A nation resounds

The images of towers burning, the second plane hitting the tower, people jumping and the towers falling are what will remain with us all from 911.

I felt disconnected from the events in Spain before I switched on that manufacturer of the global village- the 24 hour news channel. Having seen the pictures I now feel the pain of the Spanish. It is not, however, the distorted trains which I will remember from what I have just seen on the news.

What I will remember is the awesome crowd scenes from today’s demonstration/national mourning. I will never forget the howls of crowds of millions of people rising into the air. The views of fields of umbrellas will always stay with me as I watched a nation resounding with condemnation, anger, hurt and disbelief in my lounge. I don’t recall such scenes after 911- I guess the predominant theme I detected from this side of the pond was disbelief in the first days. Spain’s anger seems to have come sooner than Americas (or at least it has been displayed for all the world to see sooner).

To see a nation- including the Basques- rise as one man in the face of such threat is an amazing thing. I admire the solidarity of the Spanish- it will serve them well.

It matters not that ‘only’ 199 have died (the last a six month old baby- what a poignant symbol of this depravity) and 1500 were injured. It is clear that if all the bombs had gone off, and all in the main station the devasation would have been on the level of 911. The fact is, however, that this attack was as depraved in its execution as 911 even if it turned out to be somewhat less ‘successful’ in producing casualties.

Terrorism is a modern scourge. I have been close to it personally-though fortunately never too close enough. I have been close enough to feel the blast of two large bombs in London. A friend of mine escaped likely death by walking a different route to usual, thus being a few more meters away from a bomb than she would otherwise have been. But those events barely touched me as I didn’t actually see death and destruction, and so far I have not lost anyone close to me to terrorism.

Terrorism can bring a whole nation out onto the streets. It can bring the worlds planes to the ground. It can put travel firms out of business. And it does all this not so much through the death toll it causes, but through the fear it brings.

We may have forgotten ‘The troubles’ in Northern Ireland, but during that time ‘1 out of 500 people lost their life, and 1 out of 50 were maimed or injured. There was no single human being in Northern Ireland who didn’t know someone who had suffered.’ (John Hume- The Guardian 24/09/2001)

That is what terrorism can do to a nation, and yet even at the height of the troubles, you were more likely to die in a car crash than through terrorism in Northern Ireland.

Rationally we are more at risk from our dangerous driving, but terrorism by its very nature knows no rational thought. It is irrational in its execution, often these days with very unclear aims or strategies, but more than that it is irrational in its effects on us.

In this day of the global media, images of terror will continue to have their impact and affect the nations of the world. Maybe the fatigue I spoke of in my previous post only exists in those who- like me until a few minutes ago- do not turn on their TV sets and allow this horror into their homes.