From The Metro:
A groom killed his father and two aunts after firing into the air with a gun to celebrate his wedding. The man lost control of the automatic weapon, accidentally turning it on guests and injuring eight other relatives, according to reports. He was arrested after the deaths in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Saturday. It is still a tradition in the country to shoot into the air to celebrate weddings and sports victories, despite harsh punishments brought in to cut down on accidents.
Perhaps they could do a film version starring Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell, called something like A wedding, three funerals and a criminal trial?
See also: Family shot, beheaded in wedding dispute.
Monday, 9 August 2010
... but apart from that, the wedding went as planned.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
I recall a guide, telling us tourists as our coach wound its way through a mountainous Turkish village, a custom of the local populace.
"The people here cement a glass green bottle and a glass red bottle into their roof to show they have children. male and female."
Sure enough lots of wine and beer bottles sticking out of the tops of the buildings.
A more interested companion asked "Why do they do that?"
To which our guide responded..
"Because these are simple country people. And, they are idiots. The sun shines fiercely all day here. They have fires in their houses all the time. Its amazing any of them survive to breed."
To cap it all for him, Darwin Awards are only made for self-termination; accidentally wiping out your immediate relatives doesn't count.
(I kept wanting to feel sorry for the family, having to deal with such a tragedy, but I can't. I just kept thinking are these really the kind of backward twats Cameron is so keen to let into the country? What kind of nutters think it's normal to celebrate a family event with a machine gun and live rounds? They're expressly designed for killing humans.)
BQ, that is brilliant. And if the sun doesn't burn them down, no doubt Islamists will give a helping hand to show that consumption of alcohol leads to bad outcomes.
DH, why would anybody feel sorry for them? They knew the risks and/or didn't bring the guy up with basic weapons etiquette.
Andie McDowell
Now what would be a fitting demise?
'It is still a tradition in the country to shoot into the air to celebrate...'
A 'tradition', of course, that only dates back as far as the widespread availability of firearms, but doubtless apologists will be found to claim that the automatic gun is a 'cultural weapon'.
JH, strangled by her own undergarments.
McH, before that they fired arrows into the air, and before that they threw stones into the air.
MW, I can't see that being so popular somehow - I suspect that the loud noise has much to do with the appeal of the practice - although the potential for damage must have been even more spectacular.
Full marks, btw, to BQ's politely inquisitive fellow-passenger - on the only mountain coach trip I ever took in Turkey, the passengers, to a man, were virtually incoherent with terror as the drivers nonchalantly swapped seats, grovelled on the floor for lost cigarettes and occasionally leaned bodily out of the window to gesticulate at oncoming cars.
If that's how they all drive, letting off automatic weapons at random can hold no terrors at all.
McH, why not? In more peaceful countries, the stone-throwing developed into throwing rice or small bits of paper, and in more primitive countries it developed via arrows into live rounds.
MW - interesting thought; if the rice/confetti etc symbolises fertility, is there a parallel symbolism to the projectiles? Freud would have a field day!
(Oh, and can we call them primitive without the thought police coming round?)
BTW was it a shotgun wedding?
McH, the thought police are on their way.
IC, damn, why didn't I think of that gag? I'll use it next time :-)
Post a Comment