I swear, life in this country is getting crazier by the day. Like yesterday I was in the bus and I had my gym bag with me so I kept it in the front. I usually travel in an intercity or AC bus or whatever you want to call it, and normally this arrangement works fine.
So the bus gets crowded and I am pushed to the back with the crush of the people and as usual start checking the morning’s news on my phone.
Then bit by bit, my ears start detecting an increase in background noise and all of a sudden, the whole bus is in a pandemonium. People are screaming and shouting and voices are being raised and there is a right to do going on.
I’m like WTF is going on and to cut a long story short, discover with some effort that it is my poor gym bag that’s causing all the fuss and rescue it just in time to prevent who knows what happening to it.
It made me realize that everywhere there are people in this country going about their everyday lives with just a thin sheet of a calm façade masking a roaring river of paranoia and panic waiting to break out. I think we all need to calm down a bit, the government and the terrorists (sometimes I tend to confuse the two) thrive on fear to fool the people and make them complacent. It has happened all throughout history and it is easy to find a convenient scapegoat to blame all our troubles on. So here’s my message to the people of SL;
PLEASE, TAKE A CHILL PILL! Sit back, look around you, you can control what happens to you to a great extent if you are a bit careful and have some COMMON SENSE!
But at this point I feel tempted to remind myself what an old teacher of mine used to say and reassert his belief that ‘common sense is not so common’ after all.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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13 Comments:
People are pretty jumpy now, not a good sign.
I doubt you'd be so chilled if you'd seen some of the results of those bus bombs.
We don't let our kids run loose for hours the way our parents did. Why not? We don't have those waist-high parapet walls or hedges in Colombo anymore. Why not? It's a different country, get used to it.
And talking of common sense, wouldn't it have been smarter of you not to leave your bag unattended at a time when the media is constantly bombarding the public to be more vigilant?
well..i David gotta point you kno.But I am experiencing that gym bag thing everyday. Nw i dnt need to go to the gym b'coz all my shoulders are pretty much pumped up carrying that whole pile of clothes and shoes(since u cant put em on the rack or ny where else!!)by my self.. btw gr8 post..it could happen to the best of us..
We've actually been chilling a little too much whacky. and thats the result of the recent bus bombings na? Ppl SHOULD be wary as they were on your bus and i think YOU may need to "look around you", so "you can control what happens to you to a great extent"
As in, if u were little careful about your bag, i bet the conducter asked who's it was, right? and if u were in tune with what was happening rather than switching off to the news, you could have actually lessened the pandamonium.
But i agree, happens to the best indeed. :)hugs
you can't really expect ppl to be calm with the kind of things that happen.... u have no idea how much my mum freaks out!!!!
i want to drop my a temple after work today and she's freaking out already! I mean, come on, we still gotta do what we wanna do right?
sad sad saaaaaaad and freaky it is men...:(
Jack Point - Ppl are extremely jumpy, and i agree that's not a good thing at all.
David Blacker - yeah i know it's a changed world, but i think people are a bit more paranoid than the situation warrants.
the media promotes vigilance but it also focuses people's attention only on specific things dont you think? like bags for instance. they tend to forget all about the gazillion other ways bombs could be carried.
and ur right. iv taken measures to be extra careful of my bags ever since (from this morning that is:)
we need a bit of collective sense and awareness if you ask me, not knee jerk panic attack reactions to suspicios events.
realskullzero - talk about it! and thanx for the kudos. the ppl who travel long distance with massive luggage have it worse though..poor souls.
deecee - u r absolutely right. no arguments :) and i did claim the bag as soon as i became aware of it.
Lady Dvine - i know. its crazy. iv got friends who refuse to go on busses now. but yup, we gotta do what we gotta do. but ppl r freaking out left right and centre. we need to calm down and collect our wits about ourselves. whats gonna happen is gonna happen and we need to have cool heads to come out on top.
and guys, does it say ANYWHERE in the book of common sense that you have to run TOWARDS a potential bomb site outta curiosity?
and have you ever seen our Sri Lankans actually running AWAY from a potential bomb?
Curiosity killed the cat. let's hope that saying doesnt change from the 'cat' to the 'Sri Lankan'.
come on...where hv u been living for the last 10 or so months...
Hats off for the ppl in the bus who noticed some thing out of the ordinary..
U should be more careful when traveling...
Acromantula - thanks i will. and yup nothing wrong with what they did. just wish they hadnt panicked so much... people are scared and where fear rules, good things do NOT follow..
Yeah...people do have a tendency to get perturbed when their lives at are risk... =P
What with all that's been going on... an unattended bag would set off alarms and sirens in their minds...
Taking "human nature" into account you can't really expect them to be calm and collected!
A friend mine had a...somewhat similar experience! Apparently there was an army dude in civilian clothing on her bus and for some reason the other passengers suspected he was a terrorist and went completely ballistic! And even after having produced his ID and identity stuff (yes, I know I'm being terribly vague, just bear with me!) one of the passengers wasn't all that convinced. She just kept yelling at him and made quite a ruckus that he almost slapped her! Drama, drama, drama! Oh once she dismounted the bus, she went straight to a cop to complain...
This was the same situation way back in and around 1990. The only difference was the target was any crowded place. People like now were jumpy about bags, parcels, boxes etc etc. This is nothing new. I still remember the blast at Pettah near the temple... People running towards a bomb blast may be stupid... but that stupid act saved lives. It helps to retrieve the injured, who are deaf and disoriented due to the blast. I'm not saying those people are heroes, but it helps to hold a human hand when your gushing out blood.
Excuse me for the cruel image, but its true.
No matter how brave we think we are, or ready to die, sometimes all we want to do is take another breath...
Messiah - ur absolutely right about that. it is human nature to bend towards irrational fear in extreme circumstances. maybe it is a defense mechanism afterall!
and eukaryote - sure we need help after bomb blasts. too bad our country's public services arent efficient enough to do a truly professional job. but i was talking about people running towards where they think a bomb is being diffused etc. that kind of action will only impede the bomb squad's actions and put themselves in danger.
thanks for your comments all. i enjoyed every single one of them!
hi,
I am eranda from antharjalaya.com . I placed a link for your blog at my site under the "best srilankan blogs" category.(in the side bar).
If you think my blog is worthwhile to deserve a place at your blogroll please do not hesitate to place a link.It is still a 4 days old baby.I d love to have some link love...:-)
My site is at,
http://www.antharjalaya.com
Thnks in advance...
eranda - done!
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