From one of our wiredsafety.org volunteers:
I used to live in London but haven't done for many years although I visit regularly and have a lot of friends there, including a young couple who both work in the city and have a three month old baby daughter. I have been checking on them and everyone else I know there all day. So far, everyone is fine - as far as I know.
It is a terrible thing but not entirely unexpected. Anyone living in a major city (as I do - just not London) anywhere in the world knows that there is possibility they may be targeted by these complete cowards who place no value on human life at all. But they will not win - what they do not seem to realize is that people become stronger and band together tighter when the fabric of their society is threatened in this way.
We have a lot of volunteers in the UK and some in and around the City of London; as far as I know everyone is OK although I have not heard from everyone - yet. But it is difficult to tell right now as not everyone checks in daily and I expect a lot of people are on vacation this time of year.
Rudy Giuliani was in London when the attacks were carried out - I can only begin to imagine how he must have felt, considering that it was not too long ago that the heart of New York was ripped apart by terrorist attacks but, fate placed the man who just happened to be the mayor of New York on 9/11 in London. He was having breakfast, a normal man carrying on his life the same as (almost) everyone else in London this morning, just around the corner from one of the blasts. He appeared on TV here and offered words of support and condolence to the British people.
I have had many, many e-mails today from WiredSafety people and others, from many parts of the world, who are appalled and concerned about what has happened and were not at all sure whether I live in or near London. The Internet is a strange medium sometimes. We know people from our online world but suddenly realize, when something of this magnitude takes place, that we know less about them than we thought and care more about them than we knew.
But that's really just human nature and there are more people in this world blessed with love, compassion and big hearts than there are cruel, twisted extremists and, when all is said and done, the horrors they create may cause temporary chaos - but they are a minority who will never break the spirit of the majority, regardless of race, religion, colour, sex or age. Of that I am certain.
I used to live in London but haven't done for many years although I visit regularly and have a lot of friends there, including a young couple who both work in the city and have a three month old baby daughter. I have been checking on them and everyone else I know there all day. So far, everyone is fine - as far as I know.
It is a terrible thing but not entirely unexpected. Anyone living in a major city (as I do - just not London) anywhere in the world knows that there is possibility they may be targeted by these complete cowards who place no value on human life at all. But they will not win - what they do not seem to realize is that people become stronger and band together tighter when the fabric of their society is threatened in this way.
We have a lot of volunteers in the UK and some in and around the City of London; as far as I know everyone is OK although I have not heard from everyone - yet. But it is difficult to tell right now as not everyone checks in daily and I expect a lot of people are on vacation this time of year.
Rudy Giuliani was in London when the attacks were carried out - I can only begin to imagine how he must have felt, considering that it was not too long ago that the heart of New York was ripped apart by terrorist attacks but, fate placed the man who just happened to be the mayor of New York on 9/11 in London. He was having breakfast, a normal man carrying on his life the same as (almost) everyone else in London this morning, just around the corner from one of the blasts. He appeared on TV here and offered words of support and condolence to the British people.
I have had many, many e-mails today from WiredSafety people and others, from many parts of the world, who are appalled and concerned about what has happened and were not at all sure whether I live in or near London. The Internet is a strange medium sometimes. We know people from our online world but suddenly realize, when something of this magnitude takes place, that we know less about them than we thought and care more about them than we knew.
But that's really just human nature and there are more people in this world blessed with love, compassion and big hearts than there are cruel, twisted extremists and, when all is said and done, the horrors they create may cause temporary chaos - but they are a minority who will never break the spirit of the majority, regardless of race, religion, colour, sex or age. Of that I am certain.
posted by Parry Aftab at 8:18 AM
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