MetaFilter posts tagged with tragedy

Violence, death, mud, insanity.

markkraft — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:43:26 -0800

Photos from the war. A slideshow of photos taken by German soldier Werner Wiehe... vermisst in Russland, 1944. (While viewing the slideshow, might I suggest playing some appropriate musical accompaniment, arranged in sequential order?!)

"Files Vanished, Young Chinese Lose the Future."

Keter — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:12:08 -0800

Imagine you're living in China, trying to work your way out of the family date farming business (which garners approximately $450 annually). You do all the right things. You apply for (and receive) Communist Party membership. You study literally to the point of collapse, and despite coming from coal-town origins, you score high on your gao kao ("high test," more-or-less the only thing that matters in getting into a Chinese university). Your already-poor family goes deep into debt to send you to college, and you even manage to come out with a degree. Classic rise-up-by-your-own-bootstraps tale, right? However, finally, when you go to apply for a job—your state-sanctioned educational, occupational, and political records are inexplicably, awfully gone. What has happened to that plain manila folder (!) that serves as your only legitimate, official history in Chinese society? Probably stolen and sold so a party official's child can get everything you worked so hard for. And then, of course, your family is detained by party officials when your parents demand to know where the hell your life went. Of course. Then again, local corruption by local officials in China isn't terribly surprising. It's had some time to evolve. This just isn't what you normally think about when you think "government corruption."

Nick Adenhart (1986-2009)

setanor — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:20:57 -0800

Four hours after his start against Oakland, his first time beginning the year with a major league team, Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed in a hit and run by a van speeding through a red light.

Colombia's Agony

jontyjago — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:27:00 -0800

In 1985, less than a week after the Palace of Justice siege in Bogota left 11 members of the Supreme Court dead, the ice-clad Nevada del Ruiz volcano erupted, wiping out the Colombian town of Armero in a huge wave of mud and water. Most links contain disturbing and NSFW images. The tragedy killed 20,000 of the town's 29,000 population, and a huge international emergency response was launched. The event is best remembered however for the image of the plight of Omayra Sanchez taken by photographer Frank Fournier. The 13 year old was trapped by debris for 60 hours up to her neck (17 seconds in) in water. Efforts were made to free her, but after nearly 3 days she died from gangrene and hypothermia.

Body of Unknown Vagrant Found in Greenwich Village -- New York -- March 30, 1968

jbickers — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:57:26 -0800

This month marks both the birth and the death of Bobby Driscoll, child star, Peter Pan, "Walt Disney's golden boy." He was penniless, drug-addled and buried in an unmarked grave by the age of 31. Some of his notable early work for Disney included Song of the South and Treasure Island. He won a special Academy Award for his performance in "The Window," a film that won the Edgar Allen Poe award in 1950. Three years later he turned in the performance that he would be best remembered for, the voice of Disney's "Peter Pan." Shortly thereafter, puberty struck, and with it a bad case of acne; Disney terminated his contract, saying he needed too much makeup, and things were never the same for Bobby. He ran afoul of the law. He started taking drugs at the age of 17; at 31, he ventured into a New York tenement and never emerged. The body was unidentifiable, and was buried in an umarked pauper's grave. Nearly two years later, his mother tried to locate him to reunite him with his dying father; it was only then that a fingerprint match told her what had become of her son.

Anthropology Goes to War, and Bad Things Happen

fourcheesemac — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:36:26 -0800

Paula Loyd, a 36 year old anthropologist and US Army reservist, is the third social scientist to be killed within the last 8 months while working for the US Army's controversial Human Terrain System project in Afghanistan. The circumstances of her death were gruesome. Her death was then brutally avenged by a fellow HTS worker and military contractor, Don Ayala, now awaiting trial for murder. HTS, has been controversial from the start (NY Times). The American Anthropological Association has opposed the project in no uncertain terms, recognizing a long history of anthropologists' complicity with military and colonial power. Loyd herself had been critical of the role of US military contractors in Afghanistan (YouTube video, 2006).

Events That Touched Our Ancestors' Lives

netbros — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:36:19 -0800

GenDisasters is a genealogy site, compiling information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents of Canada and the U.S. that our ancestors endured, as well as, information about their life and death. Search is quite extensive and navigation is broken down by disaster type, including earthquakes, hurricanes, mining explosions, and dozens of other categories. You can also choose by state within the USA, for example Arizona, or province within Canada, i.e. New Brunswick. Finally, you may also browse a timeline that begins as early as 1755 and includes information as current as the Swan's Island fire in July of this year. Members are encouraged to report and add information to the ever-growing database.

Obama's grandmother dies hours before the election

CunningLinguist — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:27:33 -0800

Obama's grandmother, the woman who raised him, dies one day before the election. Madelyn Lee Payne "Toot" Dunham, 86, died of cancer, Obama and his sister say. The timing is ridiculous. He saw her last last week, knowing she was failing. The Free Republicans are already calling for an autopsy, but I won't link to them.

Anonymous American in Rangoon

gen — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:38:33 -0800

A week in Burma after the storm is the second of two anonymous eyewitness reports at danwei.org of the impact and aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. It is the most gripping and tremendously sad report I have read yet on the human tragedy that is Nargis and the Myanmar Junta's non-response.

The monster was wailing, things were crashing on the roof, and the windows looked to break at any moment. The walls and ceilings were moist with water and part of the ceiling had even opened up to spill water below. I felt that with these winds, the whole wall and ceiling could really be peeled away at any moment. I chanced another look out my door and with the force of the winds, plus the caved-in ceiling and electrical wires, chancing an escape seemed not much better an option, especially given that I didn't even know where the emergency stair case was.

The Tragedy of Britney Spears

dhammond — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:50:49 -0800

She is intelligent enough to understand what the world wanted of her: that she was created as a virgin to be deflowered before us, for our amusement and titillation. She is not ashamed of her new persona — she wants us to know what we did to her.

Trespassed Against: Nickel Mines, One Year Later

Toekneesan — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:33:39 -0800

"My first day on the job was the Amish school shooting at Nickel Mines in Lancaster County, Pa. in October of 2006. Here is some video of what I saw that day." Raw footage from that terrible day, recently posted to YouTube. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 It's been a little over a year since a milk truck driver walked into the one room school in Nickel Mines Pennsylvania and shot ten girls, killing five, finally turning the gun on himself. Half of the seventy-five attendees at the killer's funeral were Amish and included parents of the victims. The week after it happened the community set up two funds to help the surviving families, one for the families of the girls, one for the the children of the shooter. Forgiveness is a central part of the Amish belief system, taking the sermon on the mount as Christ's direct and specific description of how to live in the world. This includes the line from the Lord's Prayer: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. Other resources: NPR on the anniversary and about a pretzel company's founders and their efforts to help. Three leading Anabaptist scholars have just published a book about the incident, Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. Excerpts from that book. The Amish FAQ page from the Young Center for Anabaptists and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. The anniversary covered by the local paper.

Why, God?

carsonb — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 07:12:11 -0800

The sad story of Sœur Sourire, the Singing Nun. The first few of these links are available courtesy of the post at I'm Learning To Share! and the rest are a YouTube roundup of photo montages with music by Jeanine Deckers:

Dominique Électronique-nique-nique music video
Shared audio of the original song Dominique (same song that autoplays on the Singing Nun the Musical History page).
Shared audio of the remix, Dominique Électronique-nique-nique.
B-side of the Dominique single, "Entre les Etoiles"
"Soeur Sourire" by 'Luc Dominique'
"Tous les chemins"
"Une Fleur"
"Les Pieds de Missionaires"
And my favorite track, "Fleur de cactus"

Kinder Surprise

KokuRyu — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:43:11 -0800

Kinder Morgan oil pipeline ruptured near Vancouver, British Columbia Thick, black oil dripped from lampposts, splattered across suburban lawns and crept into Burrard Inlet after a geyser of crude spewed from a burst Kinder Morgan pipeline Tuesday. [google news] Work crews ripped into the TransMountain pipeline about 12:30 p.m., causing the oil to "explode," as one witness put it, from the ground and burble up from manholes, pouring down streets toward the ocean, according to witnesses. Kinder Morgan bought the pipeline from a Canadian utility in 2005, and is known as a "poster child for pipeline problems." More Kinder Morgan accidents.

So Iraq is over. But Iraq has not yet begun...

y2karl — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 12:02:21 -0800

...The U.S. has probably not yet fully woken up to the appalling fact that, after a long period in which the first motto of its military was "no more Vietnams," it faces another Vietnam. There are many important differences, but the basic result is similar: The mightiest military in the world fails to achieve its strategic goals and is, in the end, politically defeated by an economically and technologically inferior adversary. Even if there are no scenes of helicopters evacuating Americans from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, there will surely be some totemic photographic image of national humiliation as the U.S. struggles to extract its troops. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have done terrible damage to the U.S. reputation for being humane; this defeat will convince more people around the world that it is not even that powerful. And Bin Laden, still alive, will claim another victory over the death-fearing weaklings of the West.

Iraq hasn't even begun (more within)

Yeah, buddy, and I'm the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire

quite unimportant — Tue, 08 May 2007 11:45:08 -0800

In 1299, Osman I declared independence from the Seljuk Empire, thus beginning the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Over the centuries, The Last Caliphate stretched from Saudi Arabia to Austria, influencing architecture , music, and possibly the most beautiful textiles of the Middle Ages. It was not to last, however. Following a century of uprisings and war, the "Sick Man of Europe" finally succumbed to Turkish Nationalism and was constitutionally abolished by the emerging Turkish state on March 3, 1924. In the intervening 83 years, so much has changed. If the Empire was reinstated today, where would you find the last remaining heir to the Sultan's throne?

Un seul de tes regards

Wolfdog — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 05:48:04 -0800

Orpheus and Eurydice, the acid-tinged, animated music video version.

RIP Larkin.

docgonzo — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:41:26 -0800

Ryan Larkin [1943-2007]

Two Heroes

theora55 — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 10:40:21 -0800

Two stories of personal heroism, with 2 sadly different results.

Game Over

y2karl — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 07:55:58 -0800

...Iraq may have started as a war of choice for the Bush administration, but it has become a war of great and unintended consequences. Immense risks lurk down every strategic road. Given the fractured state of the American body politic, it is almost certainly too late to rally the country behind an all-out war effort -- think tax increases; a war Cabinet; a full mobilization of the National Guard and the Reserves; a civilian reconstruction corps; a larger Army and Marine Corps; longer combat tours for troops; mandatory combat-zone deployments for U.S. diplomats and aid officials; a return to national service; and possibly even a limited draft. Yet absent a plan that puts the nation on either an all-out wartime footing or the firm path to retreat, the United States is largely condemned to some tweaked-around-the-edges variation of the administration's current approach on Iraq of "muddle through and hand over." And America, the experts agree, is already losing that war.

Endgame

My Quonah

feelinglistless — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 03:27:57 -0800

My Quonah. "My name is David C and I am the biggest idiot on this planet! Every girl I've ever met has done nothing except want me for what I had to offer them, the amount of cash I could throw their way and not for the person I was. One day that all changed when I meet a lady called Quonah..." Should she call him?

Here, at thy hand: be bold, and take thy stand.

Mr. Six — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:04:27 -0800

More Shakespeare than you can shake a spear at.

The Saddest Thing I Own

digaman — Wed, 03 May 2006 11:02:59 -0800

Sad -- such a sweet-looking kid, the smile on the face of a future suicide. Sad -- "If she only knew then how things would turn out…" Sad -- "I chose to kill her." Sad -- "You could see her personality break through the coma." Life is dukkha, said the Buddha -- a Pali term that means something like "suffering" or "the incapability of satisfaction." (Or as Mick Jagger put it, "I can't get no...") Here's the tangible evidence.

The Epistemologist of Despair

matteo — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 11:56:43 -0800

Drama is impossible today. I don't know of any. Drama used to be the belief in guilt, and in a higher order. This absolutely cruel didactic is impossible, unacceptable for us moderns. But melodrama has kept it. You are caged. In melodrama you have human, earthly prisons rather than godly creations. Every Greek tragedy ends with the chorus — "those are strange happenings. Those are the ways of the gods". And so it always is in melodrama.
His career as a film director lasted more than 40 years, but Douglas Sirk (1900-1987) is remembered for the melodramas he made for Universal in Hollywood between 1954 and 1959, his "divine wallow": Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956), The Tarnished Angels (1958, William Faulkner considered it the best screen adaptation of one of his novels), Imitation of Life (1959) -- all considered for decades little more than a camp oddity. Now audiences are beginning to look deeper at the films of Douglas Sirk, at how, in megafan Todd Haynes' words, they are "almost spookily accurate about the emotional truths". Now, lucky Chicagoans can enjoy "Douglas Sirk at Universal", matinees at the Music Box. More inside.

Nobody told me there'd be days like these

Smedleyman — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 10:43:09 -0800

Have you ever had one of those times where you lose your job, then your VA benefits are cut (even though you were wounded seven times in Vietnam), then your son dies in Iraq and homophobic protesters hold up a sign at his funeral that says “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” then just after Christmas the candle you light for your dead child burns your house down and your family (including your grandchildren) is homeless, and your wife needs surgery for gallstones?
Yeah, that’s tough when that happens.
But sometimes people come through for you.

Hundreds dead in Saudi hajj

OpinioNate — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 09:09:38 -0800

NewsFlashFilter: Hundreds killed in Hajj stampede in what is known as the Stoning of the Devil ritual earlier today. Sadly, this type of tragedy at a Muslim hajj is quite common given the huge crowds.