barryqwalsh
Gold Member
- Sep 30, 2014
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The pop concert had finished in Manchester, England, on Monday night. And the excited, young, mainly female audience was streaming out, many with pink balloons in their hands. And it was in that foyer in the Manchester Arena that they bumped into Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old of Libyan origin who been born in the city.
Abedi’s parents had fled their native Libya during the reign of Muammar Gaddafi. Their son repaid Britain’s hospitality by detonating a massive nail bomb amid a crowd of excited youngsters. Twenty-two of them were killed — one for each year of the life and safety that Britain had given him. Many dozens of others were horrifically injured, are still struggling to survive and will be scarred for life.
In the days since that attack Britain, of course, has been in shock and mourning. It also has expressed a typical defiance. But what else, after all, can we do? We are living with a situation we did not ask for, which a generation of politicians has given us. It is a problem that none of them has an answer for and that they do not, as a consequence, discuss.
Indeed, in the aftermath of an attack such as Monday’s, a divide grows and becomes ever-more visible. It is the same divide that grows wider across Europe with every attack. For, as with the atrocities in Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Stockholm, Paris (again), Nice and a lengthening list of other cities across the continent, the aftermath of the atrocity is marked by two different thoughts.
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Nocookies
Abedi’s parents had fled their native Libya during the reign of Muammar Gaddafi. Their son repaid Britain’s hospitality by detonating a massive nail bomb amid a crowd of excited youngsters. Twenty-two of them were killed — one for each year of the life and safety that Britain had given him. Many dozens of others were horrifically injured, are still struggling to survive and will be scarred for life.
In the days since that attack Britain, of course, has been in shock and mourning. It also has expressed a typical defiance. But what else, after all, can we do? We are living with a situation we did not ask for, which a generation of politicians has given us. It is a problem that none of them has an answer for and that they do not, as a consequence, discuss.
Indeed, in the aftermath of an attack such as Monday’s, a divide grows and becomes ever-more visible. It is the same divide that grows wider across Europe with every attack. For, as with the atrocities in Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Stockholm, Paris (again), Nice and a lengthening list of other cities across the continent, the aftermath of the atrocity is marked by two different thoughts.
Read more
Nocookies
