Yes, I'm *not at all surprised - who would or could be? - and it *doesn't upset me (far from it)...
...but, following New Zealand's "own 9/11", as someone (perfectly understandably) a few minutes ago so aptly described/depicted it...
...and with major connections to my own beloved hometown of Dunedin, NZ, no less...
may I simply say/express the following thoughts...as succinctly (and clearly/understandably) as I know how...
Good on our local Quakers/'Religious Society of Friends' (as the Christian sect in which I was - intermittently and rather sporadically, but let's add 'seminally' - raised/brought up, is officially/formally known)...for - alongside the local Police...who've moreover been earning special plaudits, even brownie points if you will, from one and all for the expeditious, effective and comprehensive manner in which they've dealt with and to what has been generally viewed as our biggest crisis ever - at the very least one of if not our darkest day/s ever...
...in (wo)manning the local Dunedin mosque...to protect 'parishioners' there yesterday seeking to come together to process Friday's 'event', i.e. wholescale massacre of their (one-time, now - for possibly the majority) Christchurch-based fellow worshippers...against any interlopers...and from the woman who regularly drives my Mum to and from the local (Quaker) 'Meeting House', herself involved off and on in this cordon/vigil, evidently a number of honking, or rather passing vehicles with folk shouting out, drove by...hardly an edifying prospect in the circumstances...
However, for the likes of...
#Turkey's President Erdogan to weigh in on the matter is somewhat obscene...as is
#the twitter, evidently, of one of my all-time favourite singer-songwriters...i.e. Yusuf Islam, better known as Cat Stevens...who apparently - and he's never denied doing so or resiled from the 'remark' - suggested that the well-known and ghastly (Islamic) fatwa against the British writer Salman Rushdie
...is perfectly valid...i.e. any self-respecting Muslim is quite in his or her 'rights'....to 'take him out'!
#And on that score, some of the British protesters marching over the weekend (thereabouts), I'd strongly suspect, are doubtless conspicuously and oh so conveniently silent as a woodmouse whenever it comes to expressing equally vehement sentiments vis-a-vis the bombings and cold-blooded **(group) murders of Christians (and Jews in France in particular) over recent years...mere mention (let alone significant discussion) thereof is seldom made, much less given the due attention and equal footing/condemnation these so obviously deserve/warrant...
...but (my reasonably regular sub-theme these days of) addressing media double-standards is for another day...
On the other hand, full plaudits to former Australian deputy Premier, ***Tim Fischer...for, back in 1997 or 1998, a ****short while following the Tasmanian 'Port Arthur massacre', I believe Aussie's worst ever, alongside then Prime Minister John Howard, moreover, greatly tightening their gun laws...with the incredible result that *****no such mass killings have transpired there since.
*In case of any confusion/misunderstanding, however - admittedly quite possible (upon re-reading my introduction above) - Friday's massacre/cold-blooded murder of 50 Muslims, with, thus far, 50 other fellow-believers injured, while at Friday prayers in two Christchurch mosques - was not only a literal bolt from the blue in what I and many others oftentimes have referred to as "God's Own" [nation] - if, sadly, no longer - but a 'thing' that has upset, even traumatized, kiwis in the extreme...
*For those still dissatisfied with that explanation, my lack of surprise and upset is re people veritably emerging out of the figurative woodwork to put their own oar or two cents' worth in thereabouts...
But being 'not upset', as in not distressed thereabouts, is an altogether different matter than being able to abide fools lightly or gladly...or, as the infamous CJ might have put it in that inimitable British sitcom of yesteryear, 'The Rise and Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'..."I didn't get where I am today by not knowing utter balderdash and uninformed BS when I hear it"...especially from those least - or should that be most? - qualified to give it...no indeed (thus see the various ignoramuses referred to herein.)
**By which I refer to events in Egypt and Indonesia especially, but many and various other jurisdictions could well be included...such as (northern) India and Pakistan - yes, the sheer gall of street protesting Pakistanis lecturing us kiwis about human rights and the like is somewhat rich (to greatly understate matters)...
***Full credit to RNZ National (Radio) here in New Zealand for interviewing him thereabouts (both briefly this very morning, and much more comprehensively a few years back - following yet another American shooting).
****Indeed Yours Truly happened around the selfsame time to move temporarily to Kingston/ Huonville, Tasmania...and later Pelverata, Hobart and Geeveston (while I sojourned just 13 months there all up) - curiously enough, on my previous Australian sojourn (for a year-and-a-half in Brisbane in 1990/1991), while away from home (Dunedin, God's Own)...David Gray down the bay at Aramoana likewise 'let 'er all rip' (with equally devastating consequences)...
*****Though please don't quote me on the technicalities of that claim, for I'd tend to agree with you if, in your own considered view, you seriously queried as to what actually constituted a mass killing (thus implying that even two folk thus murdered in cold blood was such), or even that there's no real qualitative - if not quantitative - difference between one person thus butchered...and a score.
Postscript [Personal Explanation]:
My own apologies are also warranted...and there's no time like the present, as they say - vis-a-vis naively being willing/prepared to give that Aussie 'nut-case' Senator Anning 'the benefit of the doubt' awhile ago...in a moment of fair gullibility on my part...though even so, I did qualify said commendation, or rather hesitant support, significantly at the time...
Suffice for now to say that his immediate response post-Friday was unbefitting - even for a politician (which is surely saying something...though, as I indicate above, a ******few true gems do emerge from that cesspit occasionally). And while I haven't an *******issue/real problem with a (physically) cornered politico responding in kind i.e. defending himself...Anning surely went to the nth degree, and then some, in trying to crack ye ole acorn with a sledgehammer...and really taking to that young 'un who had the gall - nous and aplomb rather! - to crack a couple well-aimed eggs over his head...
And good on that 'kid' for utilizing such a tactic in the best traditions of democratic protest...
******By which (whom) I refer to Tim Fischer in particular...
*******Such as Aotearoa-New Zealand's dear old Sir Robert ('Piggy') Muldoon in decades gone by.
...but, following New Zealand's "own 9/11", as someone (perfectly understandably) a few minutes ago so aptly described/depicted it...
...and with major connections to my own beloved hometown of Dunedin, NZ, no less...
may I simply say/express the following thoughts...as succinctly (and clearly/understandably) as I know how...
Good on our local Quakers/'Religious Society of Friends' (as the Christian sect in which I was - intermittently and rather sporadically, but let's add 'seminally' - raised/brought up, is officially/formally known)...for - alongside the local Police...who've moreover been earning special plaudits, even brownie points if you will, from one and all for the expeditious, effective and comprehensive manner in which they've dealt with and to what has been generally viewed as our biggest crisis ever - at the very least one of if not our darkest day/s ever...
...in (wo)manning the local Dunedin mosque...to protect 'parishioners' there yesterday seeking to come together to process Friday's 'event', i.e. wholescale massacre of their (one-time, now - for possibly the majority) Christchurch-based fellow worshippers...against any interlopers...and from the woman who regularly drives my Mum to and from the local (Quaker) 'Meeting House', herself involved off and on in this cordon/vigil, evidently a number of honking, or rather passing vehicles with folk shouting out, drove by...hardly an edifying prospect in the circumstances...
However, for the likes of...
#Turkey's President Erdogan to weigh in on the matter is somewhat obscene...as is
#the twitter, evidently, of one of my all-time favourite singer-songwriters...i.e. Yusuf Islam, better known as Cat Stevens...who apparently - and he's never denied doing so or resiled from the 'remark' - suggested that the well-known and ghastly (Islamic) fatwa against the British writer Salman Rushdie
...is perfectly valid...i.e. any self-respecting Muslim is quite in his or her 'rights'....to 'take him out'!
#And on that score, some of the British protesters marching over the weekend (thereabouts), I'd strongly suspect, are doubtless conspicuously and oh so conveniently silent as a woodmouse whenever it comes to expressing equally vehement sentiments vis-a-vis the bombings and cold-blooded **(group) murders of Christians (and Jews in France in particular) over recent years...mere mention (let alone significant discussion) thereof is seldom made, much less given the due attention and equal footing/condemnation these so obviously deserve/warrant...
...but (my reasonably regular sub-theme these days of) addressing media double-standards is for another day...
On the other hand, full plaudits to former Australian deputy Premier, ***Tim Fischer...for, back in 1997 or 1998, a ****short while following the Tasmanian 'Port Arthur massacre', I believe Aussie's worst ever, alongside then Prime Minister John Howard, moreover, greatly tightening their gun laws...with the incredible result that *****no such mass killings have transpired there since.
*In case of any confusion/misunderstanding, however - admittedly quite possible (upon re-reading my introduction above) - Friday's massacre/cold-blooded murder of 50 Muslims, with, thus far, 50 other fellow-believers injured, while at Friday prayers in two Christchurch mosques - was not only a literal bolt from the blue in what I and many others oftentimes have referred to as "God's Own" [nation] - if, sadly, no longer - but a 'thing' that has upset, even traumatized, kiwis in the extreme...
*For those still dissatisfied with that explanation, my lack of surprise and upset is re people veritably emerging out of the figurative woodwork to put their own oar or two cents' worth in thereabouts...
But being 'not upset', as in not distressed thereabouts, is an altogether different matter than being able to abide fools lightly or gladly...or, as the infamous CJ might have put it in that inimitable British sitcom of yesteryear, 'The Rise and Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'..."I didn't get where I am today by not knowing utter balderdash and uninformed BS when I hear it"...especially from those least - or should that be most? - qualified to give it...no indeed (thus see the various ignoramuses referred to herein.)
**By which I refer to events in Egypt and Indonesia especially, but many and various other jurisdictions could well be included...such as (northern) India and Pakistan - yes, the sheer gall of street protesting Pakistanis lecturing us kiwis about human rights and the like is somewhat rich (to greatly understate matters)...
***Full credit to RNZ National (Radio) here in New Zealand for interviewing him thereabouts (both briefly this very morning, and much more comprehensively a few years back - following yet another American shooting).
****Indeed Yours Truly happened around the selfsame time to move temporarily to Kingston/ Huonville, Tasmania...and later Pelverata, Hobart and Geeveston (while I sojourned just 13 months there all up) - curiously enough, on my previous Australian sojourn (for a year-and-a-half in Brisbane in 1990/1991), while away from home (Dunedin, God's Own)...David Gray down the bay at Aramoana likewise 'let 'er all rip' (with equally devastating consequences)...
*****Though please don't quote me on the technicalities of that claim, for I'd tend to agree with you if, in your own considered view, you seriously queried as to what actually constituted a mass killing (thus implying that even two folk thus murdered in cold blood was such), or even that there's no real qualitative - if not quantitative - difference between one person thus butchered...and a score.
Postscript [Personal Explanation]:
My own apologies are also warranted...and there's no time like the present, as they say - vis-a-vis naively being willing/prepared to give that Aussie 'nut-case' Senator Anning 'the benefit of the doubt' awhile ago...in a moment of fair gullibility on my part...though even so, I did qualify said commendation, or rather hesitant support, significantly at the time...
Suffice for now to say that his immediate response post-Friday was unbefitting - even for a politician (which is surely saying something...though, as I indicate above, a ******few true gems do emerge from that cesspit occasionally). And while I haven't an *******issue/real problem with a (physically) cornered politico responding in kind i.e. defending himself...Anning surely went to the nth degree, and then some, in trying to crack ye ole acorn with a sledgehammer...and really taking to that young 'un who had the gall - nous and aplomb rather! - to crack a couple well-aimed eggs over his head...
And good on that 'kid' for utilizing such a tactic in the best traditions of democratic protest...
******By which (whom) I refer to Tim Fischer in particular...
*******Such as Aotearoa-New Zealand's dear old Sir Robert ('Piggy') Muldoon in decades gone by.
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