The Travel Lifestyle

Pete's Weekly Columns

September 19th: Brave New World

With apologies to Aldus Huxley...

I emailed an American friend working in London to better understand the English reaction to the terrorist attacks September 11th. He seems to think it's as strong as what has been suggested to us on TV. Apparently, even the Queen shed a few tears in public, something English Royalty just doesn't do (e.g. during WWII or the death of Diana). It shows an astoundingly true depth of feeling.

I'm particularly heartened because Britain is a country so much like our own, yet one facing terrorism for decades now. The IRA conflict has taken it's toll, and yet the country goes on. Despite this potentially callous view of day-to-day life with terrorism, Brits still feel an outpouring of grief for our own troubles (and this despite the US private sector providing funding to BOTH sides of the IRA conflict).

I lived in Britain during 1991, just after the Gulf War ended. Having heard about friendly "bobbies" without guns, it struck me immediately that armed guards patrolled all over the airport and in strange places around town (later turning out to be 10 Whitehall or whatever).

During my tenure in London, there was a rash of bombings on subway trains, in parks, and nearby Harrod's (a block from where I worked). So, it was my first time being very near a terrorist attack, and my first time being introduced to a country dealing with terrorism.

It's scarier than shit. I walked to Harrod's most mornings to pick up limes and such to stock the restaurant bar. I went home that day from work and said the heck with this and almost quit my job (£3.50 an hour wasn't worth it I thought).

Don't kid yourselves, it's a daily event, dealing with terrorism. Hence the name. It never really goes away, and you never know who or what will be attacked. I've heard a dozen stories of people who shouldn't have been on those hijacked planes, of people who should have been, and the eerie coincidences which marked their fate to live or perish. That's what terrorism is — it's a deadly joke played every day on innocent people, and there's absolutely nothing you can do to choose whether you'll live or die.

So, this sucks, right enough.

But, I will tell you that the British, during my time there, have managed to deal with it. I don't think they've become complacent about it, just very aware, and it gives you a multi-dimensional understanding of conflicts that heretofore didn't effect you one way or the other. The British have a clear adn open history of dealing with world colonies (good/bad), but the US has a silent and sometimes secret history of being involved in countries of the world I have never seen mentioned on the nightly news.

If you didn't give consideration to effects on other countries, I hope you will now. Not just the Middle East, consider our relations with neighbors Mexico, Canada and Cuba. Consider others we touch.

I hope funding dries up for the Irish conflict and those young men can find gainful employment (when in England, we were told of one aspect of the problem, i.e. trying to disarm someone who used to be a "someone" with nothing else to look forward to except unemployment).

I hope that I'll be more mindful of our participation and the effects we have on other countries by our domestic actions as well as our foreign policy priorities. One of the most fascinating parts of my studies in Political Science dealt with reams of responses from other countries — mostly to events I'd never previously encountered.

There's a great political cartoon of our sudden awareness and naiveté.

Sorry for rambling just a bit, I started this note thinking I really enjoyed "The Americans" speech given by a Canadian guy (in 1973) that's been spread like an Anna Kournikova virus across the Internet these past weeks. In truth, we aren't alone or completely maligned out there, we just need to listen more and become more engaged (not necessarily always more involved).

Regards,
Travel Pete