A time to blog, a space to be blogged in....

Thursday, October 04, 2001

I shudder to think how much info there is about us all on the net now that we haven't intentionally published!
It's only Joe Public's lack of knowledge of how to get at it that protects the illusion of relative anonymity that we still live under !

posted by John 18:28

The Egyptian hair dressers across the road from my flat where I used to get my hair done got their big plate glass front windows smashed in on Wednesday, and it was on the news today that last night an Afghan taxi driver in town got beaten up really badly.
It's scarey when there's so many mixes of religions and nationalities together when the shit hits the fan because everybody gets scared of everybody else and the normal acceptance breaks down.

They're talking about more terrorist attacks and if George Bush goes attacking Afghanistan (who didn't do it themselves - so their women and children will be innocent victims) which it looks like he's going to do.
It's just as likely that the attacks will be here as in the US because Tony Blair has made a big song and dance about saying "we stand shoulder to shoulder with the US".

I was really worried last week because I knew my friend Leanna was in Manhatten, and also Mike and Bianca who I stayed with in New York live really close to WTC (they're inside the zone that's blocked off) and Bianca works so close to the WTC her work is within the danger area so it's been closed all week.

The worst thing was the phone networks were all overloaded so I couldn't phone them - and I emailed - but didn't get mail for 2 days, I got an answer from Leanna's husband Joe saying she was there but was OK, and the next day got a mail from Bianca saying they'd watched it all happen from their house but they were OK - thank God.

The brother of the guys from Great Barrier was working in the WTC and last I heard he was in Intensive Care in NYC.

That's the building I went up for sushi and a Bombay Saphire & tonic when I was in NYC. I've been in the restaurant on the top floor and looked out those windows - I've sent friends to do the same - I recommended that to everyone.

When I watched people jumping out the windows on TV and falling to their deaths and watched the building collapsing crushing and burning everyone inside, I was thinking about the chefs and waiters that had served me in that restaurant and the people I'd had lunch with and that that could have been me up there - and I could really feel it happening.
It wasn't like watching war pictures from WWII or Beiruit on TV - it was a building I had been in fairly recently and still have strong vivid memories of and met people who worked in it.

That building was a part of my life and my memories - one of my best memories of my amasing week in New York and there it was dying before my eyes.

I'm totally fed up with all the american hype on TV and on the net, and I'm really discouraged about the way it's going - it's like it's a landslide racing towards disaster, it's beign steered by that fucking idiot who's a real "good ole boy" ignorant shit for brains cowboy who's got about as much idea of diplomacy and negotiation as a brick. He doesn't seem to realise he's dealing with the most violent and fastest growing religion in the world today which covers half the earth and most of the unstable nations in the world, and that if he pisses them off there's going to be even worse attacks than what we've seen so far - he's just pouring petrol on the fire because he wants to get someone for what's been done.

I've just been totally stunned feeling for days - it's all too much to take in.

It would be really nice to be back home right now and a world away from the troubles.

Mum phoned me on the weekend, and said she had some really important advice for me - to pack a back pack with the things I might need and leave it behind my door so I could get out of London in a hurry if I had to. I thought "what a crazy crackpot she is" but as the week goes on and the more I read the less crazy it seems - the only problem is - when the shit DOES hit the fan, there will be no good me having a bag packed - because all the public transport will be the first thing to stop working - like usual, (you can't even get a train some normal days!) and there would be no way TO get out of town.

You couldn't fly anywhere either, plus there's massive queues for airports now because of the new security and most airlines are starting to cut back on flights and lay off staff. This means that the airfares are going to go up massively too. God know what it will cost me to come home next time.

Basically if anything DOES happen here it's going to be a case of "hang on and hope for the best"

posted by John 18:26

This is the blog of John Harrison (a random Kiwi?)

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Since "all the other bloggers" (I *so* don't feel like a "blogger") have theirs on their blog... here's My Amazon Wishlist

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