Tony Blair today visited a school and was asked by a teacher if he would lead a discussion on what constituted a ‘Tragedy’.
So our illustrious leader stood up, faced the class and took control asking the class for an example of ‘Tragedy’.
One little boy stood up and offered: - “if my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the farmyard and a tractor runs over him and kills him, that would be a tragedy”.
“No,” said our leader, “that would be an accident”.
A little girl raised her hand: “if a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing everyone on board, that would be a tragedy”.
“I’m afraid not” explained the P.M., “that’s what we would call a great loss”.
The room went silent with no other children volunteering. Blair searched the room, “isn’t there someone who can give me an example of a tragedy?”
Finally, after an awkward silence, at the back of the room a small boy raised his hand and in a quiet voice said “if an aircraft carrying you, Mr. Blair, was shot down by friendly fire and the plane exploded and you were killed, that would be a tragedy”.
“Fantastic” exclaimed Blair, “that’s absolutely right and can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?”
“Well” said the boy, “it has to be a tragedy, because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t have been an accident”.
2006-10-12
23:51:32
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14 answers
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asked by
billtheangler
5