Sri Lanka's killing Fields
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truthseeker
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It should be available on the 4oD website - Irish viewers can watch stuff on this (not like BBC iplayer).
I watched some but not all of it.
It was horrific..
The only thing I can say is that having seen how those people were treated I must act,and do something..
There is no point in watching such horrific footage just for the sake of it,I think if you view it ,its imperative to help in anyway you can.But that's just me..
I remember someone on my Facebook page put up a video (mobile phone) of men having their throats slashed,it was the most awful thing I've ever seen until last night.
I can only hope that this program me was aired for non voyeuristic reasons and that the hope is that it will highlight the atrocity's happening.
I think that showing such horrific stuff will get people to pay attention and something may be done.My other half disagrees and said for him it would be enough to hear about it ..
It was horrific..
The only thing I can say is that having seen how those people were treated I must act,and do something..
There is no point in watching such horrific footage just for the sake of it,I think if you view it ,its imperative to help in anyway you can.But that's just me..
I remember someone on my Facebook page put up a video (mobile phone) of men having their throats slashed,it was the most awful thing I've ever seen until last night.
I can only hope that this program me was aired for non voyeuristic reasons and that the hope is that it will highlight the atrocity's happening.
I think that showing such horrific stuff will get people to pay attention and something may be done.My other half disagrees and said for him it would be enough to hear about it ..
The same thing happens many times every year. Most of the time there is little or no reporting of it. If you have an interest in such things and are aware of what’s going on around the world then it is necessary to remain hardened to it or the sheer volume and intensity of the human suffering will overwhelm you.
Off the top of my head ongoing conflicts that kill hundreds and in some cases thousands of civilians each year include;
Darfur
Somalia
Iraq
Pakistan (north west)
Afghanistan
Mexico (their drug war kills over 10’000 per year)
The LRA in Uganda/ Central African Republic/Congo.
Chechnya/Dagestan/Ingushetia
The Naxalites uprising in India (the longest continuously running conflict in the world)
We can now add to that;
Syria
Libya
Yemen
Iran(?)
And don’t forget that the lid could blow off Cashmere at any time.
The Congo could also degenerate back into war (the one that just ended was the bloodiest anywhere in the world since the Second World War).
Many of the above feature the sort of violence seen last night on Channel 4. What happened in Congo and Rwanda before it makes what happened in Sri Lanka look like a minor spat at a Sunday School picnic.
Will anything be done about it? No.
Will it happen again? Yes, or course it will.
Why? Because nobody cares enough (me included).
Off the top of my head ongoing conflicts that kill hundreds and in some cases thousands of civilians each year include;
Darfur
Somalia
Iraq
Pakistan (north west)
Afghanistan
Mexico (their drug war kills over 10’000 per year)
The LRA in Uganda/ Central African Republic/Congo.
Chechnya/Dagestan/Ingushetia
The Naxalites uprising in India (the longest continuously running conflict in the world)
We can now add to that;
Syria
Libya
Yemen
Iran(?)
And don’t forget that the lid could blow off Cashmere at any time.
The Congo could also degenerate back into war (the one that just ended was the bloodiest anywhere in the world since the Second World War).
Many of the above feature the sort of violence seen last night on Channel 4. What happened in Congo and Rwanda before it makes what happened in Sri Lanka look like a minor spat at a Sunday School picnic.
Will anything be done about it? No.
Will it happen again? Yes, or course it will.
Why? Because nobody cares enough (me included).
Apologies for a small hijack Purple. Truthseeker I tried to watch this yesterday after Purple's original post. I tried u tube and it told me I couldn't watch it due to copyright issues. Today I can watch it on 4od? Anyone know why this is?
Back on topic, I watched Al Jazeera's coverage on Syria which included a scene of soldiers ( like abu ghraib) viciously kicking the daylights out of prisioners and then posing for a group photo. I find this level of human brutality depressing. Cormac McCarthy (author of The Road) talks about human violence in "Blood Meridian":
" (And)... is the race of man not more predacious yet? The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night. ...and do you not think this will happen again? And again. With other people, and with other people's sons."
As I say, depressing.
truthseeker
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Ive seen this before with 4oD stuff - I think they only allow viewing from their own website.
I read your post the other day, and was quite despondant afterwards.
I have thought about it,and in particular your last few lines quoted above.
While you may well be correct,I would say that there are still some people who do care,some people who are willing do something about it ..I may well have rose tinted glasses on here,but I live in hope that small steps are being taken to try to improve the lives of others.
I remember some years ago when Pat Kenny had a piece on the late late about Africa, it really affected me,and it was a coincidence that someone from Trocarie called to my door the very next day and asked about signing up for a direct debit to them, which we did and have done so for many years now..I suppose my hope is that others are so affected by what they see that they also do something.
Ok, its a tiny thing to do,but I could not enjoy any aspect of my life without somehow helping in some small way,(of course that doesnt let me off the hook,there is a lot more I should do)..
Hopefully a lot of others did the same,and some small progress is being made.
Otherwise it really is each man for himself..
One candle in the dark sort of thing..
Ceist Beag
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Was it coincidence, or was it meant to be?
Ok so I've just finished reading The Celestine Prophecy and might have bought into the whole idea!On the point about watching these type of show and feeling compelled to doing something about it, what exactly can we here in Ireland do to stop killings in Sri Lanka? I'm not saying that in a derogatory way, more just that I can't see any direct channel for someone here to do anything about things like this. Donating to charity is an easy way to help those in need of clothing, food, aid, etc. but how exactly could we go about stopping groups killing people? I haven't seen this show so might not have the correct context here.
Sad but true and I can't say I'd feel any different. One the one hand it's horrific, but it's so far removed from my life and my concerns that it's effect are softened or temporary. I can lessen the guilt by donating to some fund, but I know that's pretty much as effective as windscreen wipers on a submarine, but it'll help me sleep at night, so I'll do it.
And the other point is just how many of these attrocities have their roots in tinkering with various regimes by well meaning developed nations anyway?
Why was the "West" so slow to react to Rwanda? Why is still not possible to get it classified as a genocide? Because the "West's" hands are dirty, they empowered and triggered the whole thing.
For as long as man values creed, race, family tree, gender, defined geographical borders and power above anything else, we will always have these attrocities. Nothing, no matter how well meaning, we do will stop that or prevent it. No matter how many Conventions, International Laws or Internal Courts we establish will prevent them. When we do interfere, we make things worse.
Sometimes you have to accept when you're beaten.
Kofi Annan was head of peacekeeping at the time and as he is a Francophile Egyptian and the French were up to their armpits in blood supporting the genocidal Hutu regime he did everything he could to undermine the UNIFOR peacekeepers in Rwanda and keep the Security Council from calling it Genocide.
Therefore the simple answer to your question is "France and the UN".
Instead of being tried as a facilitator of genocide Annan was promoted to Secretary General for his efforts.
The UN is a sick joke yet we in Ireland still fawn after it. We are happy for two police states (China and Russia) to dictate if and when we can deploy our troops overseas and we criticise democracies for acting without permission from these countries, countries who imprison and kill their own people without recourse to open trial or even the rule of law.
What can we in Ireland do? We can take out head out of out backside and realise who the good guys are.
Ceist Beag
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Playing devils advocate here Purple, but say we do that, then what?
Then we stop being hypocrites. We stop pretending that we are somehow unconnected with any of this. At some stage in the future our national dialogue will move beyond that of a bunch of half cut pseudo-liberal first years after a student union meeting.
Every country acts in its national interest. We do the same though some of us pretend otherwise.
There are good guys; they are the countries that do least harm relative the their economic and military power.
Given the big players on the world stage I’m glad that America still carries the biggest stick. They have abused their power less than any other dominant power over the last 1000 years. They still have blood on their hands but they do more good than harm.
So that's how we define the good guys? You are a good guy if you only kill 10 people but you could have killed 100 if you really tried
They are the guys who abuse their power least in pursuit of their national interests.
Ceist Beag
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That's a little bit too Save the Worldy for me Purple! Personally I don't feel in the slightest bit hypocritical by not knowing (or caring) who the good/bad guys are in Sri Lanka. To be perfectly honest I couldn't give a sh1t what goes on over there. Maybe I'm a bit self centered but I'm quite content to live with that! Now if I were someone with an interest it politics or getting involved in something that could actually affect change in Sri Lanka then I might take more of an interest in these things.
It was a general point, not specifically about Sri Lanka.
and USA, and UK and so on and so on, all have Rwandan blood on their hands.
I don't know who the good guys are, because at one point the Taliban were the good guys, so was Bin Laden. As Sunny said there are no good guys.
The USA doesn't get involved unless it serves their interests and they control NATO. Bosnia could have been stopped much earlier and without the attrocities, but the US didn't want to get involved (there was no pay off for them), but Europe couldn't react without a NATO agreement. So we had to sit by and watch genocide while Tony Blair had to beg Clinton to overrule his senior military team.
No good guys, just misplaced good intentions from states who got their genocidal ethnic cleansing phases over and done with a century or less past, most of which just hand power over to the next genocidal maniac.
It's fatalism, but we can never really solve or prevent these situations. Our involvement will only every cause equal or worse unintentional consequences.
The one guaranteed thing all governments, democtratic and dictated know is that for all their military and police might, it is tiny in comparisson to the overall population. And if they stand up in unison, no political power can stop them.
The west and its enemies has tried to fuel these, arm these, mobilise these and it has always come back to bite them, it has always led to further attrocities.