids have died in Iraq over the last decade. Is there nothing wrong with that picture? We only care about people who are in the news.

ykt0di9url7bc3

I'm just trying to show where the media has got the attention of the UK public, where the plight of the third world is a disgrace, the media have so covered this plight of Holly and Jessica, that people are travelling from afar to have a piece of what made the headlines in August 2002 and not helping out where the world really needs help

any clearer?

Venom

Its not that I dont understand your point Searrard its just that it has nothing to do with the original issue.

Without trying to to be heartless, I honestly feel that the reasion the Soham murder's have been the certer of the media attention is because they are not only close to home but also people we can identify with.

We can all look at pictures of starving people on tv or images of war abused civilians, and while we can feel a sense of horror about their situation, we will never identify with them. They are people then we have nothing in common with apart from having a certain genetic structure in common. Their lives are a million times estranged from ours.

We are pretty much the same people as those living in England,Wales and Scotland. We speak the same language, enjoy the same past times and hobbies. We have a very close bond that has developed down through the decades. Those two children could have as easly been Irish. British news is Irish news and vice a versa when the matter in question is on a scale as large as it is in this case.

If the murder had of taken place in France or Germany or Finland it would not have have hit us in the same way. The fact that their are so many treads on boards.ie, on this subject proves this.

The horror that goes on in Africa and the middle east is just old news at this stage and we have become numb to it. As long as I can remember there has been the famine releif at Easter. In my grandfather's day it was the "Penny for the black babies". It has become part of our culture in the same way as pokamon or Star Wars or Barbie has. It has been going on since before I was born and will continue to go on long after I am dead. Such is the way the world works.

mike65

Good points Venom, but the issue that I'm interested in
for this thread is this new found need to be seen sharing
grief just to quote myself -

are (we) seeing something particular to the times we live in, where individuals now only find a sense of belonging by
gathering to emote? Sigh.

Once upon a time saying a prayer was enough now you have to announce you've said a prayer. I mentioned the Diana factor but maybe this all goes back to the Americanisation of emotion.

The "I feel your pain" syndrome which is itself allied to the need to appologise for ones countries past misdeeds etc.

I was accused in some previous thread of being too PC but actually I hate the whole concept. Part of me wants Chris Norris
to announce a Brass Eye special on Grief Tourism but I wont hold my breath.

Mike.

ykt0di9url7bc3

[sorry bout going off on a tangent earlier]

in waterford a book of condolences has been opened and already has 300+ signitures,

people will travel to england with the princess Di garden on their itinery.....but for 2 little girls part of a small community its a disgrace

but sometimes grief tourism is a good thing, my mother visited the tomb of the unknown soilder in the US and said it was one of the most moving expierences of her life, my friend said the same about the allies graveyard at omaha beach.....at some stage of my life i'll visit those places (i have a big interest in both World Wars) is it right to go, just to see it?

smiles

Yeah, it's a strange world out there. gossip/strangeness attracts people like moths to flames.

<< Fio >>

Venom

Well that whole book from Wexford is just bollock. I totaly fail to see the point in that. Condolence books should only be signed by people who knew the person who died, be they family or friends and not by some stranger who just walks in off the street. Its just been done so as to be seen to be being done. You can bet 100% that most if not all the signitures in that book are only in the book, because of what it will look like if a persons name is not in the book.

Mike65 makes a very good point. People just want to be seen doing or making a gesture in these circumstances as it is the done thing. It like the old joke from Nicey and Smashy, the DJ piss take from the Fast Show guys about "how much charity work" one of them did, but he didnt like to "take about it", yet all he did was talk about it. I was brough up to belive that charitable actions where not something you boasted about.

I put the blame for all this on the whole PC movement. It has just gotten to such a stage now that it is not enough to feel sorry for the family of the girls, but we are under pressure to go out of our way to show how much we care or be made out to be heartless monsters by the PC brigade. All that were missing from this whole media circus of a event is a t-shirt with the funeral dates on the back and a picture of the girls head stones on the front.