Mumbai Attacks - The Seven Good Things You Should Know

Hello, readers. As we all heard, the Mumbai terror attacks started on the 26th of November this year, and the snipers are still going at it as far as we know. Now, a lot of negative things have been written about these attacks. Everything and everyone that can be blamed has been blamed - politicians, the government as a whole, the apathy of Indian citizens, the rabid communalism in India, Islamic militants, Pakistan, China, the USA, Greg Chappell, Bin Laden, etc.

But let's stop a moment and consider the positive aspect of things, shall we? Here goes, then.

1. This is India's most severe organized terrorist attack to date. Our politicians must be so happy that our country is considered powerful enough and democratic enough to provoke random killings by minority militants. "Just like USA, we are. Beer, nukes, problem with China, terrorist attacks, everything we have."

2. al-Qaida links have been touted in connection to Pakistan's hand in all of this. The USA defence ministry is probably ecstatic that India and Pakistan are not only still at loggerheads over anything and everything, but that Osama bin Laden can still be blamed for all the world's problems. [Note - US Republicans will read Osama as Obama, by the way]

3. Raj Thackeray will no longer have a political leg to stand on. More North Indians, Delhiites and Marathis died trying to protect Mumbai than Maharashtrian Mumbaikars. From a purely vengeful point of view, a great amount of grim satisfaction is due to all non-Maharashtrian people who had to suffer due to this ridiculous Raj's communal posturing. I don't know about you, but this makes me, personally, very happy.

4. Many stalwart stars of the police and special forces have died, shot fatally by the terrorist snipers in the head, guts and chest. These men were some of the bravest, most intelligent and experienced fighters on the planet. I've no doubt that criminals across the country are rejoicing at the headlines announcing their heroic deaths.

5. This attack has scared a large number of corporations, luxury hotels, apartment complexes, malls, schools, etc to step up their security measures. Indians can no longer look at CNN reporting bomb-blasts somewhere else in the world and think - that could never happen to us. From the point of view of the Indian government's security and defense branch, that's a good thing, provided people take this threat seriously in the long run.

6. The nation is horrified that this kind of thing could happen in India, in Mumbai of all places. The reality is that bombings and attacks are nothing new to certain parts of our country. What about Jammu and Kashmir, and the NorthEast? Maybe now that people in the financial capital of the country know what it feels like to live under the threat of violent death, there will be more sympathy and help going out North and North East after a while. When people realize that every life counts, regardless of state or assets, that's an improvement in terms of common humanity.

7. In hotels like the Taj, the terrorists released more white foreigners than they did Indians, and many more Indian citizens were killed as opposed to rich Caucasian
people who were held hostage. Maybe I sound overly bitter, but this should at least reassure the tourism industry that India is a safer place for Western tourists than it is for our own people.

Please, leave a comment with feedback if you did/didn't like this post.

Much love,

Trisha.

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