Hi all

I'm so upset at what is going on right now in France, to be honest I almost cried when I heard the news on the radio about the Charlie hebdo drama (I was listening to the french radio when it happened).

How do you feel about these events?

I'm in England at the moment and no one seemed to care

I'm so sad and angry

Perhaps you could clarify.
Are you so sad and angry about the events in Paris or that no one seemed to care in the UK?
Can we assume that the title "disgusted" refers to the same point as the "sad and angry"?

Ah sorry if my post was not clear.

Just sad and angry that these events happen and that France has enemies within its own country.

Yeah disgusted, sad, angry, upset... but perhaps that's cause I grew up with the cartoons of these artists so it's even harder for me to accept that they are now dead.

It's also hard to see how the people in France react, especially people saying things such as 'they deserved it'.

There are some problems in this country !

I'll be honest. I am not sure what you exactly mean by your posts.

Are you suggesting that the population of the UK does not care about the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack ? As that does not seem to be the case from what I am reading and hearing.

Or are you saying you are disgusted, sad , angry and upset that yet another terrorist attack has happened .

I'm sorry if you have been on the receiving end of an unwanted and thoughtless comment from someone you personally know though, if that is what has happened. If that is the case, then simply walk away and not give attention .

Je suis Charlie

I for one have been too gutted to mention the massacre on the forum.
Having lived in France for so long, I, too, was "brought up" with the cartoonists' works, and knowing them and what they represent makes it even more shocking than the earlier terrorist attacks when the victims were anonymous.
I don't know where you heard the "they deserved it", but it certainly doesn't represent the thoughts of the French people.

I'm really not sure where you're coming from on this babyposer.

Like dmu I was hoping this subject would not make it onto the forum as I think most of us are just too upset to deal with it very well at the moment.

As far as I can tell this event has generated an overwhelming solidarity with France in general and Charlie Hebdo in particular. If anyone has told you they deserved it then I would imagine they would have to be supporters of Islamic extremists themselves.

The one question I would ask is if we haven't created the means through social media such as FB, Twitter etc for these people to organise themselves and radicalise others. We have allowed a huge, lawless community to develop under the flag of freedom and it is being used to attack our free society.

I think there is an argument for creating some kind of traceability of social media participants in the same way as is happening for mobile phones in most countries. Everyone needs to be held responsible and accountable in some way for his/her actions.

Rant over.

People tend to be less emotionally connected with what is going in other countries unless it has some direct link to them

It has become the sad reality of our time that some disillusioned individuals are easily turned to a bitter path of hatred and just about every country has a underground community of radicals.

It was clear from the outset these individuals had some form of training and I think the last stand in the forest may well be organised if they haven't already left in another direction.

One of the biggest issues here is that lots of agencies around the world have confirmed intel about individuals that have been radicalised but sit and do nothing with the hope of linking together the whole cell and covert agencies are spread very thin at the moment.

I simply can't agree about the 'no-one seems to care' comment about the UK, for one thing it has been the lead story on all BBC news bulleteins since it happened, and there is great solidarity here with the people of Paris and what has happened. Yesterday when there was the minutes silence in France UK journalists all came outside their buildings and stood for that time specifically in solidarity with French colleagues.

The NUJ sent an email to all its members asking them to observe the silence.
As others have said I think decent people everywhere feel very deeply about this. But ranting on a forum about how upset 'I' am would IMHO seem to trivialise it. How I feel, doesn't matter. And I recognise that I don't have anything original to say or, sadly, anything constructive to suggest.

Perhaps a bit harsh ET.
Different people have different ways of dealing with tragedy/trauma and different ways of expressing it.

We are a long way from Paris but when we went into town today every single shop window had a "Je suis Charlie" poster in the window, including the halal butcher.

On the other hand I heard a French person on the radio this morning saying that because they defamed the prophet they did deserve it and remarking that Christians would never have received such disrespect. Shows just how much ignorance exsists because the same magazine has had a pop at just about everything and everybody including the pope.

I wonder if anyone heard the clip from Nick Clegg who was angered by someone who had similar views and included a go at Nigel Farage who said something equally crass yesterday.
Nick Clegg 'dismayed' at Nigel Farage blaming 'gross policy of multiculturalism' for Charlie Hebdo attacks - People - News - The Independent

I am in the UK and my experience is that people in the UK care deeply about the tragedy and the on-going situation.
We all recognise that this is not just a situation that affects France and everyone is very worried that reprisals will happen elsewhere.

I am watching the ongoing situation on the BBC news channel at the moment as I have a very personal interest, outside of the general. My daughter travelled to Paris on Eurostar yesterday. She had planned to go for a long weekend as a birthday treat and to meet up with a friend who lives there. She did consider cancelling but decided that the high police presence would alert incidents quickly and also as an illustrator she felt some solidarity. As a resident of London she felt that she ran the risk of terrorist incidents just as highly at home.

Hopefully the situations ongoing today will be resolved without any more bloodshed.

We must also be aware that 2000 innocent people were slaughtered in Nigeria yesterday with very little coverage on the news.

I shouldn't have mentioned the reactions (or rather the apparent absence of reactions) of British people I work with, I was just the upset person Wednesday and felt like I was the only one so touched, but it's true that people are not as touched when it does not happen close to them (which is normal).

Anyways, I feel relieved that it's over... I hope the government will do something about this situation.

"I hope the government will do something about this situation. "


Any ideas ?

Who says its over - the 2 situations may have ended but everyone needs to be vigilant as there will be more terrorist actions.

Also don't forget the wife of the 3rd terrorist who they believe helped at the Supermarket and has gone AWOL.