That was the first line of an email from a reader. He or she then directed me to this:
After outlining a current conspiracy theory about the tsunami mysteriously sparing the US base in Diego Garcia, the BBC article says:
Is America a power for good or ill in the world? Was there a malign hand at work, or has America’s role in the crisis in fact been a model of humanitarian leadership.
Let us know what you think. Is this just anti-US sentiment on the web or something more worrying?
You can read and send us your views from this page.
Contemptible. And now a public service announcement: have you remembered to pay your licence fee? This webpage will enable you to give £121 to the BBC, as you are legally obliged to do, with the minimum of inconvenience. Avoid any unpleasantness by paying now. Remember that the BBC relies on its “unique system of funding” in order to fulfil its vision of becoming “the most creative, trusted organisation in the world.” Come to think of it, why not pay twice? Then perhaps the the BBC might favour us with yet more internet conspiracy theories presented as neutral topics for discussion. I don’t think we’ve had the 4,000 Israelis or Operation Monarch yet.
The published comments were a mixture. There were some sceptical voices, but the usual run of earnest semi-literate cultists also jumped in. David Moore asks:
“Could it have been an attempt by the Neo-Conservative Christian Right to let set off an atom bomb, in order, to open the gates of hell and put out the flames with the water.”
Own up. Which one of you was it?
You’re the one who is name-calling with your constant references to Guardian party circuit etc etc. I don’t really know what you’re on about there. I’m just an ordinary Jo and don’t live in London.
But let me get this straight. you don’t care about the Diego Garcians because the Americans/UK are involved. But the Sudanese make your heart bleed because they have been displaced by Islamists.
I think both are terrible, would not defend either one and have read reports on both on the BBC, more on the Sudanese as it is a much bigger population.
Well said Susan for an articulate destruction of lefty bias. As always with the left they can give it but cannot take it.
Laura could please give a reponse to Pete’s question –
What’s ‘right wing’ about what the fella in Ethiopia posted?
I am quite sorry for the Diego Garcians, actually. Have been for years, although on the world historical scale of man’s inhumanity to man their sufferings scarcely register. But why, if we are going to talk about the wrongs perpetrated on persons living or once living in a geographical area currently in the news, does it always have to be ones some English-speaking people did some wrong to? Take Sumatra, for instance. The Malays were pretty horrible to the Batak people, basically forcing them off all the good land into the jungle. That never seems to come up. And what about the victims of Batak cannibalism (presumably other Bataks) Doesn’t anybody CARE?
If only Robert Frist were to post here, my that would be fun. What do you make of him Laura?
Read Frisk natch
I belong to the special operations organization responsible for navigating hurricanes, tornados, tidal waves and tsunamis. I take my mini sub to 15,000 feet on the sea bottom, put on my wet suit and shake the sea bottom. I get back in the sub to navigate the tsunami,
“The plight of the Diego Garcians is indeed tragic and unjust, but the subject in hand is the BBC’s assumption that their viewers want nothing more than the opportunity to indulge in a bit of yank bashing.”
Now this is the part I don’t understand; first the British import these people, (willingly or unwillingly?) to work their plantations, then they expell them to rent the islands to the US – and somehow this is *our* fault??
BTW the plight of the Garcians differs from that of the Sudanese in one very important detail; the Garcians are still alive – many, many Sudanese aren’t.
Well put, Rox.
Just thought you readers might be interested in some Diego facts
http://www.mydiegogarcia.com/
“British officials say it, (repatriating the Diego-Garcians) would mean a huge financial commitment, as there’s no infrastructure, no fresh water and no shipping links.”
I don’t see why. I mean obviously these things didn’t exist before the Islanders were removed and apparently they were quite happy with that as they want so badly to go back. But how does one have Coconut plantations without fresh water??
Mind you just dumping them on the dock in Mauritius and the Seychelles was a bit stiff. Would it have cost all that much to furnish some kind of temporary housing for five hundred or so people and make an effort to find them jobs?
And what’s this about ‘slave’ plantations in the 1970s? I thought the British Empire outlawed slavery in the early 19th century?
Re: comment on Have Your Say. It is pretty reactionary to expect to be able to rape your wife. Not very feminist or progressive. Or am I missing something.
A previous poster said only leftwing “moonbat” comments got onto Have Your Say. I said I didn’t believe this to be true, on women’s issues for example. I could post more examples.
Susan, please do not be so quick to take offence over robust debate, as you are very good at dishing it out. I am not screeching, in fact, typing quite calmly and quietly.
Natalie Solent: “I am quite sorry for the Diego Garcians, actually. Have been for years, although on the world historical scale of man’s inhumanity to man their sufferings scarcely register”
Oh please – in that case, the outrage of the Biased-BBC massive doesn’t even register as a teensy pin-prick in the backside of history.
I just loved that comment by laura earlier in which she said that people on the right are not very nice to their fellow human beings..LOL!!!!!
For sheer laughable babytalk that is damned hard to beat!!!
Many people on the left aren`t interested in making peoples lives better….what they are really about is making THEMSELVES feel especially good, portraying themselves as good moral people and if you disagree with them then you must be a bad person…its the politics of the playground and most will probably grow out of it.
“Re: comment on Have Your Say. It is pretty reactionary to expect to be able to rape your wife. Not very feminist or progressive. Or am I missing something.”
You’re missing something. As I read it the man is arguing that if a woman doesn’t want sex with a man she’s married to she should divorce him. He also expresses a legitimate concern about false and malicious accusations.
I know the party line is ‘women don’t lie’ but come on Laura, we know some women do lie – maliciously and criminally.
No, this man is saying that he doesn’t see the point in marriage if a husband can be accused of rape. Read his comment again.
Do you seriously want to return to the days when a man could force his wife to have sex against her will just because they were married.
That means your estranged husband could beat you up and rape you as many times as he liked and you could report him for the physical attack but not the rape. That’s how it used to be in Britain until about 12 years ago.
You really believe that, unless you have a “health-related problem” you cannot say no to your husband, even once, or if you do, you have to divorce him? I hope no thinking man or woman would want marriage to mean that.
I would turn his comment on its head and say “I don’t really understand the meaning of being married if my husband is allowed to rape me. What if he forces himself on me willingly just to harm me.”
Laura, England.
and I don’t really see what the fact that someone lie has to do with rape being a crime within marriage or not. Unless you are seriously arguing that because “some women lie” no woman should be able to report a rape by her husband. This is from the dark ages.
sorry last comment should say – and I don’t really see what the fact that some women lie has to do with rape being a crime within marriage or not.
The problem with marital rape is of course proof; a classic he says/she says unless of course there is evidence of physical force being used – which of course would cover the ‘estranged husband’ problem. A case of a husband and wife living together would be much more difficult.
I realize men’s rights are not important to Liberals but frivolous and malicious charges by women against husbands and boyfriends, child abuse is a favorite here in the states, are a serious problem – not least because of the doubt they cast upon genuine accusations.
BTW I think the Ethiopian man’s point was that a woman married to a man was normally willing to have sex with him – not that husbands had the right to rape their wives but that they wouldn’t have to. A naive attitude perhaps but not a criminal one.
Sorry to keep belaboring this point but: “I don’t really understand the meaning of being married if my wife has to take me to court accusing me of raping her.” could be read as meaning a husband *wouldn’t* rape his wife not that he has a right to.
Our correspondent writes ‘has to’ take him to court – suggesting that in his concept of marriage a wife would never be given cause to make such an accusation.
Of course given that English is clearly not the man’s first language it is possible he has not done his thinking full credit in this letter. However it doesn’t seem to me he is arguing in favor of marital rape – but questioning it’s existence.
And another apology for the double post.
I went to a website titled http://www.mydiegogarcia.com. It had a link to this DG Naval News report. The BBC has apparently distinguished itself again in terms of lazy journalism:
Diego Garcia Personnel Safe, Facilities Intact Following Tsunami
Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory • Navy personnel on board Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean are safe following the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that had devastating effects on Southeast Asia. Facilities and operations were not affected.
Favorable ocean topography minimized the tsunami’s impact on the atoll. Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Archipelago, situated on the southernmost part of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge. To the east lies the Chagos Trench, a 400 mile long, underwater canyon that ranges in depth from less than 1,00 meters below the surface to depths that plunge to over 5,000 meters. It is one of the deepest regions of the Indian Ocean.
Diego Garcia is located to the west of Cha
Here is the full final paragraph:
Diego Garcia is located to the west of Chagos Trench, which runs north and south. The depth of the Chagos Trench and grade to the shores does not allow for tsunamis to build before passing the atoll. The result of the earthquake was seen as a tidal surge estimated at six feet.