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stillnosheep
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 2068
Location: eslcafe
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 Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 12:44 am Post subject: |
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| Aramas wrote: |
| We're all far more likely to die as a result of a malfunctioning toaster than at the hands of terrorists. |
Dear aramas
Doesn't that depend upon where we are and what we are doing; as well as what we mean by "terrorist"? Isn't it an irregular verb:
I fight for freedom
You are a soldier
He is a foreign mercenary
We are the Liberation Army
You (all) are insurgents
They are the terrorists
maybe we should include
She is whatever that phrase is that they use to describe the prisoners at Guantanamo
and
It is not judged worthy of being treated according to the conventions of the Geneva convention |
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waxwing
Joined: 29 Jun 2003
Posts: 719
Location: China
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 5:36 am Post subject: |
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That's really good stillnosheep
I think the term was 'unlawful combatant' or some similarly vile form of casuistry. |
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Teacher in Rome
Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Posts: 1286
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 6:55 am Post subject: |
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| I don�t think any so-called terrorist group is going to hunt you down in Rome, or any other �soft target�. |
HL, I don't think it's personal - nobody's going to hunt me down specifically. But I think there's a terrorist threat, and I think that Rome is a good target.
Staying at home? Well I don't think the UK is much safer, either. There are people lunatic enough to want to kill Westerners for being Westeners - wherever they are. I'd just like to lower the odds of that happening to me. Of course, "he-man" as you are, you have absolutely no fear or concern, having survived the scud attack on the chicken farm. Phew, you came close, there.  |
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gugelhupf
Joined: 24 Jan 2004
Posts: 575
Location: Jabotabek
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 7:44 am Post subject: |
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| Hector_Lector wrote: |
Life-threatening situations?
Youth in Uk - oh no, there go the nasty IRA.
Libyan bombing in Omdurman, 1984.
Sicily - say no more.
Saudi Arabia *beep*.
First Gulf War - driving past the chicken farm as it was hit by a Scud.
Caught in a crowd of secondary school students during the start of the Intifadah, in Oman.
Face-off with English football hooligan/scum in Bratislava, 2003.
Catching the train before the bombs in Atoche in Madrid, 2004.
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Have you ever considered yourself a bit of a jinx? |
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stillnosheep
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 2068
Location: eslcafe
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 7:52 am Post subject: |
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| Teacher in Rome wrote: |
| I don't think it's personal - nobody's going to hunt me down specifically. But I think there's a terrorist threat, and I think that Rome is a good target. |
| stillnosheep wrote: |
I fight for freedom
You are a soldier
He is a foreign mercenary/She is an illegal combatant/it isn't worthy of treatment according to the Geneva convention
We are the Liberation Army
You (all) are insurgents
They are the terrorists |
Let's please be more careful how we use language. we are meant to be teachers after all!
| Teacher in Rome wrote: |
| Staying at home? Well I don't think the UK is much safer, either. |
With you on that one, Rome. In fact it seems to make little difference where we go. I've been chased down the street by a guy pointing an automatic rifle at me in Bilbao. I've had an automatic rifle stuck in my face in Germany. My flatmate even had someone attempt to shoot him from short distance with a hand-gun (luckily the perpetrator had forgotten to take off the safety catch and, when nothing happened, decided to turn around and hightail it out of there.
Now it is true that, in all the above scenarios, the man with the gun was wearing the uniform. On the other hand, there are far more killings of civilians by "soldiers" in this world than "terrorists" will ever manage to achieve. |
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 10:50 am Post subject: |
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| I live about 100 metres from the bomb blast at the British Consulate in Istanbul so I have a reminder of terrorist attacks everyday as the area around it is still a bit of a mess |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 1:03 pm Post subject: |
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I am just up the road where the attacks in Al-Khobar happened.
I feel threatened. In the past I brushed off the threat from those lunatics who think they will get to Paradise by slitting my throat. It seems much more real now - especially when we hear that they singled out non-Muslims for their attentions.
I do not see any polemic here from "usool" or the other apologists for the Islamists. |
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Hector_Lector
Joined: 20 Apr 2004
Posts: 548
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 1:07 pm Post subject: |
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Probably too busy grooming their beards.
Or getting that �just right� crease in their ghutras! |
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once again
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 815
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 1:34 pm Post subject: |
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| You should all visit the site..bigrosebang.com and then you will see that there are no real terrorists and it is all a plot by "THEM"...actually the site does have some very interesting things... |
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gugelhupf
Joined: 24 Jan 2004
Posts: 575
Location: Jabotabek
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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| One would hope that if the situation in Saudi deteriorates to the extent that teachers are forced to leave with their families then the rest of the EFL community will rally round by helping these guys with contacts to find jobs elsewhere. |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 2:25 pm Post subject: |
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Dear gugelhupf,
What a considerate, thoughtful posting. I hope your suggestion is taken up by many of our colleagues.
Regards,
John |
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Laura C
Joined: 14 Oct 2003
Posts: 211
Location: Saitama
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| Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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I am more scared of George Bush than I am of any terrorists.
I'm not trying to be flippant when I say that; I genuinely think he is the biggest threat to world peace at the minute.
L |
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Kurochan
Joined: 01 Mar 2003
Posts: 944
Location: China
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| Posted: Mon May 31, 2004 5:10 pm Post subject: Ironies and chance |
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| Teacher in Rome wrote: |
Put it this way - I'm uneasy.
Issues have become much more global, in the sense that what happens thousands of miles away can impact on you. It used to be that the IRA would strike at targets within the UK. You now get disaffected groups striking at any Western target. The worrying thing (for me, at least) is that the element of chance is so high. You may be on the train that gets blown up - you may miss that train by minutes.
. |
That's one ironic aspect of it. OBL and crew blew up the World Trade Center, attacking a city that probably has more Muslims in it than any other in the US (except maybe Detroit). As anybody who worked near the WTC knows, the guys who sold food in carts down at the base were mostly Arab, and probably large numbers were killed by falling debris. Ironically, one of the first things I heard in an interview with a person who had escaped the tower was, "I prayed to Allah that I would escape!" The people who perpetrate these attacks have no idea of the real identities/sypathies/ideologies of the people who are dying.
The chance aspect of it is weird too -- one story that sticks in my mind was a Hong Kong woman who had the same Chinese name as me (that's why I remember the story), who woke up on the morning of 9/11 with a migraine, so she didn't go to work. That weird stroke of fate probably saved her.
But, most of us are way more likely do die in a car accident than in a terrorist attack, unless we're in a particularly vulnerable position. (For interesting reading about fear mongering and the news media, check out Barry Glassners "The Culture of Fear" if you get a chance. It's a really important book, and if the name sounds familiar, it's because Glassner was interviewed in "Bowling for Columbine.") |
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