by Kevin Tan
Aliran Monthly Vol 25 (2005): Issue 6

	There�s no difference between the suffering of those affected by the bomb attacks in London and the innocent civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan. Joe, the writer's flat-mate

I wrote a feature which I had initially planned to send to a Malaysian newspaper on the night of July 7, after terror bombings happened in London earlier in the morning. However, I did not send the article, which was a description of what I saw that morning, for publication.

I went to the city about two hours after the first bombing incident, but what struck me more was not what I saw. It was what I heard, or rather overheard.

As I was standing near King�s Cross Road, trying to do some �journalism� near one of the four explosion sites, I saw a young Chinese man taking photographs with his digital camera. He was happily clicking away when his girlfriend told him in Cantonese: �You are so excited about this. Imagine those who have friends and relatives in there.�

Although it was a simple statement, it affected me as I felt what I was doing could also be frivolous. I did not stop taking photographs immediately, but pondering her statement was enough to make me abandon my initial plan to file a story from London that day.

I decided that it would make no difference whether I filed my story or not. It would be just another voyeurism of tragedy and there would be no shortage of such reports in the UK or elsewhere. After all, British tabloids and other newspapers were full of sensational stories of the tragedy.

On that very evening itself, London�s tabloids such as The Evening Standard, were already screaming: �Terrorists attack London � Many dead�.

Abandoning my almost completed article, I told my flatmate, Joe, that it would be pointless to write something which would help to alleviate the tragedy. To which Joe replied: �Voyeurism is human nature�.

How true. Most people just want to see even though they are not in the position to help. These include journalists, who after satisfying their own voyeuristic urge, would in turn feed their readers� curiosity.

Instead of focusing on what transpired after the bomb attacks, I thought maybe it would be better to highlight the engaging conversations I had with Joe, who is a highly perceptive Englishman, in the kitchen of our flat over the next few days.

Joe and I are basically the only people left in our five-room flat near King�s Cross as other flatmates had already moved out for the summer.

Asked whether he would be afraid of going out after the bomb attacks, Joe nonchalantly said that it would not make any difference to him. As reported in many news reports, Londoners were generally calm despite the terror attacks. The bigger problem for most people was probably the disruption of London�s transportation system.

What surprised me more was actually Joe�s sentiment on the incident. Although he felt that no one deserves to die in the bomb attacks, he believed they were the result of the UK government�s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

�This is what you should expect when you bomb other people�s country,� Joe said.

I was taken aback by his comment. While I did not share his sentiment on this matter, I decided not to say anything in response, to avoid the possibility of an unpleasant debate on the matter.

The next day I bought several major newspapers in the UK to look at the way they reported the bomb attacks. The headline of the right-wing Daily Telegraph read �Al-Qa�eda brings terror to the heart of London�, while the left-leaning Guardian�s headline was �London�s day of terror�.

The Independent also carried a short headline. It simply read: �Terror comes to London�. Others carried much longer headlines. The influential Financial Times� (FT) headline, for example, read: �Blair blames Islamist terrorists as London attacks kill at least 37�.

Most newspapers carried a lot of photographs taken at the four blast sites. Although I live near King�s Cross, I would not have realised the gravity of the bomb attacks without looking at those photographs and watching the news on television.

On the whole, I was impressed by the wide range of opinions carried by the UK media in response to the bomb attacks in London. Flipping through those newspapers, I found Joe�s sentiment echoed by prominent anti-war campaigners such as British maverick MP George Galloway, columnist Robert Fisk and Tariq Ali.

According to the FT, Galloway said Londoners had �paid the price� for British Prime Minister Tony Blair�s decision to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also called for the withdrawal of British troops in Iraq in order to remove people in the UK from �harm�s way�.

After reading about Galloway�s statement, I cautiously raised the issue with Joe. �Don�t you think your comment yesterday was insensitive?�

In response to this, Joe argued that was his rational opinion of the motive behind the bomb attacks. Unsatisfied, I probed him further: �How would you feel if it�s our relatives or friends who were hurt in those attacks?�

There were many posters of missing persons around central London following the bomb attacks on July 7. The media also reported the agony of the families of the missing persons as the authorities struggled to identify the dead.

Surprisingly, Joe said he had only earlier thought about the matter.

He pointed out that there were some family members of those killed in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks who were also against the US-led war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Joe, however, admitted that he had no clear answer to that question. �I don�t know if I can be as rational as I am now under those circumstances,� he said.

I am unconvinced that pulling troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan alone will stop terrorist attacks. Yet, I hope I am wrong about this, because it would be great if long-lasting peace would be achieved just by doing that.

Being a sceptic, I wonder what guarantee is there for terrorists to stop killing innocent civilians when they believe it is an effective method to achieve their political objectives even after the US and the UK have withdrawn their troops. Maybe I am a pessimistic realist while Joe is an optimistic liberal on the matter.

I reckon that how a person responds to the recent bomb attacks in London and other places depends on how the person views human nature. Perhaps there is no clear answer except for the position that you choose to take on the matter.

I dare not claim that my position is right. Like Joe, I also have no answer to many difficult questions. Therefore, I sometimes think it is better not to say anything at all, lest I sound insensitive or ignorant.

Yet, talking to Joe also made me realise that one should not be afraid to take a stand, regardless of how others would think.

�Should we suppress our opinions just because it happened here? What about the killings that happened elsewhere?� Joe said in response to my suggestion that we should be �sensitive� in expressing our opinions.

While Joe is vehemently opposed to the murder of innocent civilians, he felt the bomb attacks in London should not be sensationalised out of proportion, especially relative to the sufferings of others elsewhere.

�There�s no difference between the suffering of those affected by the bomb attacks in London and the innocent civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan,� he said.

Although my position on the causes of terrorist attacks still differs from Joe's, I am coming to terms with his argument that we should not hold back our opinions just to please others.

Above all, I found out my initial apprehension was unfounded. Despite our differences in opinion, my conversations with Joe on the matter until now have been nothing but pleasant.

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Kevin Tan is a postgraduate student in the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

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