BUZZWORDS WHICH MEAN SO LITTLE
Buzzwords which mean so little
I WAS almost caught up in the Omagh bomb, arriving in the town ten minutes after the explosion.
I would commend those people who kept the traffic running smoothly and especially, in my case, the staff at the Ulsterbus depot, who kept cool at a trying time and behaved with their usual efficiency, while providing transport to hospital for the injured.
Since then, albeit at a distance, I have seen the tragic pictures and listened to those so inhumanly and wrongfully bereaved and thought how movingly modest were Dr Pinto's words, "I think we did a good job."-
On the other hand, how unreassuring, tedious and infuriating are the fuzzy busswords repeated parrot-fashion by politicians of every hue and persuasion.
Of what earthly meaning or comfort are such grandiose phrases as "categorically condemn" to the ordinary decent grief-stricken people or Omagh at a time like this? These words are empty and suspect.
A few more concrete actions would speak much louder that so many superfluous words, and the people of Omagh, Northern Ireland and, indeed, the entire island, deserve better than these mere clockwork ventriloquist's dummies or "equivocating politicians" who are trundled out at such times to do their set party piece for the media. Get real and stop engaging in disingenuous psychobabble.
OMAGH EXILE
Hampstead
I WAS almost caught up in the Omagh bomb, arriving in the town ten minutes after the explosion.
I would commend those people who kept the traffic running smoothly and especially, in my case, the staff at the Ulsterbus depot, who kept cool at a trying time and behaved with their usual efficiency, while providing transport to hospital for the injured.
Since then, albeit at a distance, I have seen the tragic pictures and listened to those so inhumanly and wrongfully bereaved and thought how movingly modest were Dr Pinto's words, "I think we did a good job."-
On the other hand, how unreassuring, tedious and infuriating are the fuzzy busswords repeated parrot-fashion by politicians of every hue and persuasion.
Of what earthly meaning or comfort are such grandiose phrases as "categorically condemn" to the ordinary decent grief-stricken people or Omagh at a time like this? These words are empty and suspect.
A few more concrete actions would speak much louder that so many superfluous words, and the people of Omagh, Northern Ireland and, indeed, the entire island, deserve better than these mere clockwork ventriloquist's dummies or "equivocating politicians" who are trundled out at such times to do their set party piece for the media. Get real and stop engaging in disingenuous psychobabble.
OMAGH EXILE
Hampstead
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0340
Published Date: 01-Sep-98
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