The London thing
September 911 didn't affect my life too much. It was terrible, and I watched all the footage and talked about it but it didn't really have an effect on my daily life.
This London thing turned my apartment into a bit of a communication centre last night. Both my housemates have a sibling each working in London. The female housemate's brother works in the area of the first bomb blast but was already well at work by 9am. He was able to squeeze off an sms before mobile communication struggled and gave up the ghost. My male housemate lost it. He totally freaked out that he hadn't heard anything from his sister. He was well on the verge of outright panic. We told him a heap of times that it was crazy hard to get messages out but he just kept getting more and more worried. Evenutally we found out that his sister had to wait in a line to use a telephone. Each person was only able to ring one person - which is totally fair enough. He was relieved hearing that, but not at all settled. I've never seen anyone just dissolve into panic like that before.
Strangely, no one at work has mentioned it all day. After September 11, it was all anyone could talk about. No one really worked, we just kept checking out the news on the internet. The reaction hasn't been the same at all, no one is surprised and it feels like no one feels safe anymore and the best way to tackle that is to not think or talk about it. It's all a bit surreal.
posted by Adam @ 1:40 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
You live in Australia, which as far as I know, is not all that high on any terrorist hit lists. You are probably the safest of anyone.
You are right about it not being water-cooler conversation, though. I guess hearing about bombings and such nearly every day (at least that's how it is here) on the news desensitizes people to a point that it doesn't really affect them anymore. It's sad, really, this new world outlook.
I hope it is less desensitized and more a helpless feeling. It is hard to know how to act after hearing that sort of news: do you continue with your typical routines, can you make jokes about everyday things & laugh? I am just not sure.
The media machine in Australia is totally trying to fear up the locals. There is all sorts of articles and government annoucements that Australia is in danger.
I don't reckon it is at all, which lends me to think that the political agenda is to keep everyone a bit nervous so there won't be any kind of backlash to send troops to follow Bush. Can't help but feel slightly manipulated.
To the question of coping after a tragedy, I e-mailed a mate and he said that no one at his work was talking about it either. I got the feeling that people are just over talking about these sorts of things.
What is left to be said, that hasn't already?
That's so true A,
it has all been said, and been rehashed and the same conclusions drawn and horror expressed... repeatedly.
Perhaps we simply accept that this behaviour is now a part of the world we live in, we have evolved into it and is is merely a (revolting) part of our lives.
By accepting this we are not condoning the behaviour in any way, just choosing to not sensationalise it, which in some ways is the aim of it all.
If the aim is to spread fear, but we all get totally over it and massively desensitised to it all, then the terrorism starts to fail to accomplish it's goal.
This means that they have to go bigger and more scarey or think of other means of attack.
Unfortunately this isn't going to be fixed with force, it's human nature to fight against oppression and to fight against the odds. The only possible way for all this chaos to stop is for the West to understand the Middle East and vise versa.
The world will have to go down that path eventually, the question is, how much damage must be done before anyone important realises it.
You are so right, Admanzeh. But as long as Bush is in charge, no one is going to stop and understand the other side because they will be too busy blowing each other up.
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