Babyposer, in what way exactly were you touched by this and how was it closer to you than your work colleagues? Your attitude seems to be that you have some connection to this which other people don't have and feelings which other people don't share.

Although you started the thread it should not be about you and your feelings.

And finally what do you expect the government to do, what are YOU going to do? Maybe a good start would be to come to Paris tomorrow to show your solidarity.

I actually think thats one good thing about forums like BE. We can express our own feelings about an event, and others can ignore, comment, whatever without any comeback.
It can be about "you" but also about how do the rest of us feel. Thers a thread running in the Aus forum about it, most people commenting are Brits. Concerned, interested, wanting to understand why.
I have a friend in Paris, she is in shock becUse she says it was so unexpected and the cartoons are something she is very familiar with. I didn't know that before I sent her just a "hey, watching the news, bit scary" type message but she said it was great to know that people elsewhere were watching and listening and aware.
thats what I see BE as in times like this. Its somewhere for us to post a first reaction and then others can take it up if they feel so inclined. At heart it just gives us someone to talk to about it.

Our nearest town is Angouleme, which as many know is the World capital of BD and cartoons and two of the victims at Charlie Hebdo were due to be guests of honour at the upcoming Annual Festival of BD to be held in the city at the end of this month. The totally stunned atmosphere in the city was palpable, since these cartoonists have almost cult status here. (Many of the city walls of Angouleme have been decorated by students at the City's School of Graphic Arts, depicting such figures as Asterix, Gaston, and many more, google Murals of Angouleme to have a look). My own reaction is one of helpless rage/resignation/bleak despair, but I am proud to live in a country where the right of free speech and freedom of expression is held so dear by so many.
Blackie

I've just come back from a "Gathering" in front of the Town Hall of our nearest town. It was moving, with the Mayor, the town priest and the President of the local Moslem Community giving speeches. The first two were warmly applauded, and the latter would have had a standing ovation, had we not been standing already.
Solidarity and fraternity were the keywords this morning in rural Hérault....

This is unfortunately true. On the same day as the Charlie Hebdo killings, a suicide bomb killed 37 people in Yemen:

BBC News - Yemen bomb blast kills dozens near Sanaa police academy

A similar suicide bomb the week before killed 49.

Neither of these incidents received much coverage in the media.

Many of us will be old enough to have lived through The Troubles in Northern Ireland. During that time shootings similar to the Charlie Hebdo one were a common occurrence. There were of course also bombings, not just in Northern Ireland, but on the UK mainland. To be honest, I doubt if any of these atrocities had much of an affect on the population of France.

In the case of the Charlie Hebdo killings, I do think the UK population has shown a great deal of sympathy towards the French. Regrettably, I believe one of the reasons for this is out of a fear that a similar incident could happen in the UK in the future.

And of course because we also live in a country which cherishes our freedom and liberty and respects and tolerates others. We therefore also empathise with the loss of life of innocent people who were merely going about their daily lives.
Just as we expect to be able to do.

It's difficult to make comparisons when people are killed in terrorist attacks. I remember when Mountbatten was killed by the IRA and there was a similar sense of outrage. More a person is a much-loved and respected individual more we will feel outrage. I guess this is because we feel the attack more personally in this situation and perhaps feel we are, by implication, the real target. A random killing of innocent, largely unknown people doesn't really touch us in the same way. Of course, terrorists are looking to outrage because in absolute terms they can't kill as many people as they would wish.

I am in China and the Lycee Francaise here had a memorial and minute silence. On Friday I was at a bar and there were a couple of guys constantly watching the BBC live feed on their phones and many people have been talking about it. Everyone is massively shocked. The rally pictures online of the rallies are incredible. I have never seen so much solidarity like this before. It's amazing. Such a huge shame that we needed such a disgusting attack to make this happen.

I don't know where you are in the UK, but rest assured most Brits are every bit as outraged at these events as you are. France is not alone.

The slaughtering of 400 people including babies in Algeria seems to have slipped under the net. These are truly innocent people children and babies. It is terrible that 12 got shot but where is the public outcry for the poor people of Algeria. The slaughter of perhaps another 400 villagers in 24 hours puts the Algerian war on a Bosnian scale - but nothing, it seems, can match Algeria for animal savagery. The disembowelling of young women, the throat- slashing of babies, the mutilation of old men and women, the abduction into forced marriage of hundreds of young girls - all supposedly done in the name of Islam prompts an obvious question: can the Algerian war plumb further depths of horror?

Not sure if i have done it correct, it is from the intependant newspaper.
Hundreds die in Algerian slaughter - World - News - The Independent

Can you give a link for this?

It comes from here:-

Muslims Slaughter 400 People In Killing Fields And Impregnate 3000 Women - Rescue Christians

There is no independent corroboration of this report.

Hundreds die in Algerian slaughter - World - News - The Independent. An article from the independant newspaper earlier this year.

Tut tut Robert Fisk in that case.

This link appears to be to an article from 1997.