The World We Live In

I hope everyone has heard by now about the bombings in London. Four bombs, three on trains and one on a bus went off during morning rush hour. See here for the CNN story.

My Irish cousin Vicki lives in London now. Her husband is a London transportation police officer... not sure exactly what they're called, but they are in charge of security for bus stations, train stations, and airports within London. He's the guy who's going to be combing every bus/train/and station in London to see if there's any more bombs. As of 8 am my time, when I called my mother in Phoenix, and she called her brother in Ireland (Paddy... I swear that's his name), and his girlfriend (they've been together for 40 years and have two children together, but they're NOT married). Vicki had been in touch from London, and Ian is fine. He works nights, so should have been getting off about the time this happened... He's not expecting to go home today.

The funny thing is, this is getting more coverage on CNN than it is on the BBC. Terrorist attacks in London aren't unusual. This one is bigger and seems better organized, but it's still a terrorist attack in London, and there have been lots of those in the past, and no one expects that trend to suddenly stop just because Bush has his "war on terror." The top story on the BBC this morning, is how these attacks, and the fact Blair has left the G8 summit to return to London, is affecting that summit. The British live on a little island, and they know it. They also had the largest empire the world has ever seen, both in land size and population, and they know it. They spend a lot of time looking out at the rest of the world instead of looking in. The fact that four bombs went off in London is news, but the fact that it's affecting the G8 summit is the headline.