Thoughts on post-Sep 11

(Current song: Coldplay "Don't Panic")

Sorry this hasn't been updated, I've been very busy, and am surviving on sleep deprivation. I've been up since 10am yesterday and still got a full shift to get thru. Got a quite disturbing media report from Belgrade, will translate when I have time.

The racism and prejudice and hatred arising in ordinary people on all sides of the equation after the New York bombing sickens and worries me. On one side, you've got those wanting to nuke Kabul and the Gaza Strip which will somehow (!?) solve the problem. On the other you have people who say "they had it coming". The US has made a lot of enemies, and done some dastardly and dark things overseas, but 30,000 odd civilians going about their business had no involvement or interest in such deeds. Just as common, decent people in Kabul, Tehran or Gaza don't deserve the tag of terrorist just because by some accident of birth they were born Palestinian. These people, like sadly so many in the past in other countries such as Serbia, Angola, Germany, China, Iraq and so many others, were sacrificed by some person or people totally lacking in any humanity for some political statement.

Somehow I like to believe that "we live in a beautiful world" ... *sigh* It gets harder. And the media aren't helping either. Grr.

(Note: at the time 30,000 was the media's estimate of the casualties, which later fell to a figure around 2,900. It's interesting that in tragedies of this kind in the Western world, the figure usually starts high and falls dramatically over the following days, while in the tsunamis and earthquakes of the developing world, the figure usually starts low and escalates persistently. Is our society really so afraid?)