Happy New Year

Trying to tidy up this blog a bit to start the new year. There is a tonne of interesting stuff to read through and catch up on, the current news and reviews, the updates on Jack Idema. Not sure where to start.

In the US the news broke that the miners trapped underground in Virginia didnt in fact make it when it was mistakenly first thought that they had. The overwhelming reaction to this now is angry blame over the 'mishandling' of information. I cant imagine how they (or the families in Germany) must be feeling having lost loved ones in such tragic circumstances - the horrible wait that ensues with a rescue operation (My heart goes out to them). I expect it is the awful wait that has pushed fraying emotions to the limit.

To me the fight that resulted on release of the tragic news is raw grief manifesting as anger after days of waiting for what was always going to be bad news. From what I can make out the information wasnt circulated deliberately at all, it was overheard and misinterpreted by onlookers. These werent deliberate 'lies' intended to cause great elation and then sudden crushing grief.

The main focus in the era we live in is on how information is circulated. Particularly to the media. There is no room for error. Thinking back to Stockwell it was the same 'we were lied to' first (with never ever ANY sign of any anger directed towards the July 22 suspects at all).

The net result is an unforgiving bitter resentment and anger that is more all consuming than the tragedy iteself and causes more uproar and more head scratching. This is a modern way to handle grief that suits the media entirely and perpertuates a tragedy for the wrong reasons.