Posted on 12/28/2004 9:44:55 AM PST by alnitak
really? and you know this how?
The morose Jacques Derrida used to talk about travelling since he travelled a lot and was a professional thinker. He pointed out that when going on a journey or voyage the odds were significant that one and ones travelling companions might die on the journey and that one might choose his travelling companions as to whether he might not mind being buried with them.
Thank you for making this observation about Kohl's rescue. I was thinking to myself about how much of a waste Kohl's personal airlift was. What do you suppose President Bush would have done? I would hope he would have tried to direct some of the rescues himself.
Well, there seems to be a lot of gloating around here that some Europeans have died. I hope I will have the good manners to refrain from doing the same when we hear about the American tourists who, no doubt, have likewise perished.
Incidentally, if 1500 Swedes are dead then that makes it a far larger disaster for them, relatively speaking, than 9/11 was for you.
Umm.... Did you pull this out of your ass, or what?
Just to be clear, it is not in fact a global catastophe, unless we have redefined global catastrophe to mean anything that is so bad that the whole world should feel "at one" over it as opposed to a catastrophe that actually happens on a global scale.
well, a lot of people from a lot of different countries died, that kind of makes it global, doesn't it?
Just as it wasn't only Americans that died on 9/11.
Come hell or high water, oh wait...
Well, the catasrophe itself was local. I would say that it would be a global catastrophe if the tsunami hit around the world.
exactly.
A homo metaphor?
Not everyone vacationing on Asian beaches is a sex tourist. I have a cousin who spent considerable time in Sri Lanka. He is a professional whale watcher, which believe me is a very competitive occupation to get into. He sailed there on a 35-foot sailboat. (He has been dismasted twice, in rollovers during storms.)
I have other inlaws who have been to Thailand and Cambodia on shoestring budgets.
Helmut Kohl was one of the good guys as a politician. You can't blame him because he's an Important Man for whom rescue planes are sent. He got to be an Important Man completely legitimately.
When he says he'll remain there on vacation, I take that as solidarity with his Asian hosts. What do you think this quake will do to their tourist business? There are plenty of legitimate entrepreneurs running beach hotels there, I'm sure, and plenty of poor Asians who rely on tourists for jobs. They've suffered enough, without losing their livelihoods as well.
Thanks.
Ping to the Swedish Ping List.
Exactly. Amazing how FR posters always ascribe the worst motives to people. Granted, years of reading about the Clintons on these pages make one jaded, but still... ;)
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