Saturday, July 15, 2006

Shrinking world

Last night, we got the newsbreak of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon not through the wires -- we'd done a night's work and were on the way home in the transport van -- but from a call to E's cellphone. It was from a distraught relative. His sister was due to fly out of Beirut but the airport was being bombed. E thought she might drive to Damascus and fly from there. I hope not, now. We now know that the road has been bombed out too.

How small the world has shrunk. Shelling in Lebanon and E is shitting bricks. Two planes fly into two towers in New York and P is on the email about what's happening as her city collapses into confusion. Bombs go off in the London Tube and I worry all the way home until I get R is on the phone, having found her home number on the Internet. Bombs go off on the Mumbai trains and N freaks until his mother is calls to say she's OK.

You always know somebody. It's less than six degrees of separation in a global village.

1 comment:

MGW said...

The world has become a frightening place, yeah? M.