Nervous? Us?
30 November 2005 22:19![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandragoraWas on the tube this morning, on my way to the office, when a fellow passenger asked if a bag by one of the doors belonged to anyone in the carriage. Everyone said no. And then we all looked at one another.
The train had just set off and was in a tunnel and therefore the best thing was to wait until it reached the next stop and alert the authorities. Most people moved to the other end of the carriage. I didn't. Hey, I had a seat! I sat there reflecting on the irony and counting the seconds until we reached the next stop. You see the next stop was where I was getting off anyway. So, if I got blown up just before I got off, I'd be, well, I'd be pretty pissed off actually. I also thought glumly that the timing would be spot on if the bag exploded just before the next stop, which is right in the heart of the City and therefore a major terrorist target. Has been for many years, actually, ever since a significant chunk was blown up by the IRA.
Next thing, the door between the carriages opened and a harassed looking woman stepped through. "Oh, that's my bag," she said. "I've been running up the train searching for it." And then, catching sight of the worried faces, "Oh. Sorry."
There was a palpable frisson of relief. Tense expressions lifted, tight bodies loosened. And I sat there wondering how the hell she managed to get her bag on one carriage of the tube train and herself on another. It's not like you can move easily between the carriages, after all. But, alas, before I could assuage my curiosity, the train pulled into Bank and I got off, reflecting on how fortunate the woman was that she'd found her bag before it was blown up by the bomb squad.
The train had just set off and was in a tunnel and therefore the best thing was to wait until it reached the next stop and alert the authorities. Most people moved to the other end of the carriage. I didn't. Hey, I had a seat! I sat there reflecting on the irony and counting the seconds until we reached the next stop. You see the next stop was where I was getting off anyway. So, if I got blown up just before I got off, I'd be, well, I'd be pretty pissed off actually. I also thought glumly that the timing would be spot on if the bag exploded just before the next stop, which is right in the heart of the City and therefore a major terrorist target. Has been for many years, actually, ever since a significant chunk was blown up by the IRA.
Next thing, the door between the carriages opened and a harassed looking woman stepped through. "Oh, that's my bag," she said. "I've been running up the train searching for it." And then, catching sight of the worried faces, "Oh. Sorry."
There was a palpable frisson of relief. Tense expressions lifted, tight bodies loosened. And I sat there wondering how the hell she managed to get her bag on one carriage of the tube train and herself on another. It's not like you can move easily between the carriages, after all. But, alas, before I could assuage my curiosity, the train pulled into Bank and I got off, reflecting on how fortunate the woman was that she'd found her bag before it was blown up by the bomb squad.
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Date: 24 January 2006 02:44 (UTC)On a somehwat unrelated note, having lived in London during one of the IRA bombing campaigns, I think there was an upside. It actually acted as something of an inoculation against terror.
I was living in America (not in NYC) during 9/11. Most of the people around me were frozen with panic at the thought that some terrorist might try to kill THEM. People thousands of miles away from the Towers started suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. As for me, well, if it wasn't close enough to hear or feel the blast, it just wasn't worth being that worried about.
No intent to diminish the suffering of any victims of any terrorist attack, of course. That was simply the affect it had on me.
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Date: 24 January 2006 19:51 (UTC)Actually, I have been close enough to one of the IRA bombs to feel the blast, but even then, eh, what can you do but just get on with it?
I think that's partly the reason why after 7 July Londoners picked themselves up and got on with it, because we were expecting it, having been bombed in the past. I think that goes for all Londoners wherever they're from, actually. I mean, the American expats in London got on with things like everyone else and with a minimum of fuss -- as did the myriad of other nationalities in London. Because we all knew it could happen.
Whereas for the US 9/11 was a devastating psychological blow, and an end (sadly) to Americans' illusion of safety that the rest of the world had long since lost. I think it was the ripping away of the illusion that caused the trauma. Plus, of course, 911 was objectively much worse than 7/7.
But yes, if I'd been in the US on 9/11, I think I'd have reacted like you, particularly if I wasn't in a big city - the chances of being attacked anywhere outside the big cities was minute. That said, I remember vividly sitting frozen in horror at my desk in the City when the news came through on 9/11. And I've never seen the City as subdued as it was in the aftermath. If you worked in the City and didn't know personally someone who died on 9/11 you knew someone who knew someone who died. I fell into the latter category on 9/11, but lost a friend in the Bali bomb. Sigh.