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Homo Homini Monstrum
Nick Berg, R.I.P.
May 12, 2004 | Permalink
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It was front page of the news today - as he's from West Chester (a Philly suburb). Such a shame - supposidly this guy was there to help install communication towers as a way to make some money. Who's going to want to help build IRAQ now - espically now that civilians know they might get killed for it?
Posted by: MBO at May 12, 2004 6:44:35 PM
A nurse I knew was offered a job 20 years ago in Saudi Arabia. She knew others who had done it before her. She said the money was GREAT! but you had to be content to live within a walled compound for however long you contracted to work there: 1 or 2 years, were the choices, I think. She had the brains or sense or whatever to realize this meant it was DANGEROUS for her to go there - and how strong were those compound walls anyway? She decided not to go, because she didn't want to be walled up with herself, and whatever few others were there with her. My point is: very few people are going to want to help rebuild Iraq, if they've got the proverbial full deck of cards. I can't help wondering if NB was kind of saintly - he sort of looked it in the portion of the video shown on network tv. I wonder if he suspected what was coming. My impression, gleaned from other weblogs, is that he had a sort of Peace Corps motivation already established, as well as a monetary motive. I certainly don't mean to diminish him in any way in this quasi-rant. Sorry, for some reason, I find this one particularly difficult.
By the way, I like your website, PC.
K
Posted by: Karen M. at May 13, 2004 2:57:05 PM
Thanks for the compliment, Karen.
I've been really shaken by this ... beholding a real-life-counterpart to the sorts of things that Dostoyevsky wrote about in the "Rebellion" section of The Brothers Karamazov, or that Jerzy Kosinki portrayed in The Painted Bird - the sheer savagery and horror of butchering a man gleefully ... words just can't do it justice. It's a harrowing reminder of the terrors of life.
I couldn't think of much more to say than is signified by the Latin phrase that titles the post.
Posted by: Paul Craddick at May 14, 2004 12:54:46 PM