340 killed in inferno (Customers locked into burning supermarket)

Evening Standard ^ | 2 August 2004 | Chris Millar

[we_will_prevail]

"Think of the kind of greed that would make a man lock the doors in a fire to keep people from paying. Just think about that for a minute."

I wonder if he offers "double coupons" (sarcasm).

[we_will_prevail]

"Juan Pio Paiva, owner of the Ycua Bolanos supermarket, speaks on a mobile phone as he watches his building customers and building on fire."

Reuters can never get it right.

[Ichneumon]

Think of the kind of greed that would make a man lock the doors in a fire to keep people from paying. Just think about that for a minute.

The article is ambiguously written -- it's not clear whether the owner locked the doors after the fire started, or had locked the doors during regular business (unlocking the doors to let in/out customers as necessary), and then a fire broke out while the doors were locked. Remember that some jewelry stores, etc., keep their doors locked and then "buzz" customers in and out, to make robberies more difficult.

[Cacique]

ping

[conservator]

Now I have a question people. The owner's lack of compassion caused the terrible deaths. it's a great tragedy. No-one can deny that.

Now is this where we as Republicans concede defeat to the left and say regulation on businesses to prevent this sort of thing is a good thing? Or do we go with the "Invisible Hand" theory and just assume that all such businesses that practice thus will be rooted by their own efforts..such as in this fire?

After a tragedy is it hands on or still hands off? Please reply with comments. Furthermore are we being "shock and awed" right now into the wrong conclusion (regulation) based on what happened or are we instead being woken up to the grim reaity that regulation is a good thing? Let me know.

[quant5]

AMEN & AMEN

[Koblenz]

We should send a bunch of our trial lawyers to Uraguay.

This accident happened in Paraguay. Even though it sounds like Uruguay, there's a big difference. Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in South America; Uruguay is probably the wealthiest.

[Clemenza]

This accident happened in Paraguay. Even though it sounds like Uruguay, there's a big difference. Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in South America; Uruguay is probably the wealthiest.

Since you brought up the "Eastern Republic," Uruguay also has the dubious distinction of having the first national Welfare State in the Western Hemisphere, thanks to Batlle Y Ordonez.

[lavrenti]

Which, shortly afterward, Uruguay transformed into a economic basket case, fraught with social unrest and political terrorism, by the late 1960s.

Even Argentinans laugh at Uruguayans. That's rather pathetic.

[Clemenza]

Which, shortly afterward, Uruguay transformed into a economic basket case, fraught with social unrest and political terrorism, by the late 1960s.

Speaking of which, one of the advisors on my Master's Thesis was an ex-Tupamaro.

[lavrenti]

LOL, in my leftist days I was influenced by Donald C. Hodges/ work on Abraham Gullien. Thank goodness my friends and I never got beyond beer blast blather.

Remember the Argentine Trotskyist terror group influenced by UFOlogy? What an amazing but brutally tragic time. Hard to believe it actually happened. Mass insanity on the part of the "intelligensia".

[Maven]

OMG - that's awful. She must have felt badly - that eternal question, why is one spared and others lost?

Actually, I have no idea how she felt about it - but I'll ask my mother next time I talk to her. It may be she never spoke about it - something I've found not to be uncommon among the oldest members of my family. A great-uncle who served in the European theater of WWII, who found out his entire family had been murdered by the Nazis, but who has never talked about it. My paternal grandmother's first husband was, uh, a gangster (mentioned by name in the book "Gangs of New York"), but she never, ever, ever talked about that - not even 60+ years later.

Did you know your g-grandmother? I only knew one of mine, she lived to age 97.

No, I didn't get to know her personally, as she passed away when I was six months old. There is a well known family photograph of her holding me, with my mother and grandmother standing behind her - we call it the "Four Generations Photo."

What I know of her came from my parents. She was apparently an incredibly sweet natured lady who loved everyone - my father says she was the only in-law he truly loved, which was borne out by the fact that she was known as "Honey," even though her real name was Clara. My mother told me that when she was a little girl, she wanted Easter eggs one year, despite being raised as an observant Jew. My grandmother told her it was impossible, but my great-grandmother, who was very devout, said that if her darling granddaughter wanted Easter eggs, she would make them - and she did! She dyed them using vegetables - spinach, beets and onion skins, so the eggs would still be kosher.

My other great-grandparents were dead before I was born, which is why I'm named after two of them (it's an Ashkenazic Jewish tradition to name children after deceased family members). I was named after Honey's husband and my father's paternal grandfather (which is odd when you think about it because I'm a female!).

Maven

[Cacique]

Interesting. That is a rather esoteric reading of a book and out of the meainstream even on the left. Abraham Guillem and the Anarco Marixst movement could be counted on the fingers of one hand. They were not even taken seriously by Trotskyites and that is saying a lot.

I probably have the only other copy he ever sold.

[lavrenti]

Guillen had a cult following among some of the Latin leftie exiles in Austin. There were a lot of odd writers whose books circulated around. Juan Bosch's book Pentagonism, Sandino's weirdness (including Hodges' book), CLR James. Raya Dunyaskavya. Karl Korsch. I guess when everyone else fails, go run to the ones no one liked.

Then I realized all this was bs and become a right winger.

[Cacique]

I am also just curious why the screenname of Beria's first name? Is it because he poisoned Stalin?

[lavrenti]

Partly that, as well as the other actions that led to his execution. He was a monster, that cannot be denied, however.

Also wanted to reclaim the name for some sense of small goodness. I always thought it sounded cool.

[AnAmericanMother]

There's a judge here in town who's named after her uncle, and my great-aunt, a posthumous child, was named after her late father. His name was Jackson Edward - her mother (the great grandmother that I knew) did compromise on Jackson Eddiebeall (her mother's name was Beall). . . < eek >. She was known as "Mama Jack" to all and sundry. When we had a family reunion at the house she grew up in in Eufaula AL, we were exploring the house and up in the cupola found her name scrawled in a childish hand on the plaster. Kinda neat . . .

My dad didn't start talking about his combat in WWII until rather recently. And my husband's grandfather made illegal hooch on the grand scale in his attic in New Jersey for many years - my aunt-in-law has always been completely silent on that topic - even when they brought the enormous copper stills down from the attic and sold them for scrap!

That's a sweet story about the Easter eggs (it was originally a pagan custom anyhow - but so long as they were kosher . . . :-D ) She does sound like a lovely lady.