Quote: Chappers @ 24th March 2016, 7:17 PM GMT

I never saw that either. But for a tremendously gifted footballer - the best of his generation - he was a heavy smoker.

RIP Johann.

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I don't think he was a heavy smoker as he wouldn't have been as fit and as good as he was.

I had the "honour" of stopping a ball he kicked at goal (missing of course) when he was playing for Barcelona and I happened to be sitting on the grass at the side of the goal as an "assistant" to a press photographer. I could see the ball coming straight for me and put my foot up to stop it - boy did that sting!

Yes, RIP

If we beat Holland next week Johann will be turning in his grave

Turning

Get it?

Turning ...

oh f**k off that's funny

He was indeed a great player, clever and technically brilliant but as good as Best? No way! What is this automatic belief that anything European must be better than British? Show the footage and put the goal stats up of Best v Cruyff, there's only one winner.

Trump: "Only I can destroy Islamic State".

We're ALL doomed.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 26th March 2016, 2:58 AM GMT

He was indeed a great player, clever and technically brilliant but as good as Best? No way! What is this automatic belief that anything European must be better than British? Show the footage and put the goal stats up of Best v Cruyff, there's only one winner.

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Best was past his - um - best by the time Cruyff was running the World but never got to win the World Cup.

Apparently the Grauniad had a big picture celebrating his life - but unfortunately it was Rob Rensenbrink (number 15).

At least 29 people have been killed in a suicide attack in a crowded park in the Iraqi city of Iskandariya, officials have said.
The bomber detonated the explosives at the end of a football match, wounding more than 60 others, according to police and medical sources.
Iskandariya is a mainly Shia town 40km (25 miles) south of the capital, Baghdad.
So-called Islamic State (IS) said it carried out the attack.

Did I miss the minutes silence and the 24hr live coverage on Sky news or a stream of world leaders coming out to condemn the terrorists in defiance ?

Oh no, sorry, they aren't white Europeans

Silly me

Never mind ...

Quote: lofthouse @ 26th March 2016, 11:09 PM GMT

At least 29 people have been killed in a suicide attack in a crowded park in the Iraqi city of Iskandariya,

Did I miss the minutes silence and the 24hr live coverage on Sky news or a stream of world leaders coming out to condemn the terrorists in defiance ?

Oh no, sorry, they aren't white Europeans

Silly me

Never mind ...

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I remember being bewildered as a little kid when some major event was on the news involving loss of life, and at the end, the newsreader would state how many britons were involved. I didn't understand because it totally felt like they meant the others didn't really matter at all, but all I ever thought about any other country's indigenous population was that they had a different culture, wore different clothes and I would like to visit some day on a holiday.

They taught me nothing about current politics and religion of different cultures in school - we learn about all of that from the news. Is really sad when a story like this is no longer shocking (though still barbaric) as we have come to expect it as commonplace, but most concerning is that while potential ISIS terrorists are being brainwashed into believing they will be doing good and going straight to paradise, we are also being brainwashed (or desensitised) to a degree regarding certain cultures and how they are perceived given confusion as a result, and the way they report on the news does not help.

We need to start seeing that no-one chooses to be born, or where - and the only real difference between any of us, by nature, is geography. All the other nonsense such as culture is by nurture, or learned - and unfortunately, some who are born into don't have the choice unless they run from it.

Quote: fopdoodle @ 27th March 2016, 11:05 AM BST

I remember being bewildered as a little kid when some major event was on the news involving loss of life, and at the end, the newsreader would state how many britons were involved. I didn't understand because it totally felt like they meant the others didn't really matter at all

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Yes. I hate that.

To be fair - couldn't it be that as Britains watching the broadcast may possibly have friends or relatives in that region so it just reassures those British viewers that said friend and relatives are safe and well ?

Quote: lofthouse @ 27th March 2016, 12:42 PM BST

To be fair - couldn't it be that as Britains watching the broadcast may possibly have friends or relatives in that region so it just reassures those British viewers that said friend and relatives are safe and well ?

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I'd agree with that. And it's human nature to be more concerned about things that happen near you. At the time of the Dunblane massacre I was on the phone to my husband the minute I heard about it on some news, because one of his work colleagues (he and his wife, co-incidentally had been a couple of years behind me in school) lived in Dunblane and his nephew was in the school. While I feel sad for all those school children regularly massacred in the US, they don't touch me in the way Dunblane did. Maybe I'm a bad person.

Quote: lofthouse @ 26th March 2016, 11:09 PM GMT

Did I miss the minutes silence and the 24hr live coverage on Sky news or a stream of world leaders coming out to condemn the terrorists in defiance ?

Oh no, sorry, they aren't white Europeans

View original

There was plenty of coverage, but not to the extent of the Belgian bombings -- and for good reason. It took place far away in a country where such atrocities are, unfortunately, daily occurrences. That reduces its newsworthiness for viewers in distant locations. A lot of things happen in a lot of places, but a news organization has finite resources and must trim their reports to include only stories that their viewers/readers feel are important.

A suicide bombing in Tokyo = huge news story around the world.
A suicide bombing in Pakistan = a brief blurb anywhere outside of Pakistan.

A gang-related shooting in the UK = a big news story in the UK.
A gang-related shooting in the U.S. = little coverage outside the local area.

Quote: lofthouse @ 26th March 2016, 11:09 PM GMT

At least 29 people have been killed in a suicide attack in a crowded park in the Iraqi city of Iskandariya, officials have said.
The bomber detonated the explosives at the end of a football match, wounding more than 60 others, according to police and medical sources.
Iskandariya is a mainly Shia town 40km (25 miles) south of the capital, Baghdad.
So-called Islamic State (IS) said it carried out the attack.

Did I miss the minutes silence and the 24hr live coverage on Sky news or a stream of world leaders coming out to condemn the terrorists in defiance ?

Oh no, sorry, they aren't white Europeans

Silly me

Never mind ...

View original

The news focuses on the unusual and surprising.

People blowing themselves up in the Middle East is about as much news as Tory politicians being shits, or rain getting you wet.

I blame the humus, angers up the blood.

And the lack of booze and female nudity.

Lahore - terrible, terrible and all in the name of religion.

Apparently it was a playground with slides and such like that was targetted.

I'm not sure how you ever deal with that sort of mindset.

29 children amongst the dead - words fail me.