The terrible events that have unfolded in Mumbai over the past forty-eight hours serve as a reminder to us all that people dedicated to mindless acts of terror can strike potentially anywhere, at any time. My thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones, and those whose lives have been irrevocably interrupted by the fools responsible.
Despite its proximity to Pakistan and Afghanistan, India has been in recent years regarded as a generally safe place for foreigners to visit, somehow a world away from its chaos-strewn neighbours. Cricket tours have proceeded without incident. No doubt many Indian expatriates have travelled back and forth, and home has felt as safe and as familiar as it always has been in the past. How does it feel now – alien, perhaps? Scores of people from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries have no doubt visited the nation’s proud financial capital in recent years. What do these people feel now, seeing the streets they walked and the landmarks they gaped at, mixed in with scenes of chaos and disorder? During my working holiday over the last year, I visited around 15 different countries, and lived the stereotypical tourist lifestyle. Seeing the images of red billowing smoke rising from the famous Taj Hotel, and hearing stories of innocent visitors struggling for their lives amidst the chaos, one could forgive the itinerant traveller for getting the feeling that it could easily have been them. It could easily have been anyone.
It confounds me to read folks like Greg Sheridan in The Australian getting on their political horses already, riding in the afterburn of these neolithic valkyries while the streets are still red with innocent blood. Sheridan namechecks Al’Qaida, that Coca-Cola of terrorist organisations, even though there is no direct link apparent at this stage between Osama’s old mates and the group that has claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Deccan Mujahideen. Sheridan also presumes himself the mouthpiece of the attackers in his column, asserting that the attacks were intended as a message from “Terror Central” to US President Barack Obama. I am not sure which of these misrepresentations or wanton acts of hyperbole is most objectionable, but quite frankly we could do without all of it. Clear heads and a rational response is required, both on the ground in India and Pakistan and from the likes of the United States Government.
