Worrying About Society
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Monday, September 11th, 2006Five years ago I was packing boxes ready to move when I heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. For the rest of the afternoon I watched in horror, transfixed by the unfolding events. I was five months pregnant and looking forward to moving, to preparing a new house for our baby, to starting the next phase of my life.
Looking back they were days of a kind of global-innocence; 9/11 forever changed the way I, like many, view the world. This afternoon, watching the rememberance ceremonies in New York, that same baby was asking me if the bad men will come and get him, if they will take our house away like they did the ‘Twin Castles’. Well of course they won’t but I wish I didn’t have to teach him, even gradually, about evil and bad people and dangerous men who fly planes into buildings and kill thousands of people.
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Posted in Worrying About Society
Terrorism and the threat to airline security
Thursday, August 10th, 2006Unusually, no-one I know is travelling by air today and, selfishly, I am thankful for that. Heathrow, as is the case at most UK airports, is in chaos as security has been increased and almost all hand luggage has been banned. Flights in and out of the UK have been severely disrupted as airlines assess the threat and the delays and cancel services accordingly.
I have huge respect for our security services who were heavily criticised after the 7/7 London Underground bombings. Several plots have been foiled since 9/11, today’s probably the most critical. Had the terrorists been successful today, or tomorrow, or the day after that - whenever they planned to inflict their carnage - one can only imagine the horror and loss of life they would have caused both here and in the US.
After 9/11 Matthew and I talked, like many people in the Western world, about security at airports and on airlines. Matthew regularly travels with a lot of equipment and it is very rarely checked at UK airports. After 9/11 I wondered why passengers couldn’t be made to carry transparent carry-on luggage with the minimum of items allowed. We both agreed that it might be a step too far for most travellers. I am glad that from today it seems that we are being forced to do just that. I, for one, can live without my laptop and iPod for the duration of a flight if I thought it would increase my safety. Only just, but I could.
But that’s all theoretical, because as I won’t be allowed my anti-bacterial hand gel and wipes anymore on those germ-ridden tin-can people carriers, my anally-retentive, freaked-out-by-other-people’s-germs self is unlikely to be flying again.
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Posted in Worrying About Society, In The News
Capitalism is alive and well amongst the four year old set
Sunday, June 18th, 2006It is becoming increasingly clear that I am no longer the sole influence on my eldest son. Whilst I know this is inevitable, not to mention right and proper, I harbour a wish for all my children to grow up to be kind, tolerant and open-minded and therefore I preach, and of course always practice, those tenets in the hope that they will grow up thus. Except actually I cannot be kind or tolerant or open-minded when my children throw their peel-me-off-the-floor-I-dare-you tantrums, nor when ALL FOUR BOYS (EVEN THE BABY) piss all over the floor when peeing, nor before my first coffee in the morning, nor when… wait, I digress.
This evening this little gem uttered forth from his four year old, otherwise angelic mouth at suppertime:
William, the inquisitive younger brother, a propos of nothing: Are the men in the yellow shoes big men, Mummy?
Me, puzzled: I’m not sure who you mean, what men in yellow shoes?
William, referring to a toy lego airport set: The airport men, Mummy, accompanied by a sigh, KEEP UP MOTHER.
To which Harry replies tutting: Oh Bubby, they’re not the big men. Important men, they wear dark shoes. The men in yellow shoes, well, they’re just the workers.
My egalitarian, classless teachings blown apart in one fell swoop by, I presume, some little all-knowing darling in the pre-school playground. Is four too young to launch into an explanation of the problems of capitalism and the oppression of the underclasses? Or if I ignore it - because I am too bloody tired to challenge the prevailing world view, particularly as I will be answered simply with “Why?” over and over - am I just reinforcing his views?
But more worryingly, what next? A critique of feminism at breakfast?
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Posted in Worrying About Society, Parenting, Baby Bore
More bombs
Thursday, July 21st, 2005More bombs in London today, two weeks after the bombs that killed and injured so many. It’s hardly a surprise, although so far repeat bombings have not been al-Qaeda’s (appalling) “style”. So we watch and wait for more news. And I feel worried that terrorists can bring large parts of London to a standstill and shock and scare the commuters who have to use the London underground and bus system every day.
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Posted in Worrying About Society, In The News
Fifteen weeks pregnant
Wednesday, July 13th, 2005Last Thursday was a great day as I FINALLY STOPPED THROWING UP.
But then my joy was quickly over as I realised that the London transport system was being bombed. I have found it hard to write about anything, hence my lack of posts, because I just feel so disillusioned, as I did after 9/11, by the fact that some extremists can get on a train or plane and blow up innocent people. Also in the news this week is the tenth anniversary of the massacre of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in Bosnia by Bosnian Serb troops while the town was under the so-called protection of the UN. Men, boys, as young as 14 were taken away and shot. 8,000 of them.
I just don’t know how one person can do such things to another.
So I am feeling so much better physically but I am feeling a bit down about world events. Today I heard the baby’s heartbeat via the Doppler machine - I was relieved as I had literally gone from feeling dreadfully sick, eaten a supper of mash potato and cabbage and then felt immediately better and haven’t felt sick since and given that the nausea in my previous two pregnancies tailed off gradually I couldn’t help worrying that something had happened to the baby. But no, there it was, its little heartbeat pounding away. But emotionally I am edgy after the suicide bombs in London, lying awake last night in this excessive heat we are experiencing, wondering if I had everything to hand quickly enough if London is hit by a dirty bomb and we have to prepare for the nuclear fallout. I am prepared but if the wind is blowing this way we might have twenty minutes or so to prepare a room to live in for ten to fourteen days. Yes, I am a worrier. But if I am prepared I worry less so I live my life in a constant state of preparedness. It’s my way of dealing with things. Matthew is heading for the airport again as we speak and I can do nothing about that - his work necessitates travel to Europe. My brother works in London and uses the underground line that was bombed. It is generally agreed that the terrorists may well strike again. But I control what I can and I try not to worry about the things that I can’t.
So this week’s pregnancy update is less about the physical side of being pregnant, but more about the mental and emotional state that I am in.
Oh and I have thrush. Which is lovely in this heat.
[SEE THE SPROGGING CATEGORY FOR MORE PREGNANCY POSTS]
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Posted in Worrying About Society, In The News, Pregnancy
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