Brussels

No fancy title today.

For most of today I was avoiding the details of today's explosions in Brussels. I read about it on a few WhatsApp groups early this morning when it was just hitting the news and my immediate thought was "Oh no, not again". It is definitely sad news whenever anything like this happens and being closer to home it obviously got a lot more press attention than the Istanbul bombings only a few days earlier.

As the day wore on I did glance at headlines every now and again and on each occasion the death toll rose. Initial reports came out as 13 dead which was later revised to 23 and now stands at 30+ with a significant number more with injuries.

However, alongside the death toll, the level of rhetoric appearing in headlines was also rising. As the news spread across the world I saw reports about US Presidential nomination candidates making misguided and uninformed claims and comments from media personalities known for their hate-mongering. A lot of it was very predictable as each sought to milk the horror for their own benefit.

It did take a while for the facts to settle down and very early on I remember seeing a comment on a WhatsApp group lamenting reports that "Arabic had been heard". The obvious connection, though not stated explicitly, was that Arabic was heard therefore it must be Islamist terrorism. The question that gave pause to my mind was that while it may well be true, whoever witnessed it must have recognised Arabic and for that to happen they had to have understood what was being said? But if that were the case they'd have been able to say what was being said. No one seemed to know what had been said - just that Arabic had been heard. Or was it simply a case of a witness heard something shouted in a language he/she didn't recognise and felt that it sounded like Arabic and put that out to journalists?

Be that as it may, the terrible events have now been claimed by IS, another in a series of attacks they've made on the world.

Beyond the immediate pain of the victims and their loved ones, the saddest part is that we'll all end up suffering. While walking up a stairwell at work I overheard a group of women discussing how they felt unsafe being in London and later on a company-wide email was sent out stating that additional security protocols had been implemented given our location in the centre of London between two very busy train stations.

As time wore on and no new blasts were reported, life carried on though with a detectable increase in anxiousness in the everyday person as those who seek to divide us pushed hard to break our wall of human unity. The only solace and sliver of hope to take from today is that for the most part the wall held strong and people came together to help the immediate victims but also to condemn those who would exploit the situation.


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