“I will certainly be wary of people with rucksacks for some time to come,” Hanno said. “And I’m a bit scared, I’m ashamed to say, as to what my reaction might be if someone approaches me who does not look obviously German.”
Kindergarten teacher Annette Meister, 47, from Berlin, said: “I’m scared for the kids in my kindergarten – as we’ve seen, these terrorists stop at nothing – and I’m scared for my 17-year-old daughter. When she went off to the Christopher Street Day gay pride festival in Berlin last weekend, I thought should I be letting her go I know it’s irrational but I can’t help myself.”
“Everyone knows that this is what the terrorists want; everyone knows life should go on as normal as possible, but when a priest is assassinated in his own church in a place nobody has heard of, it seems anything can happen,” a French mother-of-two who was at Paris Plage, the annual city beach event, said this week. Like others, she did not want to be named: “Silly, but scary times,” she added.Would anyone castigate the victim of a pitbull attack for being wary of dogs? Would anyone sneer at a burn victim and insist that fire was nothing to fear?
So....much...'Guardian'!
Some would ... and we know who they are.
ReplyDeleteThere are still some non-suicidal Europeans to be found lurking in the far corners of the continent. I came across this chap and was greatly cheered by his no-nonsense approach. I know nothing about him, but can find nothing to disagree with anything he said.
ReplyDeleteAlso in Finland, this pair of admirable young women show how 'enrichers' should be dealt with. May these goddesses live long and prosper - and have many children!
Dogs, fire, Muslims, queers, smokers. Every little thing that appears similar comes with a different off the shelf reaction that we are supposed to have. We are supposed to know exactly what all these reactions should be in any given situation and use them accordingly. And if we happen to use a reaction, only to find that the accepted reaction in this situation has changed to another one, which frequently happens, we are supposed to be available with a grovelling apology for getting it wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt's the way of things now.
"Some would ... and we know who they are."
ReplyDeleteSadly probably true...
"Also in Finland, this pair of admirable young women show how 'enrichers' should be dealt with."
Some faint remnant of the Nordic resourcefulness isn't quite dead yet, I'm glad to say.
"We are supposed to know exactly what all these reactions should be in any given situation and use them accordingly. And if we happen to use a reaction, only to find that the accepted reaction in this situation has changed to another one, which frequently happens, we are supposed to be available with a grovelling apology for getting it wrong."
I say 'Screw that!'...