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One day blog silence

Ed the Editor's personal blog corner

Sorry for the victims at Virginia Tech, sorry for the victims of Columbine and similar incidents, and sorry for the victims of the next inevitable atrocity.

To me, there is no point to a day of silence if you just trot off a list of victims and shake your head in sorrow. There is nothing gained, either, in my opinion, if you simply blame the US or Europe or multinationals for Third World death and misery and then tomorrow go back to doing what you were doing yesterday. The point of a day of reflection is to consider a solution to the terrible events going on all around you and all round the world.

Here's a solution. Forget curing the world's ills! You can only really make a difference to life from where you are at.

So the students at schools and universities around the world, accept that you probably don't know 95% of your fellows, even by sight, but if you make the effort to look out for the well-being of the people in your immediate sphere of influence, maybe one of them won't end up going on a killing spree.

Therefore, from tomorrow, do not to alienate the weirdoes.

That kid or student who never says anything to anyone, go speak to them.

That student who you think is a whacko, go talk to them.

That student with a black depression hanging over them when they walk around, make the effort to befriend them.

Look out for each other and the chances are students will all live happily ever after.

If it troubles you that more people die from malaria than any other disease or tragedy on earth, put aside some income to support agencies that help tackle the issue in the field. If it troubles you that poverty is wrong, change your buying habits and/or pay a bit more for your coffee and bananas. If you hate the idea of polluting your atmosphere, cycle to work or turn your furnace down a few degrees. Appreciating what you have and moderating your own behavior a little is much more sustainable and helpful in the long term than big emotional knee jerk gestures for a day or two.

Hard, isn't it, realising that on reflection, we are ultimately all responsible for making sure everything goes well with the world around us? Can't go blaming governments or multinationals or nutcases for everything. When necessary, think hard and then step up to the plate in a modest way. And if everyone does the same, boom, you have effected a huge change.

If you ever miss a day without Pisstakers, you can find a daily snapshot of The Pisstakers Satire Blog Posts (ie the homepage) in the archives

Enjoy the content.