Terrorism

No, I'm not going to be all political, calm down.

Terrorism is a concept that’s thrown around HEAPS these days. I’ve heard everything ranging from forest fires to interest rate rises blamed on terrorism. I’ve heard of terrorism supposedly affecting the theatrical industry, I’ve seen droughts blamed on terrorism… Makes me think of the episode of Family Guy where Lois won an election just by repeating 9/11 over and over again.

So amid all the hoo-ha of the War on Terror, what are the real effects of Terrorism on people? I don’t mean the effects of a terrorist attack on the people involved; I mean the aftershocks, if you will. The consequences. I’ll tell you, by sharing a few little anecdotes with you. First, the Commonwealth Games.

The Commonwealth Games, for the uninitiated, is a sporting competition similar to the Olympic Games, the only difference being that only countries who are, or who have been, members of the Commonwealth can participate. Last year, they were held in Melbourne, which so happens to be the city I live in. So, as you can imagine, I had a very nice view for all the commotion it caused.

The point I’m trying to get at, however, is that security was tightened one-hundredfold, and all because of the global bogeyman who is supposedly haunting our every step, the Terryrists. NINE ELEVEN! NINE ELEVEN! People were actually avoiding the central business district, because they were paranoid that there would be a terrorist attack during the games. My family was all set to go to see some professional level athletes competing, but then my mother “remembered” the global threat of terrorism, so she didn’t end up going. She’d been looking forward to these games for over a year, she’d bought tickets, and the mere THREAT of terrorism kept her from attending.

That’s right. Despite the fact that statistically, there is less chance of being killed by a sewing needle than being killed by a terrorist in Australia, less chance of being killed by a pig than a terrorist in Australia, less chance of lightning striking you one hundred times in a day than being killed by a terrorist in Australia, it’s the FEAR that is their real tool.

Terrorism in the modern sense is violence or other harmful acts committed (or threatened) against civilians for political or other ideological goals.

Source

Threatened is the key word here, if only because the global population is threatened by the possibility of a terrorist attacking them.

My second and final example is my school. Last week, our school had an “Out of Uniform” day, where students could pay to come to school in casual clothes. My friends and I always treat these days as a “Dress Up” day, and this time we decided to come as Ninjas (I did Piracy the time before, so I had to even the scales). I was all dressed up as a Ninja, I had my face mask, black turtleneck, I looked wicked. When I walked out of my bedroom that morning, my parents immediately suggested I take the mask off on my walk to school. Of course, being the petulant teenager I am, the first question that came to mind was “Why?”
My dear mother’s answer said everything I’m trying to say here quite eloquently:

”Because you look like a Terrorist.”

So, I assuaged their fears, took the mask off, and promptly put it back on as soon as I reached the school. Almost immediately, I was accosted by a teacher, asking who I was and demanding I take my mask off. I was then escorted to the Principal’s office with one of my friends to explain my actions. Thankfully, he was absent from his office, otherwise I could have been “suspended.” Suspended for dressing up as a Ninja?

When I questioned the teacher who was leading me to the Principal’s office, he replied that “a bad guy could see you doing that, and then could get the idea to come in here with a mask on.”

Is this the kind of thing we have to live with now? Are we just to accept that it is no longer acceptable to go out in public dressed as a Ninja? Are we to accept that the fear of Terrorism looms over us as an ever present bogeyman?

I say, that if we can’t let ourselves laugh in the face of this fear, then we’ve let the terrorists win.