Following up to what I wrote on Thursday, yes indeed, four bombs exploded in London on Thursday. As it currently stands, over 50 people were killed and 700 injured. Reports say the number of deaths will rise to 60 or more once the scenes have all been cleared for forensics.
I spent Thursday worrying about my friends in London, although apparently completely unnecessarily, thank God. I spent Thursday reading the news, watching the news, and talking about it with my friends over tea. I still can’t really believe what happened. Strangely enough, people I hadn’t heard from in ages contacted me to see if I was okay – I guess they forgot that Manchester isn’t a suburb of London. The thought was there though.
As the events were unfolding, I spoke to some friends in London online. We kept each other updated with what was going on, as some of us couldn’t get news updates as the news servers were getting hammered. We did a roll call to make sure everyone was accounted for. Surprisingly, everyone was more in disbelief than panic. Once my London friends figured out how they were going to get home, a bunch of them went to the pub. They were all rather calm. It seems to be something engrained in them, engrained from years of threats from the IRA, and through the actions of their parents and grandparents from WWI and WWII. The next day, they were going about their business again.
It makes me think – as a New Zealander, I just can’t comprehend any of it. Not just the fact that bombs exploded and people died, but also the fact that most people seemed to take it with a grain of salt. Even most news organisations have been perfectly unbiased, which is refreshing after living in the United States for three years. New Zealanders are so incredibly lucky to live in such a peaceful and neutral country. The only events even slightly similiar we can relate it to are stories from our grandparents about fighting in a war we don’t really understand (New Zealand? Wars? Eh? Etc.) and the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by the French, in Auckland harbour in 1985 (which apparently Mitterand gave his personal authorisation for, that fucking bastard). But these things don’t compute – passed down tales from 60 years ago and the sinking of a Greenpeace ship. They just aren’t things that help me relate to what happened on Thursday.
My heart goes out to everyone affected by all the cowardly attacks that are going on – not just in London, but everywhere. It makes me sick to my stomach that there are people out there who are so full of hate that they want to kill innocent people in order to prove some sort of crazy point. I desperately wish everyone could just live their lives, and not enforce their views on others in such ways. I wish everyone could respect other people’s choice of religion, race, political stance, and country of residence. However, there is no reason that most of these things can not be discussed in a constructive way. Blowing shit up doesn’t solve anything.
I guess I’m just a hippie from New Zealand. Realistically, I know we can’t live in peace. But I can always hope, can’t I?