9/3/2003: Indian bridge collapse
 

http://cellar.org/2003/indiabridgeout.jpg

It's not all that spectacular, when it comes to bridge collapses - but it's a tough thing to have happen to your infrastructure. In this collapse which happened last week, a lot of children died because a school bus was crossing at the time. According to the BBC, locals said the bridge was one-way only and in a "state of disrepair for some years". Yah, I think so.

That's a disgrace. India should be taking care of their infrastructure. Instead of spending a fortune on increasing military strength and nuclear weapons, they should be taking care of bridges, healthcare and the poor. Like we do.:rolleyes:

That's sad those poor kids had to die from authorities mistakes by not repairing the bridge or doing something about it earlier. Why don't sad and horrible things ever happen to people who F*#k up these things in the first place.
i.e. Why does nothing bad ever happen to Judges who let rapists and other bad people off early from their jail terms???? :confused:

     Well Leah, to answer your questions in order: Because the people that should do something know how bad the whatever, in this case a bridge, is and stay away from it. The Judges live in well patrolled neighborhoods with big locks and expensive security systems. In essense, the answer to both questions is that these people know the risks to the general public they cause and protect themselves from it. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but that's my take on it.
     By the by, if the people that didn't do anything about the bridge would have been the only ones on it, would it have been sad and horrible?

So true Whit, so true.
If the people who ignored the bridge were the only ones injured or killed then they would have got their "just deserts".

Maybe it was their children. Then it's just a tragic desserts. (1s is desert, like the Sahara). Or perhaps a tragedy of justice.

Quzah.

Oops, a slip of my S's
:D

     Nah, that's would still be a tragedy, plain and simple Quzah. No kid deserves to die 'cause his or her parent is an asshole, it's just not their fault.

Far be it from me to correct anyone's spelling. The only reason I remember that is because of some thing I heard years ago:

"There is one S in desert, and dessert has two. You can remember, because there's always room for seconds of dessert."

Or something to that effect.

Quzah.

Why is a tradgedy when it's a child? What does it matter if you've lived five years or fifty? A loss of life is a loss of life. Personally it has no effect on me either way. Just posing the question.

Quzah.

Long ago, I created the Twomey Corollary to the Roman Catholic Catechism. Simply put, it says "God loves irony. When He was handing out stuff for people to be patron saints of, He came across irony and said 'Know what? I'm gonna hang onto this one.'" This would just be one more proof of an already well-established Corollary. :cool:

As a typically jaded adult I'm always trying to rekindle my innocence vicariously. Kids and puppy dogs can facilitate this.
Everyone else can go fall off a bridge.

      Let me clarify. The reason I said that is that in this example the kid's death is more or less punishment for the parents actions. The kid did nothing to warrant it his/her self and thus the death is tragic. What's more, if it's a young kid and the kid did do something wrong it probably lacked the facilities to fully understand the ramifications of it's actions, and thus is still a tragic death.
      As to the question, I differ from Novice a bit. I don't try to "rekindle my innocence." Instead I value the potential for it's own sake. Kids, any kid, has a much greater potential of experiences than an adult. We've already experienced so much of life, and if we choose to think it through, even understand a great deal of it. Kids haven't and at young ages, can't. But they will. I feel awe when considering this. What's more, I like kids because of it. I don't much care about adults, save for the ones my life has brought me into contact with, and I have chosen to like.
      Also, I have strong parental instincts, if that is because of the reason above or vice versa I'm not sure. Put simply, I care more about kids at an instinctive level. That's a good enough reason to me.

I was getting ready to post something to this effect, but realized my buddy Quzah beat me to it. It kinda irks me when the nightly news emphasizes that "Oh no what a tragedy, 2 kids were killed", like who cares that 500 adults died too. The only other thing I have to add is...Too bad you weren't on that bridge, Quzah. Definately no tragedy there. Oh, and one more thing, only one "d" in tragedy:p

      Okay, Bugz. Now that we've established that you were going to ask the same thing as Quzah perhaps you'd like to take part in this discussion and respond to something that was said since then. There are, in fact, three posts to choose from.
      What's that? No, you'd much rather just attack Quzah, who was having a reasonable conversation with the rest of us? Well gee, thanks for taking the time to add something worthwhile to the thread.
      Now that I'm done with the sarcasm, would you please try again without the attack?