Bits And Pieces

So, even more by way of updates. This time the canal incident and the Beep Romanian row.

Someone came through anon with a comment appended to the piece on 19 May, saying that he or she had seen the car at 6.30 in the morning sticking out of the canal and, moreover, had seen the way the police handled the episode, by essentially letting all and sundry have a good look at what was going on with the forensics. I don't know what that really tells us, but I would guess that elsewhere, let's say the UK, it might have been dealt with a tad more discreetly. Apart from the voyeuristic, the general Joe or Jose Public has no need to be presented with death and an incident of this nature in such a way.

This is the comment in full: "I saw the car sticking out of the canal at 6.30am. I couldn't believe the time it took to get that poor girl out of the canal and how laid back the police were in letting passers-by look in and witness them taking her out and doing forensic tests on her in full view of the public.. It was both shocking and very sad."

And so to the Beep story (14 May). It did occur to me that there might be something more behind that sign than a mere dislike of Romanians. But there was nothing that I read in the press other than the facts of the sign and the resultant hoo-hah. So I'm very grateful to Nicole for pointing out that the shop had had 3000 euros worth of laptop lifted by a couple of Romanians, and that they were caught on camera but had not been tracked down - yet.

Well, I can understand the store owner being somewhat annoyed. When I had the break-in and the expensive camera was lifted, I wasn't exactly overjoyed. But had the police ever discovered who did it and had that person been of eastern European origin (for sake of argument), it would not have made me harbour the view that all people from that area were burglars. The point about the sign was that, by implication, Romanians were being branded thieves or potential thieves. You cannot do that. And if you were allowed to do so, therein would lie the roots of civil disorder to say nothing of sanctioned racism.

But I am doubly grateful to Nicole as it highlights the risk that we all, myself included, take received information either of a biased or a partial nature (and by partial here I mean in the sense of being incomplete) and form a judgement that may not be accurate. We interpret that information to suit our world view, even if some of us strive for a balance rather than seeing merely black or white. But I admit that I read the story and formed a distinct impression. In fact initially I laughed as it was so preposterous, but then I could conceive of only one word - racism. I still hold with that, but to begin with I had acted without the knowledge of some background. Had the fact of the theft been reported at the time, it would not have changed that impression; indeed it may well have hardened it. At least, however, I would have been acting on complete(-ish) or verging towards complete rather than partial information. For what it's worth though, sympathetic as I am to the store-owner in terms of the theft and of his frustration, I cannot excuse him his action.

There is a whole wider issue here, and it is the fact that rarely do any of us know the full story, and yet we make conclusions, utter opinions, become dogmatic with the benefit of only bits or pieces of information or, worse, information that is flawed, prejudiced, one-sided, wrong and sometimes malicious. The sources of this partial information are clear - gossip, embellished gossip, newspapers, television, the Internet. We take this partial, biased or manipulated information because we want to, because it suits our world view, our prejudices. The McCanns were/are a classic example.

And yet, were we to stop and wish to check every bit of information, we would get nowhere. There is an inevitability about human discourse, that it is incomplete. Of course it is. But this is not to say that there shouldn't be some responsibility, and no more so than on the Internet. I can feel a very long thesis coming on, so I shall close, but you've been warned: I might just publish it here.


QUIZ
Chain - Led Zeppelin to "Stairway to Heaven" to Heaven 17 who basically were the British Electric Foundation. Simple. And so how do you get from Heaven 17 to "Papa Was A Rolling Stone"? Dead easy. Today's title - who?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)