Iran – topping the world schadenfreude league (reaction to the London riots)

[Prometheus Bound]

Iran – topping the world schadenfreude league
Tuesday 9 August 2011 20.00 BST

Ouch. No sooner had the riots started in London than delighted international onlookers began to revel in schadenfreude.

It started with the Times of India fretting about the safety of holding the 2012 Olympic Games in the city: the similarity in tone to the handwringing in British papers about Delhi's preparations for the Commonwealth Games in 2010 may have just been a coincidence.

....Russia, however, was firmly putting the boot in. Pravda's English-language website asked, "London riots: Divine justice?", and linked the situation with the UK's decision to topple Libya, while another article was headlined: "Britain falls victim to its own cult of absurd tolerance".

China's government did little to hide its delight either. .....

But the prize for the smuggest reaction must go to Iran, a nation still smarting from condemnation of their own brutal crackdown on demonstrations over a contested election. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, called on the police in the UK "to exercise restraint and behave in a controlled way". He then advised "the British government to start dialogue with the protesters and to listen to their demands." Finally, he suggested that an independent human rights organisation be allowed to investigate the killing of Mark Duggan "to protect the civil rights and civil liberties".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/aug/09/london-riots-iran

[Rex]

1. Sucks when the shoe is on the other foot.

[Prometheus Bound]

2. Oh, the humiliation!

[izquierdista]

3. Some tea to go with your crow??

[Vehl]

4. And these Iranians laughed when the Shuttle blew up

They thought they were making a point to the Israelis (there was an Israeli astronaut) in that ill fated mission.Little did they know that they also made an enemy out of nearly a Billion Indians (Kalpana Chawla, a female Indian astronaut was also in that shuttle). Those who take pleasure in the misfortune of others are sick bastards.