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While there was a great deal of newsworthy activity going in the UAE this week, it came as a bit of a surprise that the Mumbai attacks barely warranted a mention in the blogosphere.
Considering the UAE is home to thousands of Indian nationals with friends and family in Mumbai, and countless thousands also have visited the very places that were attacked, the response to the attacks was less than overwhelming. Unless my blogging finger was well and truly off the pulse, it seemed just a handful rather than dozens and dozens of UAE residents blogging about last weeks tragic events.
But those bloggers who did write about the “war on Mumbai" did so eloquently.
The consistently intelligent Seabee(www.dubaithoughts.blogspot.com) spoke for most of us when he wrote: “I simply don't understand anything to do with the obscene killings in Mumbai.
“I don't understand the mentality of people who randomly take innocent lives. The vast majority of the dead and injured are Indians, hotel workers, train travellers, people simply going about their daily business.
“We're told that Americans and British tourists were specifically singled out in some instances. Yet many of them may well have opposed their governments' policies, so what does the simple fact of citizenship have to do with anything?
“I don't understand how a country which has had so many terrorist attacks over recent years can have been so unprepared.
“Mrs Seabee was in India at the time of the attacks, fortunately in Kochi, so well away from the trouble spot. She was in the Le Meridien hotel, a popular business & tourist hotel. She's also stayed in the Taj hotel in Mumbai in the past."
The Real Nick (www.some-like-it-not.blogspot.com) also blogged about Mumbai from a personal perspective, saying: “I personally felt under attack. I felt violated in my right to go about my life freely and unobstructed by violent morons. I was scheduled to go to Mumbai on business the coming week. I like Mumbai; at least the more salubrious parts of town - exactly those that were targeted last week….These attacks struck my life. This time, the terrorists targeted me."
Suggestions for the future
Fellow Dubai blogger Dubai Day(www.dubaidays.blogspot.com) had some suggestions for the future: “Sack the home minister (this has been done). Sack the Maharashtra Chief Minister and home minister (this is yet to be done. Make the police professional autonomous bodies without ANY political interference in their work. A zero interference policy needs to be followed.
Make crime/terrorism related laws same all over the country. This different strokes for different folks does not work and created confusion. Create a National Anti-Terrorism squad with a hub and spoke concept throughout the country. They should own and have full control over logistics."
But the most poignant blog entry came from the Big Fat Ego blog (big-fat-ego.blogspot.com). I don't think I need to say anything more. Just read: “My cousin's (whom I shall call Anan henceforth) friends' parents were not in the Taj as my last post mentioned, they were in the Oberoi.
“And they're dead."
“The news came over to their house about an hour back. This senseless killing has left an innocent 13-year-old and her sibling orphans. Just called Mumbai to speak to my aunt, they're all with the children right now, who are devastated.
“What else can I say? What can anyone say about something like this?"
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