How has it actually affected you?

[SJWhiteley]

I noticed an absence of a 'Paris' thread in the world events. I suspect it is because we'll go through all the same rumination of every other tragedy, devolving into a 'democrats/republicans suck' diatribe.

But, one thing that a friend of mine asked 'how does it actually affect you'? For example, in a post 9/11 world, what changes has it really made to the way you live? Same with Paris, what actual changes will it make?

To be honest, I could think of very few affects, but then, sometimes is difficult to think identify the differences between 'then' and 'now'. Flying and security, to be sure. As much as I hate the security, they've done a pretty good job even after a few failures of streamlining it (IMO, it hasn't really stopped a nut job from bringing down a plane, though).

But what else? We've seen a huge increase in the militarization of police forces, but that raises an issue only when there's an 'incident' that may not call for an over reaction.

While this is aimed, mainly, at the US population, I do recall living through the IRA terrorist activities in the UK, but was relatively young and inattentive. I don't avoid malls (which would be a prime terrorist target) don't avoid travel. What do we do differently on a daily, weekly, yearly basis because of terrorist activities?

[FunkyDexter]

I don't think it has affected my day to day life at all. As you say, I'm happy to visit malls, happy to travel... would be happy to travel to Paris to visit a mall, in fact. I'll probably avoid death metal concerts but that's not new.

Incidentally, I live with a Muslim, originally from the Pakistan-Afghan border, who spent the last few years in Belgium and then moved over here in the last few months. He hasn't done anything terrifying yet but I'm worried because my cats seem to like him more than they do me and I'm not standing for that. Also, he works in fibre optics so I guess he could be an evil super villain but he doesn't really seem the sort.

I think people tend to make too much of the danger of terrorism following incidents like this one. My heart goes out to the victims of the incident in Paris (and the somewhat less reported one that's going on in Mali even as I type this) but terrorist attacks, even in times of heightened troubles, are a statistical anomaly. The chances of you being directly affected by a terrorist attack are vanishingly small and simply not worth factoring into the decisions of how you should spend your day.

I think the impact on geo-politics is likely to be far more profound. Russia and the West are now at least talking to each other and opinion seems to have been galvanised enough that we might see some sort of military response. I hope that response will be well thought out because simply dropping a bunch more bombs on the region is unlikely to help.

It needs a ground effort in which Arab nations are heavily involved enough to give it legitimacy; a follow up plan to assist the people of the region to rebuild Syria; a similar follow up plan for Iraq; diplomatic pressure to be applied to those nations (particularly Saudi Arabia) who have sanguinely backed Isis; criminal proceedings to be pursued against those who have profited by buying cheap oil from Isis; and the whole thing needs to be motivated not by the interests and security of the West but rather by the interests and security of the peoples of Syria and Iraq who are being terrorised far worse than we are right now.

If we can put that whole package together, which will be no mean feat, then there is a chance that the region can be stabilised. It will not be a short process and it will cost lives. The hope is that it will cost less than it saves.

[Shaggy Hiker]

For a time, 9/11 caused some personal disruption because our governor decided that the muslims might mistake the Idaho capitol building for the US Capitol Building (or thought that perhaps they might target Boise in the hopes that the US would believe it was an attack on Congress, I'm not sure which), and closed a bunch of streets around the building. That lasted for perhaps a year. Seriously!

Other than that (and the aforementioned changes to airport procedures), I don't think much changed at all for me.

The Paris attacks might do a lot more because of their coincidence with the four year circus. Without trying to pull things into politics too much, at this time of year the candidates have to respond to EVERY major news story, and they aren't shying away from this one. Driven by the political cycle, we may end up doing something pretty shameful on a national scale....or not. We've done it before, and we've avoided it before, so we'll see what happens this time.

[sapator]

As usual, pissed off with US that created-funded ISIS and suspicious on who are the gun dealer - countries that allowed, ordered the attack so they can sell more weapons to the world afterwards.
I feel Sorry for the people that died, I would hope extremist attack our own parliament so we can celebrate the liberation of Greece from politicians- traitors.
P.S. As I am writing from Greece, US secret services can kiss my... alf.
Fell free to remove the post if anyone has been offended but I think the real terrorists are US - France - England and of course, Germany.
P.S.2 - 9/11 was staged by USA, please US people wake the hell up!They are mocking you.
I will not get involved to a fight here. Did it before, is a waste of time. We have enough problems here(Greece) already.

Now:
Safest country in the world is here (we are 10m Greeks and probably 3m Muslim refugees - immigrants trying to get to central Europe) So if some extremist tries to kill people they will go like....Atttaaaackkkk!! O sht, Muslims...Ahhhh a Greek, readddyyyyy aiiiimmmmm (2 Muslims passing through).Hold Hold.Friendly people....OK, again, aiiiimmmmmmm....A couple of Pakis passing through, an Afgan, 2 Nigerians and a dog....Allah Dammit! OK abort abort, lets get kebab, this is useless....By passing through Parthenon they see Oland and Obama dancing in a fast pace tango and Merkel watching and drooling (because our traitors - politicians have given Acropolis for sale to our the lenders). So they:
A)Attack
B)Destroy Acropolis (Turks and English have done that before so it's not original and they probably leave the idea)
C)Start dancing with their beneficiaries (they sold them the guns after all)
D)Leave Greek cursing and crying
E)You have been pranked!!! They go live on a TV show.
F)All the above.

This has been an anomalic good ol' sap post.

Funky if they sell the Parthenon get it. We can set a party with lovely Greek Girls afterwards!Hm?Hmm? But please provide the wine as our good ol' traitors here have taxed the wine but ONLY Greek wine, not imported one!Yaaa yaaa das ist gut!

[dclamp]

Jet fuel can't melt steel beams.

[NeedSomeAnswers]

It hasn't affected me in anyway that i can think of, apart from it made me sad for a while as i contemplated how it had come to this.

Oh hang on there is one way it has affected me, i now turn off the News if my girlfriend is in the room, she get far to emotional and angry.

I have family that live in France and my family has owned a house in France for nearly 20 years so i have a fairly close connection with the country. But while me heart goes out to all the victims of the Paris attacks, it's a beautiful country in no way will it change my wish to visit the country most summers!!!

I think the impact on geo-politics is likely to be far more profound. Russia and the West are now at least talking to each other and opinion seems to have been galvanised enough that we might see some sort of military response. I hope that response will be well thought out because simply dropping a bunch more bombs on the region is unlikely to help.

I worry that we will rush into more bombing with no real strategy as to what we are trying to achieve. Just bombing Syria which we know effects civilians as well as terrorists is what has been happening already, more of the same i feel wont fix anything and will likely act as a recruiting agency for ISIS.

Until we come up with a proper strategy to end the civil war in Syria i don't believe we will make any headway in defeating ISIS.

---

Wow Sapator you have a unique world view which would take to much time to challenge all of but i would make 2 points !!

9/11 was staged by USA, please US people wake the hell up!They are mocking you.

I didn't take you for a 9/11 Truther? While i think you can blame the west (in particular the UK & US) for interfering far to much in the middle east both militarily and politically and for selling far to many weapons to the Saudis (which magically end up in the hand of terrorists groups) to think that 9/11 could be staged by the US really shows your lack of understanding of America.

Safest country in the world is here (we are 10m Greeks and probably 3m Muslim refugees - immigrants trying to get to central Europe)

Err no Greece is not safe because of it's Muslim refugees. ISIS has been killing more Muslims than anyone else, why do you think those people are running away from Syria in the first place. If you are a Shia Muslim then your at direct risk from ISIS (who are Sunni).

Funky if they sell the Parthenon get it.

Hey wait a minute if it comes up for sale i need to be involved in that auction !!!

[Shaggy Hiker]

to think that 9/11 could be staged by the US really shows your lack of understanding of America.

Yeah, that 'could' is the key word. To have staged that would have required the participation of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. We can barely keep a secret if only one person knows it, let alone hundreds. NOTHING in our society is important enough for that.



Err no Greece is not safe because of it's Muslim refugees. ISIS has been killing more Muslims than anyone else, why do you think those people are running away from Syria in the first place. If you are a Shia Muslim then your at direct risk from ISIS (who are Sunni).

Hey wait a minute if it comes up for sale i need to be involved in that auction !!!

So....you'd be interested in buying ancient rocks....are you particular about which ones?

[wossname]

Jet fuel can't melt steel beams.

Planes are made of aluminium. Molten aluminium plus water (fire suppressing sprinklers) causes the water to disintegrate into O2 and H2 and now you've got a blowtorch in a confined space with nothing but fuel and oxidiser around it. Steel has no chance.

At least this was according to a channel 5 documentary I saw a while back which was narrated by Jamie Theakston. That's a sign of quality that is.

[wossname]

In answer to the thread title: It hasn't really affected me yet.

And I mean that I haven't let it affect me. A lot of people have let it affect them for irrational reasons. Twitter and all the other moronic social media funnels have latched onto a new set of memes and icon-changing that only serves to generate more ad-revenue for the funnels themselves.

I've been doing my normal day-to-day as usual. Going to work to keep the economy afloat as we all should be. The only thing that frightens me is the insane reactions of my fellow citizens who either go to pieces immediately because they lack the intellectual tools to analyse the situation, or post a selfie of themselves with a flag as if that makes any sense at all.

[sapator]

I was kidding about Greece but it's safer than most of the countries you live right now.Not because we are fikin A commando troops but because we are somewhat neutral and a secondary target.
At least we can walk safe at any mall or stadium at the time, can you?
9/11 , yeah, I know I know. A building felt down faster than a free fall, I guess steel was melted also where there was no fire.Even you formed Idiot president(Bush JR) said "conspiracy" , errr and he stumbled there. Anyhow, whatever that forum fight was a loooong time ago and I don't give a F anymore.
P.S. For those offended by calling your Idiot a presid, err, president idiot. You had an idiot for a president, we have a traitor for a president. Don't know what is best - worst.

[NeedSomeAnswers]

I was kidding about Greece but it's safer than most of the countries you live right now.Not because we are fikin A commando troops but because we are somewhat neutral and a secondary target.

Ok Thats fair.

At least we can walk safe at any mall or stadium at the time, can you?

Yep i don't live in London and terrorists seem to have a deep conditioning to attack capital cities

So....you'd be interested in buying ancient rocks....are you particular about which ones?

Yes very particular, only ones with a high monetary value like ancient Greek rocks !!

At least this was according to a channel 5 documentary I saw a while back which was narrated by Jamie Theakston. That's a sign of quality that is.

For those who don't know Jamie Theakston is the premier terrorist documentary maker in the UK

[SJWhiteley]

...
Yep i don't live in London and terrorists seem to have a deep conditioning to attack capital cities
...

Yep, the chippy just outside Sitting Codswallop just doesn't seem to attract the attention.

I was thinking, though, that terrorist aren't really high on individuals threat list, with Black Friday coming up. Although, the government has issued a travel high alert that expires on a very specific date in February...I'm sure there will be more concealed carry permit holders going to the cinemas who actually are carrying weapons: domestic nut jobs are probably a bigger threat, albeit still pretty much insignificant.

Of course, while the likelihood of 'something happening' is very small, it's a binary result. It either happens or it doesn't.

[sapator]

Although, the government has issued a travel high alert that expires on a very specific date in February..

That pisses me off when they do that for Greece.Usually US and England travel agencies. I mean we haven't had a terrorist attack for decades and the few we had where for politicians or chief of police or someone like that pig - traitor style. So we never had issues with terrorist attacks on tourists or something but yet again, they issue travel alerts. On the other hand, there is no problem with tourists going to Paris, US and the lots....Yeah right.
And above all that, Java refuses to install right now

[Shaggy Hiker]

Is this a caffeine issue?

[FunkyDexter]

Funky if they sell the Parthenon get it. We can set a party with lovely Greek Girls afterwards!

I'm not sure I'd want to party at the Parthenon. I remember it being seriously cold and windy. Impressive though. What was the smaller hill where they used to go and vote? That was gorgeous.

At least we can walk safe at any mall or stadium at the time, can you?

True, but at least our malls have stuff for sale in them

I'm amazed that Belgium is still on lockdown. I'm curious what intelligence they've got re a possible threat. It's got to be pretty serious to close a country down for a week.

[SJWhiteley]

....

I'm amazed that Belgium is still on lockdown. I'm curious what intelligence they've got re a possible threat. It's got to be pretty serious to close a country down for a week.

Which raises another question: is there a reason I should care?

Seriously, though, I'm thinking that with all the Pretty Darned Serious(TM) stuff which happens around the world, it simply doesn't affect people in other parts of the world, to even in a close locale. For example, a year or so ago, there was a chemical in Lake Erie which contaminated the drinking water for a good portion of people in Ohio and Michigan who lived close to the coast. I'm 1/2 hour away and the biggest ho-hum was that there was no bottled water available in Lowes (the horror!).

While we can learn lessons based on what happens around the world, I think far too many people become emotionally attached to those events, and act irrationally when a rational, objective approach is required. Some guy shoots a lion in Zimbabwe and all of a sudden people are acting nutso, with death threats, vandalism and just plain obnoxious stupidity.

[sapator]

I'm not sure I'd want to party at the Parthenon. I remember it being seriously cold and windy. Impressive though.

But...You came....Here.....In the.....Worst possible weather.....We had.....For years.....I EXPLAINED THAT! DAMMIT! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry caffeine issues.
No, our malls have stuff for sale too. It's just that none is buying them :P

Ruuuunnnn to the hiiilllssssss.Runn from your wiiiiifffeeessss :P . Sorry just played in to the mobile media player.

[FunkyDexter]

But...You came....Here.....In the.....Worst possible weather.....We had.....For years.....I EXPLAINED THAT! DAMMIT!

True, true. That wind grounded us in Kalymnos for an extra two days and we ended up having to take the pirate boat to Cos. These days they'd class us as refugees.

Which raises another question: is there a reason I should care?

I think you should care but you shouldn't fear. You should care because we should all care about our fellow man. But you shouldn't fear because the chances of you being caught up in an incident are slim to none.

[NeedSomeAnswers]

I think you should care but you shouldn't fear.

Jamie Theakston cares !!!

For those who don't know Jamie Theakston is the premier terrorist documentary maker in the UK

obviously Wossname has stopped reading this thread !!

[Shaggy Hiker]

A Brit is complaining about cold and windy? What's the problem, was it too dry?

[sapator]

Actually I remember me being very cold and the "Brits" not complain at all so, yes I guess it was cold. And he is not Brit
Worst weather we had for decades last year.

[FunkyDexter]

And he is not Brit

Err, I am. Although if you want to make me an honorary Greek I'd be happy with that too.

Worst weather we had for decades

It was. It really, really was.

[sapator]

Err, I am. Although if you want to make me an honorary Greek I'd be happy with that too.

It was. It really, really was.

Ok, I thought South Africa and then England , my bad.

Honorary Greek...Hmmm...Well you must first empty your pockets and if you have more than 100Euros then you are eliminated.
But no problem. Will get to the known challenges for the honor award next time you visit here. But it must be SUMMER! SUMMER!

[Shaggy Hiker]

Since he's getting on in years, wouldn't that make him an ancient Sumerian?

[sapator]

Didn't quite catch that.
But what would be better?Ancient Greek or Ancient Sumerian?

[Shaggy Hiker]

Greeks are still with us, which can't be said for Sumer, so I'd guess that an Ancient Greek would be the better choice.

[sapator]

Good call
Actually I was thinking of, if we got the chance, what era and tribe would be a good choice for you.
I guess my choice is obvious as I could advice my Greek ancestors on what to tell me from generation to generation so I could get my ancient word back to me from my father.
I think would be something really important like "don't go out with that girl" but probably the lottery numbers as my ancient self would go back these days and I would be lucky enough to get the message as Greek civilization is still here, before the lottery ends. Hope I could somewhat talk basic ancient Greeks to my ancestors...(how is the lottery in ancient Greek..Hmmm... Sex on a stic...No, no, hmmm. Hardc...No..hmmm.Mmm.)

[FunkyDexter]

HEY! I'm still young at heart. My liver, kidneys and pancreas on the other hand... not so much.


At which point I'd like to offer my congratulations to the CC crew for taking what had the potential to be a politically charged discussion about a serious topic and reducing it to a set of bad puns and name calling before it even got half way through the first page. In a world of threat and turmoil our flippancy and bad wit represents an unchanging and reliable constant.

It's no wonder the World events forum died.

[sapator]

Better to have some fun than to fight from a PC screen.