London explosion

[logophile]

JL and Gauche are yorkshire folk right? so unless we're talking a trip for work or something they're probably ok...

Good to know, EL. Thanks!

 

[Belegon]

It's times like this I become woefully aware of how poor my grasp of British geography is...

My memory is that Og is a safe distance away and unlikely to be in the city unless on a special trip...for some reason it is Pops that I keep worrying about...not sure where he lives.

 

[Honey123]

does anyone know Pops' IM addy??

 

[Kassiana]

My husband told me that as far as "objective facts" go for the cause of the bombing, the IRA may be responsible for all we know.

I'm so sorry for any of our UK friends who are having to deal with this now. I hope you and yours are okay.

 

[NoJo]

One of the best features of the British is how well we respond to these sort of situations.

That's the positive side of being "cold fish". Londoners are stoical and very dogged. I'm sure we'll be back to grumbling about the weather in a few weeks.

But I'm afraid a lot of pretty horrific images will appear on the web and on TV over the next days, when people upload the pictures and videos from their mobile phones.

 

[R. Richard]

Best wishes and prayers for those in the UK. Keep the news coming in. Tell me that everyone from at least Literotica is OK!

 

[Kassiana]

Being mostly introverts doesn't mean that the British have an easier time of dealing with tragedy, however. It just means that no matter how they deal with it, we don't know how they feel.

Kass, an American introvert who has repeatedly been told she has an "almost British" reserved quality.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

One of the best features of the British is how well we respond to these sort of situations.

While watching CNN, I was just thinking the very same thing. The British always seem to be classy, informed, calm and organized when handling a disaster. If this had happened in my town, people would be running screaming, carrying freshly looted televisions.

Bless those Brits.

 

[neonlyte]

Pops lives out west of London, Oxfordshire I think. He should be ok unless in London though I'm pretty sure he's mentioned that he works in Oxford.

 

[Honey123]

I have to say that when I heard London was getting the Olympics I immediately said that there would be bombings...

I realize that this may not be the specific reason for the bombing since there are many things happening in London at this time with so many political figures attending, but it just makese me so very sad and worried.

 

[oggbashan]

Ok

I only heard about this an hour ago. I was at another prime target for bombers far away from London.

My eldest daughter teaches in Central London. She and her pupils are unaffected.

Six bombs and 33 or so deaths will not change anything to benefit the terrorists. The eventual reaction will be contempt for the bombers, just as it was, and is, for the IRA's past bombing campaigns in the UK.

Earlier this week I was discussing local bombing during World War II. A quarter of a million bombs, shells (6 inch calibre and larger) and rockets fell on the County of Kent in World War II. London had more.

Whoever did this is not going to win the war. Nazi Germany tried harder for longer and they reaped the whirlwind in response. I think the main effect is going to be in the Muslim community in the UK. They will feel threatened because some equate Muslim with fundamental fanatic. The terrorists are not Muslims. They pervert and break many of that religion's fundamental tenets. What might happen is that the fanatics (who are not necessarily terrorists or bombers) will be rejected by the majority of the UK's Muslims. Any UK Muslims now need their non-Muslim friends more than ever. If their community is supported by everyone else then the bombers will have nowhere to hide.

Og

 

[NoJo]

It's times like this I become woefully aware of how poor my grasp of British geography is...

My memory is that Og is a safe distance away and unlikely to be in the city unless on a special trip...for some reason it is Pops that I keep worrying about...not sure where he lives.

Pops lives near Oxford, a safe distance away from London.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Whoever did this is not going to win the war. Nazi Germany tried harder for longer and they reaped the whirlwind in response. I think the main effect is going to be in the Muslim community in the UK. They will feel threatened because some equate Muslim with fundamental fanatic. The terrorists are not Muslims. They pervert and break many of that religion's fundamental tenets. What might happen is that the fanatics (who are not necessarily terrorists or bombers) will be rejected by the majority of the UK's Muslims. Any UK Muslims now need their non-Muslim friends more than ever. If their community is supported by everyone else then the bombers will have nowhere to hide.

Agreed. There's nothing that will piss the bombers off more than the sight of Muslims and non-Muslims working together to clear the rubble and help each other out of the wreckage.

Shanglan

 

[Guest]

I only heard about this an hour ago. I was at another prime target for bombers far away from London.

My eldest daughter teaches in Central London. She and her pupils are unaffected.

Six bombs and 33 or so deaths will not change anything to benefit the terrorists. The eventual reaction will be contempt for the bombers, just as it was, and is, for the IRA's past bombing campaigns in the UK.

Earlier this week I was discussing local bombing during World War II. A quarter of a million bombs, shells (6 inch calibre and larger) and rockets fell on the County of Kent in World War II. London had more.

Whoever did this is not going to win the war. Nazi Germany tried harder for longer and they reaped the whirlwind in response. I think the main effect is going to be in the Muslim community in the UK. They will feel threatened because some equate Muslim with fundamental fanatic. The terrorists are not Muslims. They pervert and break many of that religion's fundamental tenets. What might happen is that the fanatics (who are not necessarily terrorists or bombers) will be rejected by the majority of the UK's Muslims. Any UK Muslims now need their non-Muslim friends more than ever. If their community is supported by everyone else then the bombers will have nowhere to hide.

Og

Exactly right, Og.

What gets me is that they hit the Edgeware Road station. That's an area with a predominantly Muslim population (well, a high percentage anyway).

We WILL carry on as normal, while supporting those who need it. We have every time in the past.

Lew is fine, btw, just in case anyone else is wondering (I've had a few PMs asking after him). He's miles away from London, just as I am.

Joe, it's good to hear from you. You're the only person from Lit I know who actually lives in London.

Lou

 

[Belegon]

My eldest daughter teaches in Central London. She and her pupils are unaffected.


Any UK Muslims now need their non-Muslim friends more than ever. If their community is supported by everyone else then the bombers will have nowhere to hide.

Og

Very, very glad to hear that your daughter and the children are unaffected.


This is such a key sentiment. The people in your community have not changed overnight. They remain as human and as much at home as you do. I am lucky enough to live and work in a fairly diverse enviroment and I rejoice in that diversity. I hope that the UK embraces it's own if indeed the perpetrators do prove to have been muslim extremists.

 

[oggbashan]

Very, very glad to hear that your daughter and the children are unaffected.

Thank you. 60% of her class are Muslim.

My youngest daughter is on holiday well away from London. However I have seen a picture of a building, that she visits often, spattered with blood.

During the IRA bombing campaigns in London I had passed through areas hours before bombs were detonated. Nearest miss was 15 minutes and some people who worked for me were slightly injured in one blast.

My extended family were bombed out of their homes by a Zeppelin in World War I. During World War II two elderly great-aunts refused to leave their top floor flat during air raids with the comment 'We had to move for The Kaiser. We aren't moving for a jumped-up corporal.' They didn't.

The response to terrorists is to continue to live as normally as possible.

Og

 

[Guest]

This is such a key sentiment. The people in your community have not changed overnight. They remain as human and as much at home as you do. I am lucky enough to live and work in a fairly diverse enviroment and I rejoice in that diversity. I hope that the UK embraces it's own if indeed the perpetrators do prove to have been muslim extremists.

Oh, we will, be sure of that.

Of course, there will be some wankers (those with BNP leanings, if I must utter their name), who will use this as any excuse to "get the immigrants" out, but thankfully, that is not a sentiment held by the VAST majority of people in this country. There will be no "backlash", not if most of us can help it.

An organisation linked to Al Qaeda has apparently claimed responsibilty for this on their website, although this hasn't been confirmed by official sources.

 

[Dar~]

So sorry that this has happened to you guys as well. Hope everyone is well.

 

[Guest]

So sorry that this has happened to you guys as well. Hope everyone is well.

Thanks, Dar, but there is no "as well". We've been dealing with terrorists and bombings for years and years, as Og pointed out. They will never break our spirit or disrupt our lives.

 

[Dar~]

Thanks, Dar, but there is no "as well". We've been dealing with terrorists and bombings for years and years, as Og pointed out. They will never break our spirit or disrupt our lives.

I just meant recent history. Sorry if I offended. It's just sad that it keeps happening. Are the terrorists so dumb as to think that horrific things will make us give in to their way of thinking? I don't understand.

 

[scheherazade_79]

Signing In

Thank you for the concern. I was quite a way away. I've accounted for all but two of my friends in London. I don't know what to say. I know it was a matter of when, rather than if, but the whole thing is just horrible.

They don't know whether it was the work of suicide bombers or just abandoned packages. Either way, several people must have boarded buses or trains in London, looked at all the people around them, and known that they were soon going to be blown to bits. If they are still alive I don't know how they can live with themselves.

 

[oggbashan]

Nothing is new

As well as World Wars I and II we have had bombers in London since Guy Fawkes.

In the 19th and early 20th Century we had anarchists.

In the 20th we had the IRA and other bombers including deluded individuals.

We have been warned that the UK was a target since before 9/11.

Back in the 1970s I was ordering precautions to be taken on our office buildings in London to reinforce glass to reduce splinters if a bomb exploded nearby. I was summoned to examine a potential bomb at one of our offices in the early 1980s (It wasn't. It was just a package that had been inadequately labelled and I had to call off the Bomb Squad who were on the way).

A suspect bomb was investigated in our town this week. World War II ordnance is found weekly throughout our county. Our children are warned NOT to touch any metal object washed up on our beaches.

We live with the threat. So do most Europeans.

What we do not do, apart from having a slight suspicion of abandoned luggage, is change our daily lives. We continue to be who we are and to do what we want to do despite the threats and the actual bombs. Tonight London will be quieter than normal. Tomorrow people will go to work as normally as possible. By Saturday night London will be partying as usual.

Og

 

[BlackShanglan]

I just meant recent history. Sorry if I offended. It's just sad that it keeps happening. Are the terrorists so dumb as to think that horrific things will make us give in to their way of thinking? I don't understand.

It becomes self-perpetuating. I read an interesting article dealing with a study that found that hatred triggers chemical reactions that could be addictive. There's a sort of "high" from the adrenalin and other factors. After a while, it feels good to hate. And of course it gives people a sense of purpose. It's amazing what people will do just to have that.

There's also a sort of bubble-thinking involved. That is, the thinker's perceptions of the world become isolated in their own little self-sustaining bubble that keeps out contradictory information. Of course we probably all have our own bubbles at some range from us, but in this sort of case they are very small, very well defended little bubbles with their own self-sufficient system of beliefs and reactions. There's not much from reality getting in, because that would disturb the fervent but at times irrational beliefs involved. In that hot-house of paranoia and intense faith in ideas not supported by most of reality, pretty much anything is possible. Just look at Nazi Germany.

Shanglan

 

[matriarch]

Home, ridiculously safe, feeling angry, very very angry.......distraught for the senseless slaughter.

Thank you all for your thoughts and good wishes.

 

[Rhys]

Grr. Is anyone else trying to call from the west coast getting a circuit busy signal?