I think you laying it on way too thick. Italy? Europe? Because of the actions of a dozen beachgoers?

And beyond that, people on the beach risked their lives to save the girls, doesn't that count for more? And this ignores the fact that people gawk. I am sure a lot of people stayed there as gawkers, people generally don't know what to do when faced with dead bodies, so they stand around open mouthed until the coroners take the body away. Years ago a young woman died at work, some people kept on working because there was nothing else they could do, and because it was a way to keep their minds off the tragedy. People do strange things when confronted by death, it is not always heartlessness.

And of course you are ignoring Katrina with dead bodies on the street for days, and what about that elderly women who lay dead for hours in a hospital waiting room? Are you personally ashamed? I'm not. I did nothing wrong. And I was far more disgusted at Bush than ashamed. I didn't vote for him so his ignominy is not my responsibility.

Were some people assholes there? Sure, probably. But to foist it on a whole continent? I think in a way you are disrespecting those poor children to use them to make a political point, one which is not even correct.

Next time focus please. The Roma are treated unfairly, I agree, but I don't think this proves that.

here we go again... it's summer, the news are slow, why don't we sock it to the sanctimonious Europeans and bring them down from their high horse for once? The problem is, Marty and the Americans in general, don't know squat about the Rom because they have barely ever seen one and don't live with them on a daily basis. Italy spends millions of euros to build and manage settlements, housing and services for them; they are given residency papers, don't pay taxes and often enjoy refugee status; the Rom are periodically assaulted by armies of social workers who imlpore them to send their children to school... But that seldom ever happens because children are routinely sent out in the streets to beg and pickpocket tourists and other naive passerby. Indeed, the abuse of children is the most visible feature of the rom culture (Kusturica's Time of the Gipsies was very accurate on that score). There is nothing hypothetical, as the Independent suggests (but of course, Berlusconi's Italy must be portrayed as the land of everything that's vile under the sun) about the indictment of theft and crime. It's a well documented fact. Every once in a while the police finds caches of millions of euros of stolen merchandise in the nomads's settlements.

The accident of July 20 is typical of the exploited  lives of Rom children. After hours spent on the beach trying to sell little trinkets and bring home the money, they could not take the heat anymore. They could not swim, and they had dipped in the strong currents with all their clothes on. Their death is as sad as their lives, but it is false to suggest that no efforts were made to rescue them.

www.ilmessaggero.it/articolo.php

Thank you, blackton. To the extent that we can know what happened after reading a couple of short newspaper stories, the only thing a reasonable person could claim that anyone did wrong at all is that the authorities failed adequately to care for the bodies while dealing with the situation. Was there something the beachgoers could have done other than risk their lives to rescue the girls (check), cover the exposed bodies (check), and keep a respectful distance until proper authorities returned to the scene (check)? Should they have scrounged up a Bible and some shovels and buried the girls on the beach? Should they have evacuated the beach? And if so, to what radius? Exactly how many meters of distance does it take to turn "shame on all of Europe!" into a show of respect and honor? Fifty meters? Five hundred? A full kilometer?

Hell, my father died in a city park, and across the park parents didn't take their toddlers off the jungle gym, and the little league game kept on playing once the sirens stopped, and in the years since it never occurred to me to think ill of the passersby who went on living their lives. But, hey, I guess shame on America, right?

Next up: picture of a couple of dead Palestinian kids, and generalisation of bloodthirty and racist motives to all Jews all over the world.

Dude, c'mon man.  What do you expect the beachgoers to do? This is a totally unexpected event.  They're looking at these poor girls dead under a sheet.  What do you expect - the natural instinct for non-rescue people (firemen, policemen, military, hero) is to gawk  and be scared.  That's precisely what the beachgoers did, they continued what they were doing by default.

You could capture this kind of a picture anywhere - someone's eating ice cream in a candy shop.  Guy across the street gets stabbed and dies.  Cops and ambulances everywhere.  You can then take a picture of the dude continuing to eat ice cream while gawking at the scene.  What is he supposed to do? Run across the yellow tape and interfere with professionals who know what they're doing???

The only way this picture shows callousness is if the beachgoers there were the ONLY people on the beach and they could have but did not try to save the girls.

It's all Israel's fault.

hg

Too bad there are no photos of that dead priisoner, with his legs "pulpified," hanging by his arms from the walls of Bagram prison, as previously reported right here at TNR.  Then all Americans could be ashamed, and Canadians and Mexicans who are, after all North Americans, except that is, Martin Peretz who knows no shame.  He, after all, is the universal shamer.  

Any excuse will do in the effort to distract us from the shame of Bush and his supporters.

Speaking for myself, as a European, I adore going to the beach with dead people. It's not at all the same thing when there are not dead people around, particularly young women migrants with gray bodies that already smell. The effect under the hot summer sun is delightful.

And yes Mr. Peretz is so concerned with migrants in Europe. It breaks my heart. Perhaps that's why he is permanently attacking the most vulnerable group of migrants that today live in Europe, for instance suggesting that they damage the health of "la belle France", "not so belle anymore" evidently on account of it's Muslims...

What Idefix said.

The worst aspect of US bloggers is the ridiculous caricatures they make of Europeans. Case in point was that tsunami of BS about the French "intifada" a few years back, ie the race riot by unemployed, secular French suburban car-torchers who couldn't care less about Islam.

If I ever make my gazillions I'm going to fund transatlantic exchanges-- maybe buy a few 737s (not from Southwest, mind) for that purpopse-- so as to get as many Americans as I possibly can over to Europe and v-v. A pity that, with all the information we have at our disposal, both sides have such ridiculous stereotypes of the other.

Love that handle "idefix."  As I recall, it is one of the names for the three sizes of softdrink at Parc Asterix outside of Paris.  I thought it was a great line then.  The place has much more of a sense of humor than Parc Disney.  On the way in, there is a line on the ground.  One one side the sign says "France" and on the other "Gaul."  

But lest I stray from the serious subject of this blog, I note that, of course, they leave the dead bodies lying around there too.  It is the general practice for anyone below the rank of cabinet minister.  I believe it is because the removal of the dead is unionized and nothing can be done until a union member arrives.  But, everyone knew that already, right?  Common knowledge about those Europeans.

roidubouloi -

"idefix" is the name of Obelix's dog - which might be why the name is repurposed at Parc Asterix. The English name for the mutt is the even funnier "dogmatix."

en.wikipedia.org/.../Dogmatix

Well, thsnks nd.  Went to the parc, never actually read the comic so I didn't know that.

icarusr, same fucked up anti-Semite, bringing every subject to bashing the Jews. You're not ot one to mention that Palestinians name streets for homicide bombers, icarusr? Your work with ICC and "human right" types, which you've boasted about in the past, says it all.