Sunday, July 24, 2005

Terrorise this

Some of you may wonder why I haven't written about the London bombings.
I don't know really.
Possibly because everything has been said about it there is to say. I share most of these sentiments. Check Roman's entry on that. Pretty much my thoughts exactly.
It was horrible.
I am dreadfully sorry for all the ones involved and hurt in this.
But it was expected.
There is most likely more to come, as has been proven just the other day.
I am not scared. Somehow I feel dissociated, but then, I feel that about most traumatic incidents that would possibly overwhelm me if they got close to me.
A bomb exploded and we just move on. Hey, that's life today, isn't it? Most people I know developed some sort of gallow's humour about it. Take for instance this job ad I saw the other day... posted about two days before the first bombings.
"Just convenient 20 mins from King's Cross!"
Yeah. That's gonna get you replies these days.

But what are ya gonna do? Freak out? Sit on the train every day and wonder whether it will be your last ride?
Tighten security? In London? How?

I guess my Dad ain't too happy about the thought that I will move to London eventually, but what can I do?

I just feel like I am watching the whole chaos from the outside, like some distant observer, and the weirdness of it all almost makes me giggle, God forbid. Just because it is so predictable.
The paper headlines. The Independent mentioning in a small sentence that it is speculated, but not sure if there were suicide bombers. The Sun splattering the word Suicide Bombers all over the front page like it is an iron fact. This is top material for teaching the media classes of my uni course. It's the British media in action.

And then there was the bizarreness of the reporting of the first bombings. Most of the footage came from "citizen reporters", not professional journalists, while it happened. They speak of a media revolution, but I really just wonder, what does that say about mankind? A tube carriage gets blown up, people are torn to shreds, and someone has nothing better to do than get his mobile out and take a picture? Apparently, a lot of the footage the news channels got sent in was too gory to publish.
What kind of interactive sensationalism is that?

And then there is this notion of comparison that always struck me as bizarre, and I just found this article in the Guardian about it: how they speak of 7/7 as the English 9/11. Like it is a fuckin public holiday, and thank God now we have to add some drama to add to our history as well.
And America whines: but we had more people dying than you, so we're off worse.

I dunno. Call me a jaded, cynical bitch. But how united are we really in those moments, or how suspicious of each other? And they say events like this can bring out the best in people, but they also bring out the worst.
I guess the reason why I am so detached is because I don't know what it is I learn from it, because it is nothing I don't already know, and if these events are any evidence for human qualities at all, they point in both directions.

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