Nick Berg video

Don't know why... but I feel it is important to bear witness to events such as this whenever one can... even retrospectively... I feel it is a small mark of respect to directly acknowledge the enormity of what took place.

Yes, I agree. You can do this without actually viewing.

Pity they didn't capture Morrissey.

Or .... no, I'd better not...

oh no emma, you know i worship the ground you walk on dont you, i am series i love reading your pOSTS UNFORTUNETLY i am not online in the house or i would have replied to this sooner. But i do adore you and your writing. I am having such a bad time in life just now emma, i am not myself i am under so much pressure because all this court stuff trying to find a job and the rest. :) hopefully things will get better for me soon. take care

I wouldn't watch this video, for respect for the man and his family and because I can do without some images from this world being in my head thanks. When I heard this on the radio, I could only think about how terrified he must have been, and how it must be just unbearable for his family just now. Not only a horribly murdered son, but his life and death reduced to 'a click away' for anyone to witness it, online. What kind of people are we? I find it quite sick to paste that link into this forum, or to forward it on in any way. If people want to find it, they can. I also think this is nothing to do with religion, that's the easy option to repeat like some ancient record missing the point. Just like hanging 4 American burnt bodies had nothing to do with religion, like soldiers pissing or not pissing on prisoners had nothing to do with religion. none of it has anything to do with religion. Wake up and smell the crude oil.

Purple, you're talking bollocks. These religious wars have been going on since before oil was heard of. Wake up and open your eyes.

...and afterall, why should you get the monopoly on talking bollocks... All of these wars have been about power, territory, money, oil, racism, hatred, hubris, selfishness, I won't go on... but not one of them has been about religion. Open your mind, might take an extra large spanner right enough to get the bolts on your neck loosened first...

OK, you know best.

Who's Nick Berg? Don't tell me he's Ice's brother!

Well he certainly got iced. He's the poor american chappie who got beheaded by Al-Quaida.

*feels silly* I must have read his name but the horror of the crime made it insignificant. I have no desire to see violence in a fictional movie so certainly wouldn't want to see something like that. *waits to see if Mykle will start a thread condemning the barbarism, which far exceeds anything in those 'photos'*

I gave my tele & dvd away last december. I have not looked at a screen since then. I am planning not to watch tele for two years in any shape or form. Its funny, well not that funny really, but i miss the old junk box sometimes. Who the F**K is nick berg anyway ?

Oh dear, as mentioned earlier he is dead, decapitated on video, brutal, sick, consistent.

oh right have just read the full post. Didn't desreve that did he. No one does were on this planet to live feel life love and laughter. No he certainly didn't deserve that. poor git.

I just saw some blurred-out pictures on the front page of a newspaper in a school staff room, that was enough. Remember how, in times gone by, crowds would gather for a 'good hangin' ' or beheading. Those pictures reached millions. Fortunately, in the west today, the reaction of disgust and horror is the norm. not the bloodthirstiness of old. Yet, as we are fully aware, in some sections of the world community barbarism is all part and parcel of the agenda. Nick Berg is another icon of our times. My thoughts are with his family.

totally agree emma.

Good evening s_d, have you forgiven me, then? :-( *thinks of crap post ages ago*

not being one to let the sun set on angry words, I would like to apologise to missi for my coments above. I lost the rag after reading a response on the SD 'advise please' post. I don't usually let myself stoop to these levels, but looks like it's catching. I willt ake a deep breath and logoff in future. missi I apologise, in the scheme of things, not the wrost thing that could be said to or happen to you, but not civilised just the same. I regret it. rgds Hazel

You shouldn't apologise Hazel, after all, you were only a needle in the haystack. heh heh

The shirt cracked that one last week. Jeez!!

Hazy, there's no need to apologise to me or anybody else, it's what happens here. Sometimes it's me sometimes it's whoever, it's called open discussion and freedom of speech. Even Colin is allowed to wind everyone up with impunity, though he's wasting his time on me.

Yes, the pictures of his father in tears on his front lawn was heart-wrenching. Not only has his son been murdered, but any possible grandchildren too.

Ugly, violent and horrible. This link doesn't open straight to the video - but you are one click away - I don't know whether people should watch it or not. After a statement in Arabic gets read out you hear this horrible screaming before you see anything as the sound runs ahead of the picture. Then one of the men pulls out a long knife and starts sawing his neck while another sits on his back to hold him. The screams go on a long time. While he screams the killers are shouting 'Allah Akbar'. Eventually they finish sawing off his head and hold it up shouting. They then place it on his body on the orange jumpsuit. Apart from the initial horror of watching it a few minutes ago, what I feel now is that the idea that his killing was anything to do with religion - a love of god (or love of anything come to that) is just insane. How anyone could justify it or why they would want to I dont know.

i havent seen the video and couldnt possibly endure watching something like that. i read about it the next day and was horrified that something like this could happen. I just want to ask Emma.. when you say : "Fortunately, in the west today, the reaction of disgust and horror is the norm. not the bloodthirstiness of old. Yet, as we are fully aware, in some sections of the world community barbarism is all part and parcel of the agenda." ... if you're referring to this incident as being the norm in the middle east.. i really think that's an unfair generalisation. yes there are certain factions that are violent, barbaric and beneath anything that is possibly human in this part of the world.. as Nicholas Berg's murderers proved. That said.. living here in Egypt i have seen the reactions of people to his murder here in the Middle East. And it was no different from the reactions on this thread. if that's not what you meant.. then .. just ignore me :)

Ain't religion grand?

NO

Nancy, I wasn't generalising at all, in fact, what you say hopefully is the same as what I said, though perhaps better worded: 'yes there are certain factions that are violent, barbaric and beneath anything that is possibly human in this part of the world.. as Nicholas Berg's murderers proved.' I too have lived abroad, Nancy. My parents were working in South-East Asia for 15 years. I am not one to generalise. I was the only white child in a school once, and some of my best friends were Muslim or Buddhist. When I said, 'in the West' I was merely refering to the West's history of bloodthirstiness (for example in the Tudor times) and contrasting it with the present day. I wasn't implying that no part of the East, Middle or elsewhere, had not also travelled this journey into civilization.

Don't wanna watch it. Scares the crap out of me. Especially seeing as they knew exactly what they were doing, sending the video out. Moderate Iraqis may just want to be left to manage their own affairs, but it strikes me that these kind of people are gunning for a bigger, bloodier war.

just wanted to make sure is all Emma.. i just feel being in the position that i am.. an egyptian who was brought up outside of egypt and as someone who isnt muslim.. i'm always caught in the middle of the argument.. if that makes sense?

I do understand, Nancy. More than you might think. I have always felt like a permanent tourist in this mad world. However, that doesn't stretch to voyeurism with regard to beheadings. As an amateur writier, the imagination is enough for me. I don't need to be convinced an further of what humanity is capable of.

Flash, he did? Fuck. Missi, likewise.

As if