Terrorist Attacks in London

MJ · Tonight

Terrorist Attacks in London

mags · Banana Republic

Well said MJ, there's not a lot to add.

_johanna_ · Drag Me Down

what a horrifying thing to happen...hope everyone on this forum and their related are ok..

our thoughts are with the people of London..

MMbullybuddyGP · Drag Me Down

You all are in my prayers, along with everyone else living in London. This forum is probably one of the last things on your agendas today, but if you do happen to 'drop by,' please let us know how you all are doing.

motema2004 · Tonight

Dreadful. I hope those of our forum members in London are OK, as I am worried for them, including forum administrators because we don't know where you live and work. Al-Qaeda claim but in any event, reminded me of Madrid & ETA, too. It's a terrible day for the world. Our hearts are with the UK and deep sorrow, anger are also my feelings.

Rita · House on Fire

I'm in the UK. Fortunately not in London. It was a bit scary hearing, when I was getting my train this morning, that there had been incidents in London, but not knowing what had happened at that time. We were being told that the tubes were shut, no buses and not to go to London.

My thoughts go to everyone affected by this tragedy.

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

My sister left early for work this morning so missed all the chaos. She was in the office and heard sirens and said it felt like 9/11, very frightening indeed. She managed to get in touch with all but one friend, but later had an email from that friend to say she was safe.

I think it is has sent shock waves through entire country. I've felt incredibly shaken by it all.

My thoughts are with all those involved.

meekus · Tonight

Haven't been able to read any news or anything in the past 3 days. Now that I have, I feel paranoid about my own surroundings.

dupree · Rat Trap

My boyfriend's father commutes to London everyday and works in a large office near to where the bombs went off. He's fine..he doesn't know how he's going to get home at the moment because of all the transport stopping but he's, luckily, unharmed.

He's worried though, as his secretary didn't make it in today and hasn't called. She's a lovely, lovely girl and I hope to God she's okay.

I'll keep you posted on what happens...I'm hoping maybe her mobile lost signal or something...

-- Edited by dupree at 21:09, 2005-07-07

Mark Boyle · House on Fire

Hope everyone's ok

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

Mark Boyle wrote:

Hope everyone's ok

Yep, I'm OK, though unfortunately there are a few who aren't. Been a helluva week here. Live 8, Olympics (on my doorstep), Bombs (where I work). Had a panic trying to track down the missus this morning but she finally found a phone booth in Stratford, it was just the mobile networks going into emergency mode and blocked calls. Had all sorts looking after the kids after school just in case. My parents are in Spain and I'm sure my Dad was tearful when I answered the phone this evening! (it rang a few times before I found it)

Odd thing is that I didn't notice it too much as I started work early and left late [new job], and though I was probably less than a couple of miles from three of the bombs, the only thing that was odd was no traffic on the streets and practically everyone talking on mobiles (I don't have one, so I was the odd man out).

BTW Mark, isn't Glasgow your patch? My company are sending me there for a week at the end of July. Please advise on places for cockney Irishmen to avoid

dupree · Rat Trap

Well, just a bit of a follow up...boyfriend's father got home alright! He had to do a bit of wondering around but eventually found a coach company that were heading out in his direction. =)

His secretary didn't make it in because of the buses stopping. She's okay, she wasn't involved in it, thank God. And yeah, she said that her mobile stopped working too, ArrGee. Although, that's not cool...big disaster happening and the phones going kaput - but then again, what's there to be done.

Just glad everyone's safe...terrible, terrible thing to have happened. I hope the police/governemnt get to the bottom of it.

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

I've heard different reasons for phones going down
1) emergency usage only, pulled down all lines
2) phones were used in Madrid as somekind of device/contact during terrorist attacks there and lines were taken down for this reason.

Julia · Tonight

"This Is The World Calling" by Bob Geldof, from 'Deep In The Heart Of Nowhere'

I hear a heart beat

It's ringing out across the universe

It sounds so lost and lonely

It must come from somewhere deep inside of us

And the operator says

"All is calm

All is quiet

Close your eyes and sleep tonight"

This is the world calling

This is earth

This is the world calling

This is us

I'm on a train now

I'm moving through the yellow fields of rape

There's so much beauty

I wished that I believed enough to pray

Then the operator says

"Spinning 'round, you're wrapped in blue

There's no-one looks as good as you"

This is the world calling

This is us

And it goes on and on

What we going to do because it can't go on

Wrap me in your arms and keep me warm tonight

This is the world calling

God help us

-- Edited by Julia at 11:17, 2005-07-09

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

very good words indeed and rather apt.

evelien · Lookin' After Number 1

hello i am from holland and my name is Evelien and i want to say that

our hart goes out to the london bombing victims and there families.

Evelien

kidneybean · House on Fire

I too hope that everyone is okay, though it looks like the death toll will rise beyond the 50 mark.

We didn't know anything about the attacks as we were knocking about Edinburgh all day. It was only when we went to the airport late yesterday afternoon to get the flight back to Belfast, that we thought something was up, as the security check seemed a bit over the top (Body searching even going on). Then when we reached the departure lounge, we saw the London reports on the TVs there.

When we'd left the Bed and Breakfast place just after 9am, it had been with high spirits. The news about the Olympics and the buzz of the Murrayfield Live 8 gig made sure of that. Then just a few hours later I was in despair; though glad I was bound for Belfast and not London like a lot of the passengers at the airport that afternoon.

Bad news for Climate Change and Africa as far as the G8 summit is concerned I fear. They'll be talking terrorist threats instead.

Rita · House on Fire

I agree, the lyrics are so poignant. It's been such an emotional week. I know I haven't been directly affected by the attacks in London but I think just being in the UK you can't help but be affected. There has been such an outpouring of support and solidarity from people all over the world and in particular the Americans who have of course been through it themselves so recently.

franna · V Deep

I loved this response from a Londoner:

http://www.lnreview.co.uk/news/005167.php

A Letter To The Terrorists, From London
July 07, 2005

What the **** do you think you're doing?
This is London. We've dealt with your sort before. You don't try and pull this on us.

Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work.

All you've done is end some of our lives, and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? You don't get rewarded for this kind of crap.

And if, your MO indicates, you're an al-Qaeda group, then you're out of your tiny minds.

Because if this is a message to Tony Blair, we've got news for you. We don't much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We'll deal with that ourselves. We're London, and we've got our own way of doing things, and it doesn't involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.

And that's because we're better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the pub.

So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the **** out of our city.

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

franna wrote:

I loved this response from a Londoner:http://www.lnreview.co.uk/news/005167.phpA Letter To The Terrorists, From London July 07, 2005 What the **** do you think you're doing? This is London. We've dealt with your sort before. You don't try and pull this on us. ...

...Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the pub. So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the **** out of our city.

Crikey, I could have written that!

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

That was brilliant.

dupree · Rat Trap

I love the British way of pulling together and getting through things. We help each other and we keep going...we know we're capable of it.

It's just sad the only time it's really, truely visible is at devastating times like this and the World Cup. At least we can be happy in the knowledge that it is there...buried under our daily routines.

They'll never keep us down. (Do you remember that Chumbawamba song? Tubthumping...we'll get knocked down but we'll get up again, they're never gonna keep us down! )

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

Have you just been watching TOTP2? It was just on there!

psycho_girl · I Don't Like Mondays

my uncle was near where ine of the bombs went off only got in contact with him to day we didnt kniw where he was but thankfully he is fine and home!

my prayers go out to everyone who was invovled in the bombings

oeokosko · House on Fire

I've been away for the weekend (I work funny days) so this is my first opportunity to respond. It is indeed a terrible time for the maimed and the families of the dead, missing and injured. My thoughts go out to them and I hope they find the resolve within themselves and from their familes and their friends to cope with what must be very difficult times.

The "response from a Londoner" sums up my feelings towards the bombers exactly. Tragic as the bombings were for those affected by them, they are - in the whole scale of things - miniscule, as anyone who has seen London from the air will appreciate - it stretches as far as the eye can see!!! We waited a long time for this and it was, in reality, a pretty pathetic attempt. I hope the bombers are caught and dealt with soon.

Beyond this, I'd like to say that I hope this tragic event will draw people together in a common humanity and that no one will take it upon themselves to attack the Muslim communities here.

-- Edited by oeokosko at 00:19, 2005-07-10

meekus · Tonight

It is indeed a sad time.

But I must agree with oeokosko. If you want it to stop, the answer is not direct retaliation. It is peaceful reasoning.

I'm probably going to get many bad replies, living in the US and all. But let me give you what we see over here.

We hear bad things like this on the news. People have died. There's genocide in the Sudan. There's a war in Iraq. There's very poor Communism in North Korea. Do you know what our response is? "Oh, that's so sad." And then people get back to their TV dinners. Even in my church group, one pastor bought a newspaper, and gathered the 45 of us while we waited for a bus. He showed the headline, "This Time, London". We had a few seconds of silence, then proceeded onto our trip. Americans seem to have short term memory loss based upon what they want for themselves before what they want for the world. Things pass in and out of our minds so quickly that we don't truly understand what has happened. And frankly, it's sometimes worse when you do.

If I process that my countrymen have been killed in cowardly attacks by terrorists, and they have links to al Qaeda, then I am ready to take the fight to them. I know this from the initial response to the 9/11 attacks. I became hasty. All Americans did. Proving the uselessness of our anxiousness and blind patriotism, almost four years later, we have still yet to capture Osama bin Laden.

If you keep spawning anger and hate, it will only grow. The people who want peace to be the end result on either side will only kill each other in the war that they want.

My point is to stop. Take a breath. Take in once more what has happened.

What is your reaction? If it is hatred, anger, and determination to destroy all involved, then I firmly believe that the acts of terror have done their job. If you keep cycling and growing this muddy snowball of spite and hate, where will it end? Only one way - with everyone dead. It could be next month, a year, a decade, centuries down the line, or 5 minutes from now. But if you do not start bringing peace to the world, who will?

This comes at such a time of sadness. But please do not have a blind hate. Do not let a nutjob send the troops in tomorrow. And do not let yourselves fall into the bottomless pit of eternal hate.

"One slip, and down the hole we fall."

meekus · Tonight

Thank you for a respectful reply.