BruceVC

Romance? Did someone mention Romance...excellent idea. Who is keen for another Romance thread and a discussion of the importance of Romance in RPG? Who is with me !!!!

No you right, the planning of the murder seems almost clichéd. If he is found guilty, and all the evidence indicates that, he will probably end up in a mental asylum for criminals. But you never know he may make a miraculous recovery around his mental state and end up in a normal prison. But either way incarceration in South Africa isn't a picnic.

The problem we face is the inconsistency with our legal system, in some cases the police and the judicial system are effective and in other cases the ball really gets dropped. We get criminals from international syndicates who choose to make there home in South Africa thinking they will get an easy ride. But that's not always the case. On another point, am I the only person who is tired of the Pistorius trial. I suppose I can understand the interest within South Africa but all the international news channels, except Al-Jazeera , seem to show large parts of the trial. I am surprised people consider this worthy international news ?

So this has been a really interesting story and development. I know most of you probably haven't even heard of Anni Dewani but if you like stories of crime and justice I would suggest you read the timeline link below to get familiar with the story so far http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-13226067 In summary in 2010 a UK honeymoon couple on holiday in South Africa became a victim of our terrible crime rate, well that's how it initially appeared. The Dewani couple were visiting a black township near Cape Town when the car they were using was hijacked. And the beautiful wife of the man was murdered while he was left alive in the car This obviously created bad publicity for South Africa for a number of reasons, one of them being the utterly cruel and callous nature of the crime. " Imagine your wife getting killed in front of you while you are on your honeymoon. What type of people would perpetuate such a deed" The husband, Shrien Dewani, returned to the UK distraught and upset and the South African police started investigating. Within a few weeks several suspects were arrested and an interesting aspect to the murder emerged. Evidence and testimony by the killers revealed that in fact they were hired by Shrien Dewani to kill his own wife and he wanted to make the murder of his wife to appear like it was another example of violent crime in South Africa South Africa immediately applied for extradition of Shrien to answer many questions. For the last 3 years he has been using every trick in the book to avoid extradition. He claims he is deeply depressed, the jails in South Africa aren't safe and he won't get a fair trail in South Africa But despite his best efforts he finally arrived in South Africa this week to face the charges against him http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2599621/Shrien-Dewani-arrives-court-South-Africa-extradited-private-jet-face-charges-new-bride-murdered-honeymoon.html For me this is real justice. He thought he could come to a country that had an ineffective justice system or an ineffectual police force and plan a reprehensible and egregious murder. He obviously has absolute disdain for the idea that "he somehow may have been caught by the ignorant South African authorities" But what bothers me the most is what type of person can live with himself after planning a honeymoon with his wife but then arranging her murder and letting her get killed in front of him. He then drove around with the killers and his dead wife for about 30 minutes until he was dropped off. The scales of justice may appear to move slowly, but in most cases they do eventually move

May have taken a certain amount of liberty with the end of the quote though. Anyone convinced Oby is a troll should stick him on ignore but most of all stop following him around giving him attention. If he is a troll you are giving him exactly what he wants, ie suppurating haemorrhoid class butthurt. Besides, this is taking attention away from the foreign sponsored non popular terrorism taking place in Ukraine that is trying to set aside a democratically elected government and will hopefully be suppressed peacefully by the riot police as occupying buildings and being violent is evil and should be suppressed with the perpetrators being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Something something Russians are responsible for all that is evil in the universe but this isn't bigotry something something Euromaidan was completely different something something no I don't use my irony to put creaseys in my shirtys but maybe I should thanks for the suggestion. I detect the slightest whiff of sarcasm in your post Zora?

That's bigotry? Gee, you learn new things every day. Sorry Sarex but Tagaziel is correct, that's a very weak showing of you giving us examples of bigotry. You need to try harder if you want people to take accusations from you seriously

Wowzers, this is getting exciting and entertaining

Malc that's probably the sixteenth or seventeenth most offensive thing you have said to me. Its a pity you don't remember what I tell you. Remember I'm only trying to make you a more fulfilled and balanced person

I've mentioned this before but I find these monosyllabic responses from Volo unhelpful to the principle of debate. Lately he has been a bit more detailed but most of the time he doesn't care to explain his view and I can understand this annoying people

Yeah some comments also really make me laugh

Have I ever told you that your company sounds like a terrible place to work at ?

I had no idea what it means, I just thought it was some kind of occult symbol. What does it mean?

I've never asked her directly about her diet and the exact reasons she ended up in hospital, she has always alluded to certain health problems. But the issue of her health has always bothered me. Anyway thanks for the input. I will give serious thought to what I say and how I say it

To be honest, I really don't know why it's your concern and why you're pursuing it. She's given you a cue that she's not comfortable talking about it to you. I'd move on and let her come to you, not for you to continually go to her. Especially, making enquiries about her diet. I'd find that very rude. Okay just some additional input, I did chat to my GM but he doesn't feel its his place to say anything as he feels this is a personal matter. But that's what most people would say, so what is the result of that? No one does or says anything and she continues to deteriorate. So what happens if 3 months from now she dies due to a health/diet related reason. Do I just say "oh well there was nothing I could have done and it wasn't my place to say anything" To be honest I would rather she thought I was nosy then I did nothing. Of course I understand that there is a certain way I need to approach this situation so she isn't embarrassed, if my initial advice or input is totally rejected then I won't pursue it anymore

Interesting diet choice, this is like the Caveman diet? Basically you only eat things that Cavemen would have eaten, so nothing processed or artificial

This is just normal office chit-chat. I wouldn't read anything in it if she tells you about her family or what she did on the weekend. It's just being civil and breaking the ice. She might like to talk about something in her social life, but it's not a cue that you're now best buddies and can talk about 'anything'. Her being evasive is a cue to mind your own business. She doesn't want to talk about it. Normal social by the office water cooler type discussions (See above about her family or did she have a good weekend)? Yes, she doesn't mind. Personal health related stuff? No. You're prying into her affairs and going behind her back, checking up on her with other staff is really bewildering to be honest. Checking with other staff to see what she eats? That's a new one for me. All that's going to do is get staff gossiping and judging her, what she does, what she eats, etc. You say you're trying to get her away from malicious people in the office but what you're doing is making things worse in the office with all this going behind her back and gossiping about her with other staff. While your intentions may have been good, they're actually going against you and her. How would you feel if someone was being nice and friendly to you and then going behind your back, checking up and talking to other staff, gossiping about what you eat and perhaps 'tsk tsk-ing' you? Some people may think, 'very two-faced' to put it mildly. Her evasiveness should tell you she doesn't want to talk about certain issues with you. As others said, just be a friend at work. Don't talk to other staff about her weight or what she eats. I would not be going behind her back and doing it with other staff and checking up on her, especially with what seems the office staff are now judging her on what she eats. You have raised some good points and considerations. Just for the record I have been very discreet about who I asked around her eating habits, I had to ask because I wanted to be sure her diet was as bad as I thought. But I can see how my intentions may create a possibly negative environment for her. But I don't think it will as the people I chatted to know the seriousness of the situation Anyway when she is back from hospital I'll be chatting to her as a concerned friend and make innocuous enquiries around her diet with her privately

Actually that's what I wanted to say but I thought I would be diplomatic. The only consideration I would suggest is Russian expats living in the USA are different to the expats you and I know of that live in Europe and the UK

Burce aren't you going to ask for a source, or some link so you can prove it's not a lie. I thought you had a big speech about how you were all about truth now. http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/kulturdebatt/valkomna-till-ryssland-kara-krimbor/ There is original article in Swedish newspaper and original writer is Arkadij Babtjenko, here is link to Russian wikipedia about him. He has published books about his experiences in Chechen Wars and works as journalist and war correspondent for Novaya Gazeta Nice post, sorry Sarex and 2133 guess you will just have to accept this one

Hurlshot next time you are there ask the Russian doctors what they think about the situation in Crimea, I am interested to hear what educated Russians think about there countries foreign policy decisions I'm sure they'd love to talk about it. Not. Most expats don't mind talking about there home country if the questions are asked in the right way

Hurlshot next time you are there ask the Russian doctors what they think about the situation in Crimea, I am interested to hear what educated Russians think about there countries foreign policy decisions

@ Keyrock I'm impressed that you eat goat, many people would consider this type of meat too exotic. But goat cooked properly is delicious

You guys are really fortunate to have these types of conventions that you can attend with relative ease. I wish we had them in South Africa, but if you go take loads of pictures so people who can't go get a vicarious enjoyment from your outing

Wow this is a very concerning post about life in the Russian federation, I'm hoping some of it is just propaganda. But some of it is truth as well

So long as you believe mutually exclusive things- like Ukrainian gas prices should not be subsidised, except by Russia of all people; there should be freedom of speech, but things some people may find offensive should be banned etc- you're always going to come across as a troll because anyone with a grasp of basic logic is going to wonder why you're so frequently, and stridently, inconsistent and come up with the answer that you're trolling. There's a reason people are convinced Oby is a troll, he posts vast amounts of pro Russian/ anti west stuff with very little in the way of consistency or logic about it, it isn't a consistent set of beliefs that an actual person would have but rather a bunch of stuff chosen to get a reaction and to fit Russia = good/ strong, west = bad/ weak. If you take the position that the IMF mandating an end to Ukrainian gas subsidies is good, but Russia ending them is bad you're doing exactly what Oby does. Your belief does not, in fact, have anything to do with the subsidies themselves. Your actual belief is that IMF = good, and Russia = bad so IMF ending subsidies must be good and Russia ending subsidies must be bad; and you contort the subsidy issue into a logic knot to try and fit that, basic, belief and narrative. Because it quite simply does not fit and you try to insist that it does it immediately make you look like a troll, because when viewed as being about subsidies alone you are taking a fundamentally inconsistent position- until you reduce it back to the actual equation. Thanks for this post; it has been very interesting to see reasons why some people think I’m a troll. I have wondering why and now I understand, I want to take the time to explain a very important point around why this view of me is incorrect and misplaced The premise of your characterization of me is based on the view that my posts are at times illogical and inconsistent with the facts as you see them. And there is the actual problem, you think I am trolling but in fact either I’m not explaining myself properly or you do not simply understand my view. Almost every debate I’ve had around numerous issues like the definition of free speech, sexism in the gaming industry or the situation in Ukraine is not based on some strange unsubstantiated view I have or some irritating conspiracy theory. I do my research and my comments are based primarily on the facts, current reality of the situation and historical context. I get my information from various sources and I can back it up with links if necessary. You think it is trolling but the real point here is you are wrong and don’t seem to want to see the truth about certain situations in the world. Let me just give you one example to highlight as you raised it and it’s about the gas subsidies. The IMF is about to lend Ukraine tens of billions of dollars. The IMF has a prudent policy where they audit countries that they lend money to ensure they have capacity to pay the loans back. One of the steps the IMF can insist on is financial structural reforms. The IMF has some of the most brilliant economic minds in the world and they can easily identify where there are economic pressures on certain countries that need there assistance, this is not hard to understand as normally these countries are obviously struggling. But they don’t do this to punish countries, these steps make sense as transformation is needed to make sure their economies are viable and to ensure they can pay back any loan from the IMF. This is banking 101; you don’t lend money to someone who can’t pay you back. They have made it clear that in order for Ukraine to receive the necessary loans several things about how they run there economy have to change, one of them is the fact that Naftogaz has been selling gas to Ukrainians for less than they have been buying it from Russia for. This is obviously illogical and has to end. Yes this will be a negative for Ukrainians but it has long term advantages of helping Naftogaz become profitable or least not running at a loss. This is a good strategic move to help Ukraine, I’ll say it again. This is a good move to improve the Ukrainian economic situation and is part of the needed economic reform. Russia decided to inflate gas prices purely as a politically punitive move. They are doing this because Ukraine has decided to align with the EU and frankly they don’t care about the consequences, they didn’t need to do this but the IMF does need to insist on financial reform before it lends vast amounts of money to Ukraine. You talk about my comments not being logical but it stupefies me that you and others can’t or won’t see the obvious difference between the intentions of the IMF and Russia ending the gas subsidies. I can substantiate almost all points in the same way I have explained the above point so I hope this puts to rest the absurd suggestion that I troll in debates, remember being factually correct is not a sign of trolling. Finally there are times when I have been wrong in discussions, like the misplaced “Ban the Bossy word campaign” but this is not one of them

Yep, Poland for Russians is just yet another rebelled province Vistula Land inhabited by traitorous separatists. Punishment of your country for this is just question of time. Russians never forgive and never forget. Meanwhile US for us is grand enemy, but respectable and honorable enemy, our hate to them is form of our sadistic love. "Punishment of your country for this is just question of time" you make me laugh sometimes. But the scary thought is I wonder if some Russians do see Poland like this?