Well, it was pretty damn lazy for the OP not to, or rather, it was pretty damn typical of him. He’s not unique, though, there have been plenty of OPs in the Pit along the lines of “Hey, looka this!” as though the board members were a bunch of trained seals, eager to do tricks in response to a blown whistle.
No, you tool. Big, fundamental stuff about what is going on in the world. I’m not even that familiar with the situation myself but I do at least generally know that Tamil is a race of people - 74 million according to Wikipedia - not “some kind of animal” - and that there’s been a severe amount of terrorism in Sri Lanka for more than thirty years. I’m sure you and the others know lots about Iraq and Afghanistan. Why didn’t the people I’m criticising know about the biggest insurgent situation in the world prior to US invasions?
Lack of basic world knowledge like this, and the fact that people like you don’t seem to think such ignorance is something to be ashamed of, disturbs me greatly.
Well someone needs to tell George Clooney and all of these groups trying to raise awareness of the situation that they can relax. Apparently everyone knows about this already.
And incidentally, jjimm, maybe things are different in jolly old England, but here in the U.S. stories like this seem to get buried on page 20 of the newspapers. If I polled the 100 or so people here in my office I’d be shocked to find 20 that know anything about this situation. Is that a good thing? Of course not. But I’m not going to be ashamed that I don’t know about everything you consider to be basic world knowledge. I try to read and educate myself whenever I can (which is what I did this morning after the OP was posted), but we can only learn so much.
Whoops, I wrote that response in shifts (damn job interfereing again), and didn’t make it very clear. The first part is responding to jjimm’s ridiculous assertion that everyone knows about Darfur. The second is a response to his ridiculous assertion that everyone knows about the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
WildfireMM**, knock it off with the drive-by OPs. If you’re too lazy or too dumb to write a proper OP, don’t.
I’d normally close the thread, but since several other posters went to the trouble to write intelligent posts on the topic in spite of your shitty OP, I’ll leave it open.
Oooooooh, that’s it, now you’ve done it!
You’re on his list as the single worst mod of the 20th century.
Wildfire is lucky manhattan is no longer a mod. **manhattan ** would have chewed him up and spit him out, then kicked his puppy…and that’s if he was in a good mood.
jjimm, the level of international reporting in the UK far exceeds what we get here in the US. Plus, we can’t rely on our education system to provide us with recent history - textbooks are still catching up to the Vietnam War. The BBC covers this better than any US news agency, where a viewer would be unlikely to hear about a country called Sri Lanka more than once per calendar season.
Americans who wish to stay informed about world affairs have to actively search out that information. It is sadly too easy to be underinformed about any global situation where we aren’t flexing our muscles (and misinformed about situations where we are).
Tamil Tigers (allegedly) arrested in Winnipeg!
They’re not just in Sri Lanka anymore. 
I think I am going to stop posting… that link refers to arrests in the Greater Toronto Area, but I do remember hearing radio reports about Tamil Tigers soliciting in Winnipeg. My Google-fu of “Winnipeg Tamil Arrest” brought me that link and I didn’t read through to verify. Sorry folks
How long is that fucking century going to go on for? 
For every item you think is basic and fundamental, I’m sure there is information you aren’t aware of but someone else knows and to them it’s basic and fundamental. Pretty tough to figure out what exactly is in the “basic and fundamental” set for all people. I suspect it would be a truly small set of information.
Anyone else click the link and find themselves wondering “What the fuck, the Symbionese Liberation Army is back in action!??”
(Horrible pix and horrible political/military practices etc)
I think you probably need a nice piping hot mug of shut the fuck up.
So fucking what, someone didn’t know about something that at least in some parts of the world is almost never reported on or spoken about on a day-to-day basis if at all. Europe and the UK particularly has always had a greater interest in affairs relating to the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka. However, in the United States I can safely say the Sri Lankan civil war got absolutely no play whatsoever in the media prior to 2001 or since 2001. If it’s basic world knowledge it’s something that you should hear about without having to actually dig into several sub-levels of a news website to learn about.
If it wasn’t for the fact I read the Christian Science Monitor I don’t think I would know anything about the Sri Lankan civil war, and that isn’t a paper read by most Americans nor do most other papers report things in a similar manner.
I removed Wildfire**MM’s link as the pictures were very graphic and potentially disturbing. The direct link violates our two-click rule.
In addition, I am closing this thread. Wildfire**MM, this is a formal warning. You have been asked several times to stop posting threads consisting of no real content, as well as to stop being a general idiot, neither of which you have done. A link does not constitute enough to start a thread. You will cease from posting this type of thread, or you will cease posting.
For those of you who wish to discuss or debate this issue, you are welcome to open a new thread.