"I blame my satnav for what happened."

Err, no mate, blame yourself for being a numptie

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/26/man-lost-three-days-m4

I blame his inability to speak English, despite living here for who knows how long.

I blame his mental retardation.

twit!

Where’s Darwin when you need him?

Racist gather around and cast stones hey

Nothing racist about suggesting he was from Numpt

Where’s Darwin when you need him?

wheres the old guy’s insulin when he needs it, I’d imagine any diabetic unexpectedly deprived of their medication for hours, let alone days would be capable of making pretty pour decisions

Nothing racist about wondering what someone of that age is doing living here without having enough of a grasp of the language to ask directions, although obviously my point has deeper connotations.

Nevermind the guy who can’t use a satnav, why are innocent people being tracked all over the country by their numberplates, especially since they are so easily stolen or faked!

I blame his inability to speak English, despite living here for who knows how long.

Interesting how you have arrived at this conclusion, given the lack of relevant information in the article in the link…

Poor bloke must have been scared out of his wits, and old people often aren’t tech savvy. I think a firmer grasp of the english language may have helped him though. Glad he got home safe.
Edit for elf

stopping to buy coffee and ask the way, but people did not understand his question

Er, Where does it say that he can’t speak English?

What has his country of birth got to do with his bad decision making?

but people did not understand his question

I think elf was referring to “despite living here for who knows how long. “

The article makes no mention of how long said numpty has been resident in UK.

To be fair “despite living here for who knows how long. ” can be taken as a statement or question of who actually knows how long , if your gonna twist words to suit your own ends 😉

So maybe he’s got a strong accent? So would you if you emigrated.
Why do you immediately raise the issue of the fact that he’s an immigrant, rather than the fact that the bloke is 72 as a reason for his plight?

Poor old fart wandered around the South of England, in distress, for three days and not one of his fellow countrymen could be bothered to try to understand his problem and ensure he got home safely?

Makes you proud to be British doesn’t it? 🙁

where there is blame there is a claim if directions incorrect i say sue um, my co pilot sat nav cannot take me to cambridge without getting lost on works pda so never use it…worlds gone made not my fault mister

perhaps he got unlucky artist and spoke to someone foreign I mean they are everywhere these days[copyright Daily Mail]

The sat nav was broken FWIW

YOu can tell the difference between a statement and a Question by the ? unless the poster made a mistake and that seems unlikely in this case

although obviously my point has deeper connotations.

Go on then, enlighten us.

Perfectly possible to argue in a sensible, non judgemental and rational way that immigrants to Britain should have a knowledge of the language.

Bet you can’t manage it though.

but people did not understand his question

Maybe they were thick? Maybe the people he asked din’t speak good English themselves.

You’ve jumped on a single point, made a load of assumptions based on your own interpretation of things. Without much information. The only ‘clue’ we might have that he may possibly have had difficulty with English, is in the fact that he has a ‘foreign’ name. So do I, and my English isn’t all that bad I don’t think. We know nothing of this man’s background, level of linguistic fluency, whether or not he has a speech impediment, was confused and bewildered, etc. You’ve simply jumped on the fact he has a ‘foreign’ name to make your assumptions. Why?

Assumptions based on ignorance aren’t always that accurate…

Maybe they were thick?

He said he had been up and down to London three times, sleeping in his car each night and stopping to buy coffee and ask the way

Well he was in London so it’s a real possibility 😀
Not going to accuse me of being racist against londoners are you Fred?

Damn foreigners getting lost on our roads, or is it damn old people getting lost, or even damn foreign old people getting lost
Whatever, it’s a disgrace I tell you A DISGRACE!!!!
When I get old please take my licence off me in case I outrage the Internet by getting lost and confused…. 🙄

Given his age it must have been pretty distressing for him and his family.

and its still the case that he didn’t have his insulin – his questions might not have made much sense to other people and he might not have been able to understand or remember their answers. When people are having sugar highs or lows they themselves are not that self-aware of the struggle they are having and they also get pretty dispondent and apathetic so do very little to help themselves, which might be why he’d just give up at the end of each day and why he was only asking for directions rather than help

Wouldn’t have happened up North you know.

He’d have been taken in, fed, watered, adopted as part of the family and taught how to drink tea from a saucer, build a ship, design a hardtail and spit at the gas fire.

We’re nice like that. 😀

lol Rusty.

If he needed insulin being without for three days would have put him in a very poor way – unable to drive let alone make sense

More likely he is a non insulin dependent diabetic

A couple of facts, his wife was visiting family in Morocco, so it’s safe to assume that he was Moroccan, and quite possibly with a pretty strong accent, so that may not have helped, plus he was almost certainly asking for help getting back to Trowbridge, so it’s highly likely those he asked didn’t have a clue where it was. There were people I was at college with in Bristol didn’t know where Chippenham was, which is only thirty miles away. Trowbridge is in the south of Wiltshire, and the county town, but many more people would know Swindon. All the poor old soul needed was to get to the west-bound M4, but he probably didn’t know to look for Swindon or Bath, which would have got him much closer to home where he might have got clear directions. Bet he didn’t have a road atlas with him, or the knowledge to use it properly. Always carry one, even with three different map systems on my phone, just in case. But then, I know how to read a map, and many, many people don’t.

I was reading a book earlier about the history of maps and mapping (I’m a real geek like that) and the final chapter finds the author talking about sat navs (or prat navs as he calls them) and how they remove any sense of where you actually are, how people using them just don’t think, how they’re regarded as infallible and people slavishly follow their every word.

Ask someone who’s “navigated” from A -> B using a sat nav, ask them what towns they went through/near and they won’t have a clue – the sat nav narrows your view down to the road that you’re on. A map (you remember those old fashioned paper things?) gives you the bigger picture.

Then I read this story in The Times on the way home. There’s obviously more to it than meets the eye – maybe he couldn’t understand the directions or maybe he’d programmed it incorrectly, maybe he was confused due to his diabetes or his age or the bad weather – snow really changes the perspective and how the landmarks look. Or maybe he really is very stupid.

At least he got home OK eventually.

A couple of facts, his wife was visiting family in Morocco, so it’s safe to assume that he was Moroccan

No, reasonable to assume his WIFE was Moroccan – although not necessarily the case. My old neighbour, her sister lived in Morocco because she was married to a Moroccan albeit British herself.

Whatever his ethnic origin, he’s clearly a numpty. He had ample opportunity to purchase a map, sit down and study it. It may be that he can’t understand maps which, with the best will in the world still makes him a numpty in that particular area of human expertise. Many of us are numpties at something 🙂

A bloke once stopped me in Ludlow and asked me for directions. He was on his way to Whitchurch or something and had accidentally come into town despite having to actually turn off the main road to get where he was. He waved a map helplessly at me, it was clearly all gibberish to him.

I got stopped on the Mendips late one night and was asked for directions to Exeter!

Well his name’s Mohammed Bellazrak, so he’s unlikely to be Scottish Lutheran or Icelandic, so I think it’s fairly safe to draw the assumption both he and his wife are North African. Sadly, though, he, like many others, doesn’t seem able to program a satnav properly, and assumes it’s infallible. Certainly, the interface of some satnavs takes some getting used to, CoPilot Live 8 on my phone isn’t the clearest thing I’ve used, and I always look at a route on a map and do a run through on the phone before using it, most people just accept what the little voice tells them.

Possibly his lack of medication made him sound confused or slightly slurred or mumbling?

Village mentality living in a global world. Even racists have access to the internet nowadays.

Morocco is a great place. Sadly parts of england aren’t.

if he didn’t have the sense to buy a map, after 3 days, he’s not safe to have a driving license.

stopping to buy coffee and ask the way, but people did not understand his question

So was he still looking for a coffee shop?

If his English is really hard to understand he could get a job in a call centre!!

so I think it’s fairly safe to draw the assumption both he and his wife are North African

Not at all!

My first name is Jewish, I’m not. My surname is also the name of a county that I’m not from.

Yes it’s true he might not be the brightest guy around but leave off him. Wtf are you trying to gain by slagging him off on the internet?

Possibly his lack of medication made him sound confused or slightly slurred or mumbling?

If he was slurring and mumbling through lack of medication, I doubt he’d have been able to continue driving….for 3 days.

Village mentality living in a global world. Even racists have access to the internet nowadays.

Oh come on hora. Just because someones dared to suggest that people living in the UK should speak the language, it doesn’t make them racist. How do you think you’d get on in *insert country* with no lingo? I expect asking directions would be a challenge.

Morocco is a great place. Sadly parts of england aren’t.

I’d be willing to bet you that not all places in morocco are great. I understand if your corner of england is a bit crap, many of our areas are fine thanks.
For the record I haven’t given the guy a bashing and am glad that he got home safe, whether he speaks english or not.

My muslim neighbour gave me a Christmas card. Should I tell them it doesn’t follow racial-stereotype so they must be wrong?