Some things you can't teach

Yasser Arafat is visiting a school. In one class, he asks the students if anyone can give him an example of a tragedy.

One little boy stands up and offers that "If my best friend who lives next door was playing in the street when a car came along and killed him, that would be a tragedy."

"No," Arafat says, "That would be an ACCIDENT."

A girl raises her hand. "If a school bus carrying fifty Palestinian children drove off a cliff, killing everyone involved... that would be a tragedy."

"I'm afraid not," explains Arafat. "That is what we would call a GREAT LOSS."

The room fell silent; none of the other children volunteered.

"What?" asks Arafat, "Isn't there any one here who can give me an example of a tragedy?"

Finally, a boy in the back raises his hand. In a timid voice, he speaks: "If an airplane carrying Yasser Arafat, Colonel Gaddafi, and Saddam Hussein were blown up by a bomb, that would be a tragedy."

"Wonderful!" Arafat beams. "Marvelous! And can you tell me WHY that would be a tragedy?"

"Well," says the boy, "because it wouldn't be an accident, and it certainly would be no great loss!"