February 01, 2004

Every year...

something like this happens.

What - they don't learn from past mistakes? Get some crowd control experts in there.

Or is that too Western a concept?

I suppose that's a stupid question because these people were stampeded in a "devil-stoning ritual" but still ...

244 people?? That's insane.

Posted by sheila
Comments

My understanding is that it's actually gotten worse over time. In part that's because there are more pilgrims, but also because Our Friends the House of Saud enclosed a lot of the holy sites: crowds in tight spaces = not the brightest idea.

Posted by: Dave J at February 1, 2004 10:34 PM

It's idiotic. Those poor people.

Posted by: red at February 1, 2004 10:35 PM

The Saudis just mumble idiotic platitudes like "it's the will of Allah." But the Arab public doesn't seem to mind, either.

IMO. this is yet another example of the Saudis encouraging extremism, and us letting them get away with it.

Posted by: MikeR at February 1, 2004 11:41 PM

Maybe they thought they were at a Who concert.

Posted by: sid at February 2, 2004 12:56 AM

Didn't this same thing happen in an epsiode of WKRP in Cincinnati?

Seriously, it's not just about crowd control. It's about that whacked culture. Sullivan has said some stuff and Kathy Shaidle of Relapsed Catholic asks, why does this never happen at Lourdes?

Posted by: Patrick at February 2, 2004 11:56 AM

G. Reynolds said it so succinctly it was hilarious:

"Disney could solve this problem in its sleep."

The rest of his post was good, but IMHO he should have left it at that. Rarely do 8 words so perfectly capture the ridiculous backwardness of one part of the world with respect to another.

Posted by: Mike Smith at February 3, 2004 02:45 PM

Mike Smith -

Yeah, I saw that posting of Glenn's - scroll on up to find my new post "Trampled Pilgrims" - many differing viewpoints being expressed ...

But I'm with Glenn on this one.

Posted by: red at February 3, 2004 03:29 PM