Now who would be stupid enough to loot a Nuclear Plant

[Aro]

"We didn't know," Haloul said as she breast-fed a 20-day-old daughter in her two-room home, a dirt-floor hovel where a couple of chickens roosted with the rest of her family. "We got the barrel right before the baby was born."

Rah, if you are living in the XVIIIth century, with nothing but the Koran to teach you how the world works - literally... Yep, you may do things like that. "Radiation - Keep Out" in Arabic, with armed guards, means "something valuable is stored in this place" in common language, if you don't have the background to understand it.

It's not stupidity, even if they did it after being warned about the dangers... They don't have many reasons to trust in authorities. Not in Iraq. The religious leader, or the local tribal chief are probably the only people they are used to trust.

[TCO]

It's like in the Simpson's when Homer takes the source home (old intro scene).

[rah]

Re: Now who would be stupid enough to loot a Nuclear Plant

[SIZE=1] Originally posted by Aro

It's not stupidity, even if they did it after being warned about the dangers... They don't have many reasons to trust in authorities. Not in Iraq. The religious leader, or the local tribal chief are probably the only people they are used to trust.

I'm sorry, read the story again.

Originally posted by rah

"They say they can make you sick," he said. But he is not convinced there isn't some good use for the plastic container. Only a few people he knew complained that they didn't feel well after handling the barrels, he said.

ONLY A FEW PEOPLE COMPLAINED. I think if even one had complained I might have been suspicious and might have put a little weight in the warnings. This is just stupidity.

RAH

[Q Classic]

Wouldn't it be darkly amusing if we didn't find the chemical weapons squirreled away in some government bunker, but being used as a disinfectant and/or anti-pest treatment by some peasants in the area?

[PLATO]

My vote is for stupidity. Perhaps originally ignorance, but definately followed up with stupidity.

[Aro]

Originally posted by rah

......................
ONLY A FEW PEOPLE COMPLAINED. I think if even one had complained I might have been suspicious and might have put a little weight in the warnings. This is just stupidity.

RAH

Same with me, Rah. But we are well-educated men of our times. We're learning the "scientific method" since we were born...

Rah, you don't know the "absolute" poverty or ignorance, do you? I mean, have you seen what poverty, prejudices, obscurantism, fundamentalism, illiteracy, old social structures, old beliefs and dictatorships, all mixed together, can do?

A significant part of our world can't see any of those clues. They can't read the signs. They aren't trained to do that.

"ONLY A FEW PEOPLE COMPLAINED."

In a place with high mortality rates, caused by the lack of basic services (like regions of Iraq... or Brazil...), health is a matter of bad or good luck.

I've seen this kind of behavior here in Brazil, in regions of extreme poverty and absence of the State. Intelligent people, able to deal with many problems and figure out intelligent solutions... But some problems are just beyond their ability to understand.

[rah]

stu·pid ( P ) Pronunciation Key (stpd, sty-)
adj. stu·pid·er, stu·pid·est
Slow to learn or understand; obtuse.

"Beyond their ability to understand"
by your own words. Stupid.

RAH
I'll concede ignorance on some but Mutar is beyond that. He's stupid......I mean slow to understand.

[DanS]

"They say they can make you sick," he said. But he is not convinced there isn't some good use for the plastic container. Only a few people he knew complained that they didn't feel well after handling the barrels, he said.

"I'm not going to throw it away," he said. "Somebody, sometime, might want it. Do you want to buy a barrel?"



That's so sad, but so so funny.

[gsmoove23]

Actually, hes not so stupid as oportunistic. He doesn't want to use it, just sell it to some other sucker.

[rah]

That comes from poverty. Yes poverty is bad and it may even be an excuse, but it doesn't change the fact.

Someone tells me that the barrels may cause sickness.
Some of the People that handled barrels are sick after handling the barrels. Slow to grasp connection=stupid.

[Chemical Ollie]

Hohoho - Now I have depleted uranium!

3rd world people could steal anything. A friend of mine who was a UN soldier said a trooper from Senegal stole some light rods (I don't know the exact English word for them - 1 the meter long light bulbs). When they did not fit into the box he was sending home, he broke them in two pieces before he packed them!

[Aro]

Originally posted by rah
stu·pid ( P ) Pronunciation Key (stpd, sty-)
adj. stu·pid·er, stu·pid·est
Slow to learn or understand; obtuse.

"Beyond their ability to understand"
by your own words. Stupid.

RAH
I'll concede ignorance on some but Mutar is beyond that. He's stupid......I mean slow to understand.

I can show you a math problem "beyond your ability to understand". Or you can show me a problem like that.

But... with time, and the necessary knowledge, you can understand. I can understand. Maybe.

So... are we stupid? I may look stupid sometimes, but this is not the same thing, is it?

But I'll agree: in common language, "stupid" is many times used as a replacement of "ignorant". Same in Portuguese.
And I'll concede... Mutar is a real stubborn... and THIS means "stupid", many times

[rah]

Originally posted by Aro
I can show you a math problem "beyond your ability to understand". Or you can show me a problem like that.

But... with time, and the necessary knowledge, you can understand. I can understand. Maybe.

So... are we stupid? I may look stupid sometimes, but this is not the same thing, is it?

And If I was slow to understand a math problem, I would deserve to be called stupid in Math. If aliens ever come to earth and we can't quickly understand all the concepts of their technology, then yes, they can call humans stupid. I guess I don't put quite the absolute negative connotation to the word "stupid" as you do.

Mutar was stupid and stubborn.

[Dinner]

Mohammed & Ackmed didn't know why all there hair had begun to fall out and their muscles begin to whither away. They never put put one and one together and thought that maybe, just maybe, that storing their drinking water in an old toxic waste container wasn't such a good idea...

Che, wasn't it you who kept saying the Iraqis were a well-educated people? I can only imagine you meant well educated compared to the rest of the illiterate Arab masses.

[Chemical Ollie]

Are you saying you don't have stupid criminals in US?