Picture this…
The terrorist threat is such a nightmare, that we get toque de queda (curfew) up to 10pm – there might be bombs anywhere you might go. You are at home, it’s the middle of the night and your kid is in bed for the night. It’s about midnight when you decide going to bed, you think everything is fine until it strikes. It shakes your window, and cracks the window in your kid’s bedroom.
He’s only 5 years old, and has woken up all shook up because of the crack on his window. Can you tell him the truth and tell him that it’s the terrorists? Or do you try to keep calm, and tell him it’s passed even if you don’t know if they will strike again that same night or tomorrow.
You live to see another day, another night…
Another bomb strike blowing up the power lines~~ There’s a general blackout, and you don’t know when you will get electricity again, your kid looks at you because he is bored. He doesn’t understand why there’s no lights, and doesn’t have anything to play with. You get candles, not for a romantic setting… you just need them.
Your kid is getting used to blackouts now, getting used to candles… begins playing with shadows. There’s nothing better than shadows when you can’t go out, when there’s no television… or radio. Don’t even think about video games, or computers… internet would be out of the question.
You would go to work, worried thinking whether you’d be back home or not to see your kid again. You work at a restaurant, people come to eat… nothing out of the ordinary. It’s dinner time now, the place is full when all of a sudden another blast. Everyone drops to the floor, under the table. Another goddamn bomb.
Why has it all escalated to this? How did this turn out so bad, what the heck do they want?
You go home, and your kid is waiting for you. Does he know what is going on? He’s only 5 years old, but he will remember…
You think back and wonder why didn’t the government act before. Why they did nothing, but shrug and say this was nothing when it was beginning… why they let it turn into a threat.
Finally someone comes along, and decides to do something. He begins tackling the attacks, and gets as much a forceful response from them. More attacks, more threats, more curfews, more blackouts. The country is a disaster, but something is being done.
Another bomb, this time in a building in the middle of the city. The bomb kills and injures hundreds of people, it destroys hundreds of houses, hundreds of businesses. A girl you don’t know loses a limb, another one loses another, some people lose their kids, others their parents… everyone loses someone, people die, life is chaos. Yet the people responsible are still free, and proud of what they did…
