Humour: I have a right to offend

[N.O.R.F]

NGONGE

 

It will depend on each individual and what he/she sees as being offensive. The british satire ‘allo allo’ was hilarious, which was based around the world war, so is dads army (still watch the re-runs), again based on the 2nd world war. I think we there is misunderstanding here.

 

1) Humour ‘based’ around a war, ie Dads Army, Allo Allo – seen as light hearted humour which doesn’t offend because the emphasis is on the comical actions of others during the war rather than making a mockery of the actual event and making it look/sound as an insignificant event.

 

2) Actually refering to attrocities/events in the past and poking fun at the unfortunate people who got caught up the event. Now this is very unlikely to be put on film or on paper and this is what I was mainly refering to.

 

I would write more but i think u will get the jist of it,

[Paragon]

NGONGE.

 

You have asked a very interesting question about the prospects of humour. “Should humour be banned?†was your question. My answer is definitely no. I advocate for the expression of humour not because I am all for offending others, but I say so, because your question seems objective rather than subjective. As I know there are several types of humour (including the ones you mentioned plus banters, blunders etc). There are also 'conditions' that are tied to humour, which are appropriate for different people in different situations.

 

So in the name of subjectivity, I will say a word or two regarding the subjectivity of humour. In order to make clear your advocacy for the right to offend, it is interesting that you have used Heller's classic "Catch 22" which dealt primarily with the dilemmas its characters (Yossarian as lead) were confronted with. Subjectively, (and truly as you mentioned) Heller wrote about the madness of war, but the jokes content in the dialogues, were based on the experiences of characters that were not victims, who later became victors. (Bear with me here its been sometime since I read the book.)Soldiers (or aggressors) have one vantage point through which they see things, and their perspective on what on the impact (or victim-hood) of war is usually limited to them and not their families.

 

In that war, which the book is concerned with, almost 60 million people perished, but in those 60 million people, the leading allied country, and her soldiers, lost only 400,000 troops in comparison to the millions lost by say China or Japan or Germany. So Heller's humour was for specific people in a specifically favorable position compared to those in Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. For that reason alone, it’s a bit naïve to find such humour applicable to all and funny. No one, except the victims themselves, has a right to joke about the plight of those in the death camps. Not because its immoral or insensitive, but because it does not make a humour material for the purpose of entertaining some. There are human instincts (independent of reason or logic) that decry such an entertainment, which if enjoyed, qualifies one to a different status of human-ness.

 

Sometimes even Jews themselves cannot joke about the tragedy that beset them. At times its okay if comedian Roberto Benigni (an Italian Jew himself whose parents were affected by the deaths and deportations of Italian Jews) makes La Vita e Bella about the tragedy of his family, although he does not hide or ridicule what took place. He is a victim of the war so he has a right to create humour out of it; however, he had to seek the permission and advice of the Jewish council of Italy. The outsider has no entitlement to offend others by appealing to their raw emotions. And when he/she (supposedly independent of emotions), writes or tells such a humour but complains about emotive reactions, then, it should be borne in mind that the teller of such a joke is he/herself emotively motivated in some remote sense.

 

He/she can reasonably and knowingly (with disregard to others' feelings) coin a question or a topic from what pains others or is sensitive to them, and yet perfectly ridicule them by asking “why are you emotional?†In the eyes of the readers they may seemingly come across as ‘emotive in response’, however, emotions become present only when they are called for. As action is always followed by reaction, emotively set topic will rightly be followed by emotive responses. So there is nothing new here.

 

If one is honestly and truly interested in logic and reason, then, one should appeal to logic and reason not to raw emotions. If one remains to claim humour is all we have left, then, one must first not fall under that illusion of ‘we’ but determine who is 'we'; ‘for who’ and ‘against who’ humour is produced. If one still persists that one has the ‘right’, ‘freedoms’ of thought or speech, then one must re-read and consult the liberal doctrines that grants these said rights and freedoms. Under the liberal doctrines one must first have the ‘freedom from’ and the ‘freedom to’. It is the last freedom that the ‘right to’ falls under. Thus one has these ‘right to’ only and if he or she does not infringe on others’ right. In this light, and in the case of the type of humour produced at the expense of others’ pain, in my opinion and observation is that it infringes on others’ state of well-being and thus its exercise shall be avoided.

 

No offense intended.

[Jumatatu]

If u have the right to offend, and I also have the right not to be offended. My adeero Ngonge aka 'Prince Harry' came to a funeral,in which many were mourning close ones, playing the bongo and his Nintendo.

But seriously common guys the question was What were you doing 1991 there were no conditions attached to it. And my adeero 'Prince Harry' exactly said what he was doing, and he actually still plays the nintendo.

Damn am lucky I did not narrate what I was doing, if Nintendo can create such fuss imagine what mine would have done ..

[Faarax-Brawn]

If my humour offends you, tough! If your humour offends me on the other hand, I’ll probably laugh at how offensive you can be

DID I read this wrong or what?, didnt the man himself say he has the right to offend if he so wishes?, whats with the barrage of paralegals up in ppls face?.

 

Fine, stubborn older middle aged men cant even have the face and(and face!) to simply accept an err they made. Come on man. You cant win all battles. You are a very funny man. you write exceptionally well(even if it takes you half your day editing.still u do write well).You are outragiously popular. You cant jost and humorise every post of yours.You win some you loose some.

 

I think this comes down to the person in the person. Mr Ngonge has the energy, time and intelect to come here and gracefully defend arabia. He was quite strong in his words against the somali ppl.(you know, the waxaa la yidhi concept!?), anyways this shows how detached the said man is from his ppl,his culture to the extent where He feels like he has the right to offend anyone who finds his less than humorous pieces of writing(yes even them words on a screen!)

 

Now i woulld expect that from the likes of jessica simpson(your very own sick-retary!Ms ff) but not a grown man like you with kids!

 

What are gonna tell your lil boy when he comes to you and asks you . 'Dad, what happened to your country 30yrs ago?' why did so many ppl die? why i was i born in qurbo?, why wasnt i born in my country?

 

Are you gonna tell him, 'Dad i wish i knew this but unfortunatly i was playing nintendo in my room. :rolleyes:

 

Now, thats not the issue anyways eh?, fine. fair enough.

 

I will let you slide by.

 

 

Baashi. Am gastronomically dissapointed with your responce.next time please dont be so correct. will Ya?

 

 

[i APOLOGISE FF]

[-Serenity-]

^^ Get off FF's back man. Insulting a lady is so not manly. :rolleyes:

[Faarax-Brawn]

Happy? GnP?

[-Serenity-]

^^ Thanks. Really. You're a Star.

[- Femme -]

[i APOLOGISE FF]

Me too.

 

Assalamu Alaikum!

[Faarax-Brawn]

^You are welc FF.

[-Serenity-]

Femme, You're a trooper. A Superstar. And you dont write crap. Not as much as others anyway. hehe.

 

**group hug you two**

[dawoco]

Now people, let us look at the moral high ground ngonge has reached. I know juxa won’t justify your attacks with an answer, she has washed her hands off you much like a butcher washes his hands after a pig slaughter (not that I am suggesting that you are a pig, but a metaphor is a metaphor, just like shish kebabs), the way I see it, I have no problem with occasionally getting my hands dirty. Now I know it is tedious and serious and self indulgent, but since I have already been accused of this, I see no reason to not indulge myself some more. For those who easily get bored, please bear with me.

 

Now ngonge don’t feel saddened by juxa’s absence, the same blood flows through our veins so you attacks still have a target to hit. Now here goes nothing people.

 

“since you refused to take heed of my advice and continued on posting on and reading this thread, I see no reason why I should not be blunt too and say my piece (as you already know I cherish my right to offend).â€

 

 

I do beg your pardon, I didn’t know people would have to heed you advice OR ELSE. Will my dear sister find a horses head in her bed? Or are you going to send your ngongettes after her? But still, fair is fair, the man warned my sister to stay away from a topic he has opened at the discretion of the owners of this site. Hm, interesting.

 

 

“I don’t know about your pain, didn’t ask to know about your pain and am not interested in your pain. This is your very private business. If you wish to share it with people then it’s your choice and you are free to do so. However, don’t shove your pain down my throat and demand that I feign fake sympathy. Events that happened in YOUR personal life do not concern me nor keep me awake at night. Events that happened to the Somalis in general do, at times. You need to wipe those tears away and see the distinction between the two.â€

 

No one wants you to know any pain, and as you pointed out, it is none of your business and no one wants to share anything with you. No one wants your sympathies nor did anyone ask for your cheap condolences nor does anyone expect you to have the slightest understanding of matters. So no need to advice us, or anyone on how to deal with grieve. However you have a right to keep quiet on matters you understand little about.

 

“There has to come a time when you people stop the wailing. When someone starts a topic about domestic violence a number of people get offended because they happen to be female and females are, usually, the ones at the receiving end of such a sick social disease. The issue becomes personalised and extremely absurd. Young, single women start tearfully hypothesising about being struck and recount their vengeful reactions to such an artificial scenario!â€

 

By we people I can only assume you mean the southerners who have been hit the most with the civil war. The fact that you are comparing this to females getting angered by discussions on abuse shows how lacking you are. Civil wars involve people and the individuals dying aren’t all orphans so it is very personal. There is a difference between being touched by something that has no effect on you and watching someone take the micky on issues that involve the deaths of people, and thus of families, whether they died or survived. But now, I too am becoming like a broken record.

 

“One should not attempt to run before one could walk. When reading a piece, one needs to comprehend it, understand it and analyze it (if need be). To go into a topic with preconceived ideas would only add to the confusion of someone with an already poor reading comprehension skill.â€

 

Talk about not practicing what you preach. Now there is so much talk on rights to offend and yet even you, ngonge, are too smart to cross that line for a second time. Although I can’t help but wonder, would you actually have the audacity to make a joke about the civil war much like the one about the Jew. Somehow I doubt it.

 

As for those that have defended ngonge, I will not be so crass as to make a list, but one can see a pattern forming. And it is clear that what the most of them have in common is the same thing that is making them stick up for ngonge. Kolba run sheeg waa ceeb sheeg.

 

Now to answer this:

Was he supposed to xawaashee his take on the matter and lie to the nomads, pretend he was torn apart, hurt and that he cried all day long?

 

No, of course not. This is what i would expect from anyone who hears about something bad happening to fellow country mates- and of course fellow muslims.

 

1)say Alxamdulilah that my loved ones and i have been spared from this.

2)May allah have mercy on those trapped in such a situation.

3)Keep quiet on the matter as it didn't involve me and silence beats worthless opinions, even if they are humorous.

 

At least that is what i would do. I am glad that so many of you were spared, i wouldn't wish it on any one of you.

[Seeking Paradise]

This is getting boring.

 

Everyone has their own opions----there is no use in trying to make someone agree with your own opinions. Respect others opinions and move on people.

 

This back and forth tug of war is a waste of time and energy.

[Nomen nescio]

Originally posted by Northerner:

^^^ I was a Sonic/Sega man myself

I must have been low tech back then coz the only video game i had was an ugly black Attari,.... u and Ngonge must have been riches then...

[Valenteenah.]

NG,

 

LoL...reminds me of that saying 'ama afeef hore lahow ama adkeysi dambe' or something similar.

[Jumatatu]

Originally posted by dawoco:

[QB she has washed her hands off you much like a butcher washes his hands after a pig slaughter (not that I am suggesting that you are a pig, but a metaphor is a metaphor, just like shish kebabs [/QB]

Bisinka...! has it reached this stage.? just for playing Nintendo..