I refuse to make any jokes about burning issues (incidentally last night I
was watching the Alan Parker film 'Mississippi Burning', where burning
people out is used as a means of primitive 'terrorism' by members of a
dominant group against individuals - mostly - of a minority.) I do share the
unease at the current employment of the word 'terrorism'. As Terry Jones
says, how do you declare war on an abstract noun?
I don't think the kids in Burnley Wood are pyromaniacs, I think they're
bored, destructive, fascinated, deprived, corrupted and only too willing to
do something to cause trouble, especially for adults. Fire is ambiguous, as
Alison pointed out parklands need fire to regenerate (I seem to recall that
in Yellowstone Park the policy is to now to allow fires to take root
naturally). One of the most shocking things I saw about the NSW bushfires
was a report which showed a fire engine which had been vandalised and robbed
while its crew were fighting the blaze. I'd suspect that's very much akin
the kind of behaviour that happens in Burnley (recall that the town was on
the foci of the recent riots in the North here, which to a certain post
forwarded here was a sign of a 'Muslim threat'. Needless to say, the kids
are all white. The problem doesn't exist in the town's Asian areas.)
My sympathies, Josephine, on the distress the destruction of so much
woodland and animal life, and a gentle reminder that seeing Aids in Africa
as an example of 'Mother Nature's wisdom', as you recently said, is perhaps
easier done when seen on tv and far away and involving those and that which
one has no care for.
Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Leicester, England
Home Page
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