At the New Year’s Eve celebrations in central London last night, they had two minutes silence for the victims of the tsunami (how does that help them?), broadcast an appeal for funds over the loudspeakers… and then set off a ten minute firework display which cost around £1,000,000 (US$2,000,000).
What’s wrong with this picture?
Still, if it means we get the Olympics I’m sure they’ll consider it money well spent.
Well for a start it’s to cure any guilt people have with wasting all our money on things like this. Plus it might make folk think about the disaster and therefore donate some money the next day.
If they remember anything from that night that is…
|two minutes silence for the victims
Some minutes of silence is an almost universal way to remember and honour the dead. No it doesn’t help the victims; how can it possibly?
The tradition of a “minute of silence” goes back to Christianity Gerv!
It’s a minute of private prayer in for the event.
Most Christian services have a few seconds for your “intentions” (most common word used… though some varience) before eucharist.
It’s a minute to pray, reflect in your own words/way.
It’s kind of ironic yous aying prayer is “counterproductive”. My jaw hit the keyboard as I read that.
The tradition goes back quite a long time. It’s found in many religions as well. Often in funeral rites there’s an observed silence for the same reason… silent prayer, reflection on the person lost.
Not everything about religion needs to be structured. Many find themselves closer to God when given the chance to pray in a way that they feel works best.
I personally wish they scaled back some of the festivities. I know many who would have appreciated something more low key in NYC this year. But then again… the show always goes on in a demonstration of the human spirit’s never ending strength.
I’m more disturbed by the President’s inauguration plans in a few weeks… a very elaborate event… while many in the US are struggling with losses from the war, economy, and now the loss of 150k+ lives.
Yet still he feels it’s necessary to have a high profile, expensive, obnoxious celebration.
I’d have more respect for him if he kept it low key.
IIRC Franklin D. Roosevelt kept a very low-key inauguration during WWII out of respect for what was going on.
The people came to the celebration to experience the fireworks. Had there been no (expensive) entertainment, there would have been no spectators, and then no one would have heard the appeal to donate money.
The fireworks were money well spent if they result in increased donations — in the eyes of both the self-interested spectators AND the tsunami victims.
I presume the real reason the display went ahead is that �1M of fireworks just isn’t returnable. They made the best of the situation and used the event to heavily promote the relief appeal.
Something tells me they would have done the fireworks regardless of wether or not they were returnable
I’d appreciate a reference for that assertion, if you have one.
The title referred to the spending of money on the fireworks, not the silence. Although I think standing in silence (as opposed to praying) for two minutes is a fairly pointless activity too. Particularly if you are an atheist and believe that this life is all there is, in which case every minute is precious ;-)
Tom and Adam: fair points, indeed. Although given that the total for the whole UK is �45M or so, I doubt that one appeal would have encouraged more than �1M in extra giving.
Gerv,
look at the history of christian liturgy… as far back as you can trace it there was a moment of silence.
– before Eucharist it’s customary to have a moment “for our own intentions”,
– In the middle ages, a knight would spend a night in the church kneeling in silence.
– Monks, and some priests have taken an oath of silence for the belief that silence gives time to reflect and pray towards god. (though others do it purely as a sacrifice).
– Customary during most funeral rights, as well as memorial services.
As far is it being pointles.. far from it.
Many religious people of all faiths use it as a time to pray.
Many who aren’t religious simply do it as a sign of respect and solidarity with those effected.
Why do you go to a funeral? The dead person doesn’t appreciate it. They don’t even know your there. But it does mean a *lot* to the family that you took the time out of your life to pay your respects.
There’s quite a bit of comfort just knowing that people took a moment to pay their respects. I know many post-9/11 who sincerely appreciated the pictures of tributes, candles, vigils, masses, posters, cards etc.
You know a person’s rebounds better in a hospital when they have visitors and recieve cards/flowers. There’s a very simple reason for that: provides willpower.
Do people not actually think about these things? There were similar calls to cancel the fireworks here in Australia.
Nothing is wrong with this picture. It is healthy to reflect upon both the good and bad things in life.
At that late stage cancelling them certainly wouldn’t have saved _any_ money, in fact it would probably cost more (not to mention leave you with an inadvisably large quantity of unexploded gunpowder).
So it went forward. And (I believe) 1.2 million dollars (AU) was raised by volunteers at various fireworks watching spots.
Cancelling the fireworks would have achieved nothing. Holding them allowed us to reflect on both the good things and bad things and make further contributions to help minimise this tragedy.
How is standing in silence opposed to praying? Any good Christian could certainly take the cue to pray for someone who deserves it. And any good atheist could certainly use the time to think about what he or she could do to help the victims of disaster. Reflecting upon what one can do to help another is certainly good use of an atheist’s precious few minutes–not to mention a Christian’s. ;-)
Robert: I still assert that the recent practice of having “a minute’s silence” at football matches, events and so on if someone important has died has travelled a long way from any Christian roots the idea may have had. For a start, the Political Correctness Police would be in uproar if they even used the ‘p’ word in announcing it.
It’s not – you’ve slightly misread me. The part in brackets merely makes the obvious point that if you were an atheist, you wouldn’t be praying.
As I said above, Paul may well be right. Cancelling the London New Year’s Fireworks probably wouldn’t have actually saved any money for tsunami relief.
But what about the more general principle? There are often-quoted statistics about foreign aid vs. spending on dog food/ice cream/whatever. Millions of people in Africa die each year through hunger and disease (far more than the 150,000 who died in the tsunami), but most of the world doesn’t give a stuff. It’s only when things get on TV (Live Aid, tsunami pictures) that people get off their arses and help. It’s as if it’s not happening unless they can see it…
Indeed. In part that is what the minute’s silence is supposed to address. The origins of the minutes silence seem to be secular in nature, though certainly not without religious overtones. It is a time for remembering those who might otherwise be forgotten.
It seems odd to suggest we don’t have these people in our thoughts enough and also criticise one of the few times we make ourselves take the time to think of them.
http://www.veteransagency.mod.uk/remembrance/remembrance_remem.htm
http://www.defence.gov.au/army/traditions/documents/Silence.htm
The �1m was probably paid well in advance. I’m willing to bet the fireworks were already bought before the tsunami hit. At that point it would only be a waste of money to cancel the pyros just so not to appear avaricious.
I wholeheartedly agree with Ian Thomas. Actually, Robert Jordan makes a nice case in his most recent book (yes, I’m still reading the series ;p) about what he thinks obligatory sacrifice of your own possessions leads to. Though a bit dramatically, and bloody :).
“Particularly if you are an atheist and believe that this life is all there is, in which case every minute is precious ;-)”
Aw come on. A moment of silence is to pay your respects, and in remembrance of the dead. Believing or not believing in any god has nothing to do with that. Even though I do not believe, I still have trouble holding my tears inside whenever I see those ripped-apart families on TV, and think of the massive amount of destroyed lives.
And no, sorry, I’m not worried about my time left. Rather, I would wonder why the almighty god let such an event happen – but never mind that.
~Grauw
In early December, i.e. just 3-4 weeks before the tsunami hit, I received a spam with a fake tsunami warning, with hyperlinks to pages at domains hugewave .org and danger-tsunami .com. These contained some generic information about tsunamis (evidently copied from some Australian government web page), and some piece of Windows malware which was the real intent of the link.
I do hope that whoever sent that out is now feeling sick.
On the off-topic topic, the two minutes of silence originated in Australia of the British Commonwealth although similar cermonies exist in other countries. This would explain why London had two minutes.
Some reading for the curious: http://www.defence.gov.au/army/traditions/documents/Silence.htm