ARe we a nation of withering wimps ?

[percy toboggan]

I refer you to my avatar, and the sentiment therein.

Watching those news reports of tearful children and mothers outside a Devon school made me ponder the above question.

I wondered how they might react if they 'd just been told a hundred Heinkels were heading for Plymouth, and Torbay?

The alarmist nonsense around this whole pig-flu thing is illustrative of the way so many are quick to 'lose it'

The media can hardly contain their eagerness to use the word 'Pandemic' to head up their bulletins. Only Mexicans are dying - others are having coughs ,sneezes and fairly mild symptoms. If this doesn't burn itself out soon then pigs will fly. At the same time they will probably copulate with the birds and produce deadly H5N1 pig / bird flu in an armageddon like scenario to take revenge for millions of bacon butties and chicken tikkas (whatever they are)

Personally I'd sooner be faced with a hundred snot laden flying pigs than the Luftwaffe in it's heyday.

What a load of premature panic.
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON !

(If I'm wrong I'll probably fill my handkerchief and ache for a day or three. Nothing new there)

[Mister Squiggle]

"You took the words right out of my mouth" Percy!

I think the real pandemic we are facing is the usual one of incessant media chatter and wrap-around, 24 hours a day coverage in which the reporters and directors have to seize upon every morsel to ratchet up the interest, fear levels and ratings. As FDR said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror".


I understand why those parents outside that school were so upset - they've been saturated with images, panic-filled headlines and wildly emotive news for the last few days. Its the way in which we can so easily descend into a climate of panic and fear that worries me, rather than any virus.

I had the misfortune to get stuck in public place the other day where Sky "News" was being broadcast. After 2 hours of waiting, I'd heard the same story (face masks, level 4 rating by WHO, antiviral stocks blah blah blah) approximately 20 odd times. If I'd had earplugs, I would have rammed'em in - it was like a piece of absurdist theatre where the characters are just wittering on and repeating themselves to no real point. No wonder people are freaking out.

Its hard to see the wood for the trees, but I really think we'd all feel a lot better if we turned off the tellies, ignored the lurid headlines in the papers and went outside and made the most of the (albeit brief) sunshine here in Caithness.

[northener]

Alas, we are in the minority I fear.

Although there certainly is the potential for Something Nasty to erupt, it has yet to reach that point.

However, if you do not devote every waking minute to fear, alarm and endless wittering about the latest threat to the whole of Humankind you will be seen as nothing more than an insensitive, ill-informed and heartless oaf.
Mass hand-wringing and bursting into tears at the least little thing is, I believe, the only way to show any reaction to problems around the Globe that is officially sanctioned by the media.

Those who choose to carry on with their lives whilst keeping a weather eye on the latest developments (and, quelle horreur, making light of this porcine plague) are to be despised for either lack of humanity, lack of understanding or lack of a television.

I must go, I have some photographs of pigs in one of my cooking books that must be taken out and burnt........

[balto]

your are so right percy, folk panic over the slightest thing, unfortunatly whatever happens we cant prevent, life is to short for this, and as we are all going to die from swine flu[lol] we should make the most of the time we all have left, its been nice knowing you all lol,[lol]

[dragonfly]

agree with you Percy, we are turning into a nation that is being wrapped in cotton wool. Many folk will take to their beds for simple things like headaches rather than take a tablet and get on with it.

I couldn't beleive someone actually phoned into GMTV this morning and asked if she should keep her children off school until swine flu was eradicated :eek: - lets all start building our sterile, air conditioned panic rooms now so as we can survive the onslaught of swine flu!

[balto]

agree with you Percy, we are turning into a nation that is being wrapped in cotton wool. Many folk will take to their beds for simple things like headaches rather than take a tablet and get on with it.

I couldn't beleive someone actually phoned into GMTV this morning and asked if she should keep her children off school until swine flu was eradicated :eek: - lets all start building our sterile, air conditioned panic rooms now so as we can survive the onslaught of swine flu!
mayby we should build a bunker where we can hid when it hits so we will be safe lol.[lol]

[sevenfortyseven]

you can't blame a mum for wanting to protect her kids! after all influenza seems to affect childeren and the elderly worse than adults. i have noticed a lot of scaremongering in the media however.

[squidge]

I absolutely agree wth you percy. keep calm and carry on sounds like good advice. I will just wait and not worry unless i have to. The only thing i would change is I wouldnt be going to mexico if i had booked it. Other than that i shan't be rushing out to buy facemasks or ordering antiviral stuff off the internet.

[kmahon2001]

"You took the words right out of my mouth" Percy!

I think the real pandemic we are facing is the usual one of incessant media chatter and wrap-around, 24 hours a day coverage in which the reporters and directors have to seize upon every morsel to ratchet up the interest, fear levels and ratings. As FDR said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror".


I understand why those parents outside that school were so upset - they've been saturated with images, panic-filled headlines and wildly emotive news for the last few days. Its the way in which we can so easily descend into a climate of panic and fear that worries me, rather than any virus.

I had the misfortune to get stuck in public place the other day where Sky "News" was being broadcast. After 2 hours of waiting, I'd heard the same story (face masks, level 4 rating by WHO, antiviral stocks blah blah blah) approximately 20 odd times. If I'd had earplugs, I would have rammed'em in - it was like a piece of absurdist theatre where the characters are just wittering on and repeating themselves to no real point. No wonder people are freaking out.

Its hard to see the wood for the trees, but I really think we'd all feel a lot better if we turned off the tellies, ignored the lurid headlines in the papers and went outside and made the most of the (albeit brief) sunshine here in Caithness.

I totally agree. The 24 hour news channels seem to go from one thing to the next, over dramatising and exaggerating the story until it causes total panic, all to try to justify the need for round the clock news.

I felt so sorry for the young school girl in Devon who was crying because she said she was scared she was going to catch swine flu. How irresponsible of the news channels to whip up such fear that a little girl is terrified that she is going to catch flu and die, when all she should have on her mind is enjoying her childhood. :mad:

I have decided to boycott all the 24 hour news channels. I now watch STV news at 6pm followed by the ITN news at 6:30 and that is all I watch. You still get the inevitable scare mongering and exaggeration, but at least they only have 30 minutes to report the news and so can't afford to go on too much about any one item in particular.

[percy toboggan]

Beats me why anyone would want to go to Mexico in the first place to be honest.
Cancun is the tourists favourite...apparently.

It's a country over run by drug lords and the main pre-occupation of most of the people is to escape to America. Much of it is third world, but if Brits want to spend their tourist dollar gaining an unrealistic, distorted view in some neon infested glitzy playground resort just because it's within budget, the sea is warmish and you can probably get pie and chips along with the highly spiced local muck then good luck to 'em.

To come back here in infection mode is not good enough though and we should convert a few desolate ex-military establishments to house 'em for a few weeks. They can stroll around in their multi coloured t.shirts and shorts exchanging notes on Mexican culture. Plant a few mock cacti to make 'em feel abroad still.

Maybe we could employ a few Gurkhas to guard 'em - find summat useful for them to do in their dotage. A motto above the gates 'The First of the Flu'

[lister]

I agree with all posts here.
We should think like long ago as to how the government would have explained to us what was happening and what was relevant to us,no need for panic.
We should boycot the media until we get the message across that its us who watch and read the media and its us who pay for this and there wages,what if we withdrew our interest and money and had a far more relaxed view on life and all its woes would they get the message and go bust(hopefully).
So sick of the media or as i like to call it The Speculation service.

[joxville]

A lion, a bear and a pig are sitting discussing how tough they are. The lion says "When I roar the whole jungle shakes". The bear says " When I roar the whole forest shakes". "So what", says the pig, "when I sneeze the whole world craps itself". [lol]

[scrumpysteve]

The media can hardly contain their eagerness to use the word 'Pandemic' to head up their bulletins.
Totally agree with all you say Percy. Should we really be calling it a pandemic. Surely 'epigdemic' would be better? :lol:

[kmahon2001]

So sick of the media or as i like to call it The Speculation service.

I have said for years that the news services, both TV and newspapers, speculate on what they think is going to happen rather than reporting what has actually happened. The good old days of news broadcasts when they reported on actual events are sadly long gone. Now they speculate about what they think is going to happen and go on and on about it until they actually make it happen.

And when they're not speculating, then they're analysing what has happened and giving you their opinion of what has happened; i.e. whether it is a good thing or not, whether it will work or not, etc, etc - as if these journalists are experts in the relevant field. The number of times I've seen a news presenter in the studio go to some bit of a kid of a journalist out on the streets and asked them what they think of, for example, some new policy decision of the Government's, or whether it is ok for Prince Charles to marry Camilla, is the campaign in Iraq or Afghanistan working and should we be there or not, or whether the swine flu "pandemic" is serious blah, blah, blah. Why do we need to know a journalist's opinion? It would be more to the point if you had a professor of political studies, an economist, a doctor or any relevant expert standing in front of the camera - then these types of questions would be more appropriate, but not when they are being asked of a reporter :Razz.

I long for a return to responsible journalism where the news media kept the public informed of events without resorting to speculation, scare-mongering, over-dramatisation, and so-called in depth analysis, which is actually just another way of stirring things up to make the stories bigger and more dramatic. These journalists are too full of their own importance nowadays. They are supposed to report news not stir things up to create fear and panic, just so they can claim higher ratings. [disgust] The current media hype about the pig flu is totally irresponsible and something really should be done to stop them being able to create this kind of hysteria.

[lister]

I have said for years that the news services, both TV and newspapers, speculate on what they think is going to happen rather than reporting what has actually happened. The good old days of news broadcasts when they reported on actual events are sadly long gone. Now they speculate about what they think is going to happen and go on and on about it until they actually make it happen.

And when they're not speculating, then they're analysing what has happened and giving you their opinion of what has happened; i.e. whether it is a good thing or not, whether it will work or not, etc, etc - as if these journalists are experts in the relevant field. The number of times I've seen a news presenter in the studio go to some bit of a kid of a journalist out on the streets and asked them what they think of, for example, some new policy decision of the Government's, or whether it is ok for Prince Charles to marry Camilla, is the campaign in Iraq or Afghanistan working and should we be there or not, or whether the swine flu "pandemic" is serious blah, blah, blah. Why do we need to know a journalist's opinion? It would be more to the point if you had a professor of political studies, an economist, a doctor or any relevant expert standing in front of the camera - then these types of questions would be more appropriate, but not when they are being asked of a reporter :Razz.

I long for a return to responsible journalism where the news media kept the public informed of events without resorting to speculation, scare-mongering, over-dramatisation, and so-called in depth analysis, which is actually just another way of stirring things up to make the stories bigger and more dramatic. These journalists are too full of their own importance nowadays. They are supposed to report news not stir things up to create fear and panic, just so they can claim higher ratings. [disgust] The current media hype about the pig flu is totally irresponsible and something really should be done to stop them being able to create this kind of hysteria.

Well said .
I feel the same and this boils ma blood to type all this and not ruin ma lap tops buttons in the process,lost the f1 key already.

[Bazeye]

Pig flu, pah..........! BRING IT ON!

[MadPict]

Just for Percy...

http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/

I can see him wearing in his "Keep Calm and Carry On T-shirt", sat on his "Keep Calm and Carry On Red Deckchair", drinking his Tamiflu from his "Keep Calm and Carry On Mug" which he carries around in his "Keep Calm and Carry On Canvas Duffle Bag"....

[GetWithTheTimes]

apparently the news are making such a fuss over this pig flu in attempt to take your attention away from the more worrying super survailance they want put in place

they are trying to pass a law that will make social networks and forums store larger amounts of data and store it all organised in one place so the government and police can sift through everyone you have e-mailed and what you have read online and also what you have ordered alot more easily

they also plan to monitor mobile phone calls and text messages

i will ask my friend for the links she read up on as she told me a while back about the fact they gonna flood the news and papers to hide the more pressing concern of invasion of privacy

fingers crossed the law does not pass as i think it is a shame the world has come to spying on its people

and as for the flu woopty doo another flu

[Kodiak]

GetWithTheTimes this is an article that you might be talking about :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8020039.stm

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

Swine flu.I like it,cos the curly tail I've grown in the back goes in symmetry with the curly tail I've got on the front.:lol::lol:

[GetWithTheTimes]

GetWithTheTimes this is an article that you might be talking about :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8020039.stm

yep thats what im talking about but it sounds worse in that article than what she told me

i think its ridiculous they watching everyone and everything pure invasion and its only gonna get worse

[balto]

A lion, a bear and a pig are sitting discussing how tough they are. The lion says "When I roar the whole jungle shakes". The bear says " When I roar the whole forest shakes". "So what", says the pig, "when I sneeze the whole world craps itself". [lol]
oh that is so funny joxs.[lol][lol]

[attielattie]

If it's worse than man-flu we're all doomed!!!!;)