Christchurch shooting

[Ben Waterhouse]

I don't want to attack your religion. I want people to remember the way religion leads to bloodshed. Silence is complicity.

You just did attack my religion, atheism leads to much more death and bloodshed to which you are wholly complicit.

[Leon]

I don't think is the thread for a religious debate guys.

[Techno]

Absolutely right, Leon !!

Cheers - Phil.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Agreed

[GrumpyOldMan]

hello All

Don't usually comment on these types of posts but I've had close connections with Kiwis for over 40 years (and since I've got absolutely zero interest in Rugby union, always happy), it breaks my heart to see that this cancer has crept to NZ. Hopefully this can lead to sanity through the world.

Still very impressed with your PM and want to clone her and dump our wishy-washy guys.

Probably sit and reflect today.

GrumpyOldMan

[pierre the shy]

Out and about in Wellington today - the "mood" is definitely more sombre and guarded here after yesterday. Things are going to change here in response to what happened. 

My eldest son is keen to go to Canterbury Uni next year, but after yesterday I am not so sure...

Got a game tonight but checked in to make sure we're still going ahead. But we can't let events such as yesterday's dictate our lives - "keep calm and carry on"

Be good to catch up with the others as its been a week of ups and downs for me.

[barbarian]

I must say as a French, you sadly just adapt to the idea.
Just a lot more soldiers and policemen in the streets.
The trauma is real, you look around you in the most public places, but you go on with your lives. (if you don't lose someone close to you)

I guess after a while it is just like a " fact " of life : I mean plenty of people live in sismic regions and don't think everyday they might die in an earthquake.

I don't really know if it helps, probably not, but it is just an observation.

[ronan]

Horrible news.
Really horrible.

I can't say more.

[industrialtrousers]

I'm kiwi. Its been a difficult couple of days dealing with the  horror visited on the folks in CHC. Very uncharacteristic for the homeland. Sadness amplified as some folks there had arrived seeking refuge from places of violence. 

[Techno]

So very sadly predicable......

Now, some nutter's opened fire on a tram in Utrecht.

Someone who thought the Christchurch shooting was a great idea ?  ....or someone taking 'revenge'. ? 
Makes you weep !!

In Despair - Phil

[Steve J]

Yep, utter despair at present .

[Ithoriel]

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind"

[paulr]

So very sad

[FierceKitty]

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind"

Cc the human race.

[Sandinista]

It has been a little odd here in Auckland. I lived and worked in London during the IRA's campaigns of the late 80s & 90s, being evacuated more than once due to bomb scares. I thought I had become somewhat inured to it all, even when the office I worked at in Hackney received a suspect package, it seemed like nothing too unusual. But this weeks events have hit me harder than any of that ever did. Maybe because I am older, maybe it's because our little pacific bubble has been burst and were right back in the middle of the sh*t that was London. My wife's office was evacuated the other day, apparently TVNZ had received a bomb threat.
This is not the kind of society I wish to live in
"Casual racism" is a term that you hear used a lot, many people don't like the term but it is rife in New Zealand. In the press, on the radio even the Deputy PM - perhaps not so casual from him though. These events have made me think about comments you hear people make and ignore. At the last club day I was at in February, a couple of the guys made some remarks, perhaps they thought they were jokes, about "muslim bombers" as well as later referring to "lazy Maoris", the usual ignorant stereotypical comments the right wing press is full of. I chose to ignore them, I'm still relatively new at the club,I didn't want to create a scene... Not anymore, I think silence encourages ignorance, I will be challenging bigots wherever I meet them. If that causes me to lose a few "friends" then so what?
The society I want to live in is one where ignorance and bigotry do not prosper, and I will do what I can to try to achieve that.

Cheers
Ian

[Techno]

Nicely put, Ian.

You don't need friends like that anyway.

Cheers - Phil.

[FierceKitty]

We used to have a gamer at my club in Cape Town who was so racist we suspected he'd been asked to leave the KKK for his views. He was also a doddery old duffer that nobody had the heart to tell off. Awkward.

[jimduncanuk]

Who wants a bigot for a friend.

[FierceKitty]

You mean the Doctor, do you?