Friday, 18 June 2010

Do either of these count?

Chuckles alerts me to two further incidents:

From News24.com: "Cape Town - A 14-year-old American tourist in South Africa during the World Cup plunged to his death from Table Mountain while hiking with his family, police said on Sunday... The family, who are from Texas, were vacationing in South Africa and intended to watch some World Cup matches, said Jones."

Hmm. That's pretty borderline. It ticks the boxes for "linked to the football World Cup" and "in South Africa", but I don't think that falling off a cliff counts as a "violent death" (in the criminal sense).

From Sport24.com: "Cape Town - A World Cup Regional Court on Thursday granted bail to two teenagers accused of a hit-and-run in Gordon's Bay in which an American tourist died and two people were seriously injured."

Again, that ticks the boxes for "violent deaths" and "in South Africa" but what would clinch it either way is whether the American tourist was there to watch the football or not.

Discuss.

Bonus round: someone who doesn't know their uvula from their vuvuzela.

7 comments:

View from the Solent said...

I reckon that they fail.
Yes the first one was falling off a mountain in SA, the reason for being there was to watch football.
But.
By the same argument, if someone was killed by a falling roof tile whilst walking to the shop, that would be a shopping-related death. Not in my book.
(On the other hand, if that shopper was carrying a can of beer it would obviously count as alcohol-related.)

Captain Ranty said...

It depends on whose principles we are using to define the deaths.

If we used the ASH "smoking related deaths theory" then it is every single violent death merely because the World Cup is on.

Using more sane principles then both are a fail.

CR

Chuckles said...

The second one refers to a 'World Cup Regional Court'. These are 50 or so special courts set up to expeditiously hear cases specifically related to the World Cup, which rather suggests that yes, they were in SA for the Cup.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/10349389.stm

And I'd describe falling down Table Mountain as pretty violent, just not violence by a third party. This is not some gentle rolling dale we are talking about.
This is the 'easy route' -

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E7p8MjGti_o/SmGc36jhwsI/AAAAAAAADRQ/SWove1DvhU4/s1600/Platteklip-Gorge-Table-Mountain6.jpg

Mark Wadsworth said...

VFTS, CR, having considered your comments and Ch's further evidence, I suggest we count the first one as a 'fail' but the second one is added to the 'confirmed' list. Agreed?

dearieme said...

".. whether the American tourist was there to watch the football or not": do England matches count as football?

Mark Wadsworth said...

D: "do England matches count as football?"

Not if we're playing cricket or rugby etc. Only if we're playing football.

Chuckles said...

And another -

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20100622042808615C193593