Girls' corpses on beach in Italy fail to put off sunbathers

[ruby27]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/21/it aly.race.

Sunbathers in Italy remained sunbathing whilst dead bodies lay near by and then carried off beach past the sun worshippers.

Is this a sign of callousness, to remain sunbathing whilst the bodies are still lying on the beach?

Or perfectly reasonable, as how does getting up and going home demonstrate respect for the victims!

[stevie1time]

Ignorance is a way of life in todays society....Several months ago i was drivng on the motorway,stuck in gridlock...a young lady with with two young kids broke down in the middle lane,i was at least 20 cars behind,i stopped got out and pushed her car to the hard shoulder and waited with them til the AA came,not one other did,i dont see what i did as a good deed,its what any NORMAL person would do....unfortunately normal isnt normal nowadays

[Ethel]

I saw that newspaper report yesterday and was horrified.

[Octavius]

I suppose more dignity could be offered, and maybe they could have been moved away somewhere until the mortuary van arrived. I can�t imagine I would want to linger on the beach and sunbathe, or play games around the bodies � but really, what would one be expected to do in this situation?

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/article.html ?in_article_id=226110&in_page_id=64

[jno]

Good question. This age is rather squeamish about death - the Americans for instance try to fight wars in which nobody gets killed (at least no Americans), though this hasn't worked yet. I suspect that in the Middle Ages you went on toiling in the fields even when the guy next to you collapsed.

But I have to say I share this squeamishness; I wouldn't go on lying next to a corpse. It's not really respect for the victims - I don't know how you show respect in such situations, apart from notifying the authorities as soon as possible - I'd just feel unnerved to be reminded of the fragility of life, as well as sorry for the girls.

[LoftyLottie]

Just made me feel so sad looking at Octavius' link. It makes life seem to fragile and meaningless - two little girls lying there dead, not even properly covered up whilst everyone around carries on as normal.

[Gromit]

A couple of years ago I saw an old man had colapased in the middle of the street. I approached from 20-30 yards away on foot, about a dozen cars steered around the man and carried on.

Fortunately, I was able to pick him up on my own (no one else came to help) and help him to the pavement.

[Andyvon]

Hi Ruby,

My wife and I went to Marrakech last year. Two hours after arriving at the hotel we were exploring the area around the hotel where many people live on the streets. We saw a man sitting against a wall with his eyes blankly staring and it was obvious he was dead. The locals were walking up to him, chatting to each other, looking closely, and then just walking away. In the end that's all we could do. My wife and I felt shocked - but then we just walked away too.

When we got home we spoke to a friend who's a vicar and asked him what we should have done. He said there was nothing we could have done as we had just arrived and many local Moroccans had seen the man. He said it's their culture and they know exactly how to deal with those situations. We agreed and he was right.

With regard to the events in Italy, people probably felt the same. What could anyone have done above what was already being done by the locals? Packing up and leaving the beach wouldn't have made any difference. Going home wouldn't have changed anything. There are 4,500 deaths on UK roads every year and all of us have seen the flowers and crosses beside the roads. But it doesn't stop any of us driving cars and we just drive past the flowers without another thought. It does sound callous at first but in those situations there isn't anything to do.

I think the old chestnut about TV and film violence has a lot to do with callousness in society. The average US teenager sees 17,000 fictional and non-fictional deads and murders by the time they are 16. After WWII everyone was shocked by the films taken in the concentration camps as no one had seen anything like it. Yet when those same films appear on TV now people hardly bat an eyelid. TV does harden people and society in general.

[123everton]

I saw those pictures too, personally I think it would've been right to close the beach until the bodies had been removed by the proper authorities.
With regard to the analogies (I'll only pick one out of two experiences I've had) many years ago (just before Christmas) I saw an old woman get hit an articulated lorry, she hit her head on the kerb and blood started trckling out of her right ear (she was obviously dead) there were plnty of other people around noone had any need of me there was nothing anyone could do, so I drove off

[123everton]

No, a bus in the other direction.