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> (expecting wellfare money probably) instead of fighting for their own country for better tomorrow Hacker News: Taking armchair coaching to a whole new level.

by jahnu 11y ago

> (expecting wellfare money probably) instead of fighting for their own country for better tomorrow Hacker News: Taking armchair coaching to a whole new level. Sometimes I despair at the lack of empathy that is possible.

tdkl 11y ago
I'll add armchair coaching from someone in a small EU country which still has its language because his both grandfathers didn't bail and ran away, for which I'm forever grateful of the responsibility they took.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- wfn 11y ago
  Whatever one's musings on the status and the notion of ethnic states etc., I don't think the situation is comparable. In my (our?) case (Baltic states), there was (more of) a concrete "bad Other", whereas in Syria a proxy war (or an array thereof) is taking place. One can perceive it as multiple groups of interest fighting, with the backing of multiple actors (and the background struggle of the extent of those actors and their backing is what might determine the outcome, if any). It is easier to grok a meaningful armed struggle (which one may partake in, hypothetically) - after all, it is tangible and concrete, and there's always a bad side (isn't there), etc.; but in the completely messed up state of affairs that people in Syria find themselves in, one can't but deduce that they are in a war zone with no certain optimal equilibrium which one can attempt to bring the future to. And that is really a different picture altogether, I would think.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
bsg75 11y ago
From the article: > He arrived in Belgium with this in mind: “I was expecting them to give me a house, a good job, so I could have a better life. This is what I was dreaming about.” It's hard to emphasize with someone expecting handouts, vs those who are fleeing true horrors.
- icebraining 11y ago
  Versus? Why do you think the two are incompatible? This is a guy who has lost three brothers, amidst a civil war that still has been killing more than a thousand of civilians per month. How much horror do you need to empathize?
  - bsg75 11y ago
    Because having not received what he wanted, this man wants to return to Iraq of his own accord.
    - icebraining 11y ago
      There were some fish, still alive, who were being cooked in a frying pan in boiling oil. One of the fish said, "Brothers, let us flee from this place, so that we will not perish." Then they all at the same time jumped out of the frying pan and fell into the burning coals. Stricken thus by even greater pain than before, they cursed the plan they had adopted, and said, "By how much more terrible a death are we now going to die." -- Laurentius Abstemius
      - bsg75 11y ago
        Finland does not exactly fit either of Bevilaqua's examples there.
        icebraining 11y ago
        Not for you and me, but this man prefers to live in Iraq than in Finland. After all, you and I are not expected to have people dressed as the KKK throwing rocks at us: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/finland/11890584/Finnish-government-condemns-racist-attack-on-refugees-in-Lahti.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/finland/118...

by jahnu 11y ago

tdkl 11y ago

I'll add armchair coaching from someone in a small EU country which still has its language because his both grandfathers didn't bail and ran away, for which I'm forever grateful of the responsibility they took.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
wfn 11y ago
Whatever one's musings on the status and the notion of ethnic states etc., I don't think the situation is comparable. In my (our?) case (Baltic states), there was (more of) a concrete "bad Other", whereas in Syria a proxy war (or an array thereof) is taking place. One can perceive it as multiple groups of interest fighting, with the backing of multiple actors (and the background struggle of the extent of those actors and their backing is what might determine the outcome, if any). It is easier to grok a meaningful armed struggle (which one may partake in, hypothetically) - after all, it is tangible and concrete, and there's always a bad side (isn't there), etc.; but in the completely messed up state of affairs that people in Syria find themselves in, one can't but deduce that they are in a war zone with no certain optimal equilibrium which one can attempt to bring the future to. And that is really a different picture altogether, I would think.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

bsg75 11y ago

From the article: > He arrived in Belgium with this in mind: “I was expecting them to give me a house, a good job, so I could have a better life. This is what I was dreaming about.” It's hard to emphasize with someone expecting handouts, vs those who are fleeing true horrors.

icebraining 11y ago
Versus? Why do you think the two are incompatible? This is a guy who has lost three brothers, amidst a civil war that still has been killing more than a thousand of civilians per month. How much horror do you need to empathize?
- bsg75 11y ago
  Because having not received what he wanted, this man wants to return to Iraq of his own accord.
  - icebraining 11y ago
    There were some fish, still alive, who were being cooked in a frying pan in boiling oil. One of the fish said, "Brothers, let us flee from this place, so that we will not perish." Then they all at the same time jumped out of the frying pan and fell into the burning coals. Stricken thus by even greater pain than before, they cursed the plan they had adopted, and said, "By how much more terrible a death are we now going to die." -- Laurentius Abstemius
    - bsg75 11y ago
      Finland does not exactly fit either of Bevilaqua's examples there.
      - icebraining 11y ago
        Not for you and me, but this man prefers to live in Iraq than in Finland. After all, you and I are not expected to have people dressed as the KKK throwing rocks at us: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/finland/11890584/Finnish-government-condemns-racist-attack-on-refugees-in-Lahti.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/finland/118...