(no subject)

[raybear]

The hysteria around "Somail pirates" has never sat well with me, but I never knew concretely why. Luckily, fightingwords is on my friends page and posts things to help clarify.

Comments

i just posted this on your friends LJ when i meant to reply to you.

[blasfemmey.livejournal.com]

i am so glad i read this again. i am so frustrated with the whole thing. as i am driving to work, listening to our local dance/gay radio station, greg the gay sports caster repeatedly says: i usually dont condone killing people, but KILL THE PIRATES.

he said this over and over and again and it reminded me of why i stopped listening to this radio station after the inaug. all he did was talk about how fat aretha was.

but i digress. i am going to share this article with everyone i know.

Re: i just posted this on your friends LJ when i meant to reply to you.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

people can be so hateful and short-sighted and ignorant and mean, all for the supposed sake of being cool, clever, pithy. i need to take a break from the internet today though, because my reaction all day has "stop being stupid and mean because i want to scream in your face and stab you in the eyeball so hard" and that is not exactly healthy either!!

but i do kinda want to stab that DJ in the eyeball for you, too.

[switch-beat.livejournal.com]

yes! resources of the people are being stolen and
their shorelines are being grossly polluted.
european and western companies need to stop dumping
nuclear toxic waste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTxJLlQCe4U

[sebastian6.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm not getting it completely. I'll admit that. But, are you saying that because their country is being raped by other nations, that it's slightly less terrifying and evil that they took this captain hostage at gunpoint?

Again, I'm just asking.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

No, Gerry, I'm providing context for the whole history of violence that is happening in that region, perpetuated by both sides, but instigated by western nations. A wife shooting her husband in the head is awful, but it also means something different when it turns out he's been abusing her. Also, because this current hostage incident is not isolated, the drum-beating of fear around somali pirates amidst western media has been happening for years.

And frankly, my feelings are hurt that you asked the question in this away, with the assumption that I somehow don't value all human life.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

this article has more info too: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE53B20A20090413?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10112&sp=true

[sebastian6.livejournal.com]

I apologize. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or suggest you were an apologist for any of the brutalities. I guess my question revolves around the outrage that seemed to be happening in the post you pointed to- that saying "Somali pirate" was somehow an epithet and not simply what they are. But I think what I understand now is that the reason for the article is to provide larger context for the entire affair. Again, I'm probably reading too far or not enough into the context of the argument. I haven't really been myself lately.

Again, no judgement is meant and I apologize.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

thanks, i know you meant no disrespect in you question. (i myself have been admittedly a little sensitive in the past week too.) i haven't even read the comments in the post, my intent was just to draw attention to the news article, or even just the excerpt fightingwords posted. and when i put "Somali pirate" in quotes, it was more to indicate that there isn't one neat and easy definition of that category, that it's actually a complicated issue.

[sebastian6.livejournal.com]

Gotcha.