Some real life nasty stuff that actually hurts people is happening in the world if you can bear to tear yourselves away from JR/RB for a second.

[Callisto]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7701269.stm

Really, an alien reading the In The News section of MN would (rightly) think that we have our priorities all wrong. No news has been discussed this week apart from endless threads about 2 pathetic, insecure men. How bizarre when there is the US election, credit crunch, Pakistan financial meltdown, etc etc to discuss. Perhaps you could all stop agonising about irrelevant crap and put some of your energies into something that actually matters?

[jimjamshaslefttheyurt]

expat I thought someone said you were having that baby today??

[filz]

has anyone taped (onto dvd) the family?

this is more important to me atm

I downloaded it yesterday (IT TOOK 94 mins) and it would nt let me watch it

[filz]

she is having it tommorrow on my birthday and she will call it after me.....male or female version, i dont mind. It is a scottish name after all

[morningpaper]

Have you seen the papers? Because this is the lead story on pretty much ALL of them. Perhaps you should write to the editor of the Independent and get them to sort their priorities out too?

[filz]

eleven?

[ForeverOptimistic]

I agree with hattrickortreat. If you want to discuss those topics you should start threads on them. Although there is nothing more off putting than being told you MUST discuss something, it is like being back at school.

[LittleBellaLugosi]

No, can't bear to tear myself away from JR RB gate.

[morningpaper]

I think the JB/RB thing is generating so much debate because it IS frivolous and also it's easy for peopleonthestreet to have an opinion about it and argue about it coherently, which people rather enjoy doing as a bit of distraction from daily life and their plummetting pensions

[Upwind]

What morningpaper said

FINALLY we agree on something besides Mock the Week...

[Flightattendant4]

Callisto, if people wanted to talk about that stuff, they would start threads about it. Perhaps this is where they come to escape the 'real, nasty stuff' that is actually happening in real life to them and their families?

By the way, there aren't any aliens reading it so it doesn't matter.

[filz]

ds1 reckons you can buy real aliens from the pound shop

[darkpunk]

i'm not the slightest bit interested in the u.s elections thank you....so don't come on here telling me what i should be worried/talking about...

[tatt]

If any aliens ever chose to read mumsnet I suspect they would see the rudeness of the OP as being an indication of the general lack of civilisation on earth. Possibly they would see the others things the OP complains about as symptoms of the same problem.

[DisapprovingAlien]

Actually I am reading and am deeply disapproving of all of you.

You've let me down. It's not big, it's not clever, and it doesn't help me argue the case in the inter-galactic committee against Earth being demolished to make way for the planetary by-pass...

[Flightattendant4]

She seems to think we are not 'real' and thus already having 'real life' problems and being affected by all that 'real' stuff out there. That's what gets me. Like the credit crunch doesn't affect Mumsnetters but we ought to be talking about it because of all the poor people it does affect - none of us then

[jimjamshaslefttheyurt]

[darkpunk]

disapprovingalien ....actually, i really like the intellectual threads on mn..i think there should be more of them..

[darkpunk]

dittany; she's in a band called the "satanic sluts"....?

[ewwwmy2shoesarefullofblood]

Callisto I;m with you
I started a thread in the news and it got 8 post's and it is a much more important topic thatn those 2 twats.
I thought that is why we had a celeb topic, to stop this.

[jujumaman]

Anna, ahem

You have been known to pop up on threads that don't pertain to parenting in the slightest and contribute very interestingly to debates on the wider world. And quite right too. MN would be .. another site if it was really only about parenting.

OP, you have a very good point because the whole nation has jumped on the Ross bandwagon in a slightly mindless Diana style. But what can you say about rape in the Congo except it's terrible. It's not really debatable is it? And debate is what gets threads going.

[Anna8888]

I didn't say it was illegal to have discussions on MN about subjects not pertaining to parenting.

What I said was that this was a parenting forum. As such, I don't think that any poster has a right to slate other posters because they are not posting on Topics of World Importance

[Callisto]

Sorry, had to leave and back now for 5 mins only. I assumed I'd get a flaming for posting what I did, though I hadn't expected to be called patronising and was suprised that some people think I'm telling them what to do. Also, personal insults from a couple of you don't bother me, just prove that you have nothing of value to say.

I think that the Congo is debatable but if we can only post news stories that are debatable then it would discount most of the threads in this sub-forum.

I am interested in other peoples thoughts (and there are some immensly interesting, thougtful and informed people on MN which is why I enjoy reading through posts on a whole variety of subjects) about UN involvement in the Congo, if it should be more/less, if we should get over the fact that we were once an Empire and actually involve ourselves in African politics as a whole, why the Congo is such a problem and if there is anything anyone can do to solve it.

So to me there are lots of issues that can be discussed. I'm not well informed about African politics so I come here to MN because I know that there are people who are well-informed and who can give me aspects that I wouldn't get from a newspaper.