I'm in London about half a mile from the Aldgate bomb and less than 5 miles from all of the blasts. Think my nerves must have got rather blunted having gone through the pretty incessant bombing in the IRA campaign of the 70s and 80s - the Bishopsgate bomb in the early 90s shook my building and shattered glass on the other side of road, and the tremor shook the external stairwell - which my son was going down at the time and had to grab for a railing. I knew people who were in the Admiral Duncan when that was bombed by neo-fascists (I [wo]manned the helpline that evening), and I live less than a mile from the nail-bomb the neo-fascists let off in Brick Lane a couple of years ago. When I described the sound of the Bishopsgate bombing to my mother, she laughed and pointed out that she knew perfectly well what a bomb destroying a building sounded like having grown up during the WWII blitzkreig on London and Bristol and spent half the nights of her childhood in a bomb shelter. Bombings are pretty much a way of life in London - and I'm slightly surprised by the intensity of the response to this one. Maybe because of the level of disruption - the IRA and the neo-fascists tended to go for single buildings so the disruption was minimised. But also I think there's a bit of a shift from the "plucky blitz" approach Londoners' normally take, which may be related to an expectation of instantaneous communication but I think is also influenced by American responses to terrorist attacks. In the 70s, it would never have occurred to me to start ringing round friends (nor did it today) cos they'd all be out in the daytime anyway and, actually, the statistical chances of being caught in a bomb blast are pretty small. Far more likely to be in a traffic accident on a normal day! Remember, the networks are only down because ppl are flooding them with unnecessary calls so the emergency services have had to lock out personal calls. Actually, apart from the transport and communications disruption, this has been relatively considerate. Better than nail bombs in crowded pubs if you ask me. I'm starting to feel guilty for being so matter-of-fact, but, unless I'm going crazy, the Brits have always been matter-of-fact about bombing campaigns for as long as I remember? I can't imagine why Blair is banging on about threats to civilisation and preserving our way of life blah blah. What ridiculous rhetoric! Did Bush's speechwriters come up with that one for him? It's yet another bombing campaign, not the end of the bloody Western World. Jeez! I hasten to add that of course I care about the grief to the victims, friends and family of this particular attack and I care very much about the victims of violence everywhere in the world. Let's have a bit of stiff-upper-lip, for heaven's sake! And bear in mind that this is chickenshit compared to what people are dealing with in Iraq and Afghanistan. Paula Monica Murero wrote:
...BBC has created an online environment where people who are "blocked" in the areas of explosions are sending hundreds of e-mails, pictures, but also mms, sms and calls to tell what's going on - and ask what's going on - I was told by a friend who works at BBC. I am reading on the Internet those stories from central London...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4659237.stm
I have no TV here at home...the Internet is my only window on the world .....what a world.... ...I was in London just few days ago....
Monica ************************************************************ Prof. Monica Murero, PhD Director, E-Life International Institute Professor in Communication and Media Integration
University of Florence MICC - Center of Excellence for Media Integration and Communication Mailing address: Largo de Gasperi, 1 50137 Firenze (Italy)
Tel. + 390 55 4237401 Fax + 390 55 4237400 +390 550 5187 29 Website http://www.micc.unifi.it E-mail: monica.murero@unifi.it
International Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) AoIR Executive Board - Appointed Seat http://www.aoir.org/?q=node/133 http://www.captaindoc.com/interviews/interviews12.html
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