Group hug!

Thanks Asterault...Much better...I'm feeling the love now.

I rarely watch television anymore nor do I spend more time than is necessary reading El Pais, El Mundo, ABC, etc. for the very reasons you mention Cali. (And while we're all well off topic.... I’ll stay on that bandwagon for a moment...)

I'm all for being a 'Good Guy' and 'Enjoying Life.' I've been with 'the natives' for four years now and they're working on me, molding me, and steadily making me more and more Españolito.

I too enjoy using the therapeutic service that these message boards provide, if nothing more, as one of my few opportunities to use 'native' English and just generally be a pain as much as I possibly can. (within limits of course.) It would certainly appear that I've been successful this time around.... ¡Eskerrik Asko! I'll play nice now... :p

Friday - and another ETA bomb -

http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/08/09/spain.torrevieja/index.html

Another bomb...in Torrevieja. This one hits close to home . My spanish host family (from the Basque country), has a vacation home there. They are just as disgusted by ETA as we are (They made that pretty clear from the second I stepped of the plane). In Bilbao, once a week they have a gathering, kind of a vigil, for peace when there has been ETA violence, and they celebrate peace when there hasnt been. It breaks my heart that Euskadi is known to many as "ETA territory", even I was at first nervous about going to study there. This board is one of the few places that when I say "I studied in Bilbao", I don't immediately get a terrorist related remark as a response. Thanks guys!

More group hugs...less bomb postings. We all read the dailies and know what's up. Please stop posting every bombing. It's like adding three quarts of water instead of two when you're mixing your Kool-aid...too diluted due to too much of the same. I'm sure we're not turning a blind eye. Let's just assume that. It only opens up the possibility for a discussion that has run its course on this board.

Is it safe to say that we ALL agree that bombing = bad, peace = good? Please stop

CaliBasco [Who is the "guiltiest" of succumbing to the diabolical urge to blabber on about his feelings on this topic!]

Good point Calibasco. Terrorists thrive on the media announcing their horror don't they?

I understand what you guys are saying Calibasco, and I really agree, but on this one, I have to say THANKS to Puna for the heads up on today's bomb. I was able to call and check in with my host family (I dont even want to know how much that little call is gonna cost me ) a little a while ago...just to make sure everything is ok. Alright, enough said on this topic, how about a happy subject!

I think the media thrives on the "terrorists..." another subject.

No? All right. Bombing bad.

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but one thing that being outside of 'la madre patria' has taught me is that the media (all them that I've ever observed) thrives -más bien- on whatever's most 'in fashion' to thrive upon at any given moment.

Kind of like a Baskin Robbins 'flavor of the month...' type of thing...

As a member of the media, look to soap operas if you want the Ben & Jerry approach to what's trendy to highlight at the moment.

Contrary to opinion, most journos are not blood-thirsty, hard-hitting, don't-give-a-damn members of society ready to exploit human suffering, nor do we have horns at the top of our head. We report on what is of interest to people at that moment, of course - I don't think NY would've liked it if we'd ignored the aftermath of 11 September. But think about Live Aid - that came about because Bob Geldof was so outraged by a BBC News report about the famine in Africa that no-one had bothered about before until the journalist/BBC thought "That needs telling" and went out and did it. What about John Pilger reporting on the Killing Fields of Cambodia? Were they jumping on bandwagons? And even if they were, didn't some good come out of it at the end?

Our job is to tell people what is going on in the world, and I'm afraid attacks by ETA, IRA, al-Qaida, whatever, are part of that. I would love to report on kittens and newborn babies and fluff like that, but then would that stop you being aware of all the SOBs in the world who could hurt your children? If we don't tell what evil terrorist groups are doing, then that makes it all the more easier for their propaganda machines to kick in. After all, one of the first things Hitler did was take over the national press so only pro-Nazi stories were put out.

Believe it or not, we do educate the world. There are, of course, scuzzy newspapers who do thrive on reporting the worst. But that is not the majority. Don't lump "the media" as one big evil for merely reporting aspects of the world you may not wish to hear about.