All afternoon, I’ve been glued to the T.V. watching the news come in from the Paris terror attacks. More than 150 people have been killed, most of them in a brutal massacre in a music club near the banks of the Canal Saint-Martin, others were slaughtered at drive-by shootings and suicide bombers at restaurants and events nearby. It’s difficult to watch, but I can’t turn it off.
I have a lot of emotions around this attack. I love Paris–I went there on one of my first international trips and it’s a city I’ve revisited because of it was such an inspiring place.The attackers targeted my favorite part of the city, the east side of Paris, a young and diverse region. We rented an AirBnB there on our last trip on the advice of some local friends and I fell in love with the multicultural area, worlds away from the typical tourist route.
While the organization responsible for the attacks is still unknown, the pundits are already placing blame on recently-arrived Middle Eastern and North African refugees. I fear politicians are going to use this attack to push for stricter and less humane border policies–our government did the same thing after 9/11. I was glad to find this article today and posts like this one from travel legend Rick Steves. I can only hope these messages of tolerance in this time of crisis comes through.
I’m sending my love to Paris tonight.
What happened was absolutely horrible. My heart is bleeding as I am still watching the latest updates on TV. Thanks for writing about it.
Thank you, Zascha. So much sadness all around. And it’s so scary, there’s really no way to prevent suicide bombings and neighborhood attacks. Who knows when and where the next one will be 🙁
The only good news is that it could have been much worse because one of the terrorist couldnt enter the soccer stadium and blew himself outside. Yesterday they found others terrorist in Saint-Denis, as you probably saw on TV a woman was killed, she was actually planning to explode a bomb near la Défense. Anyway, this was supposed to happen… 2 weeks before the event I told a canadian friend France would probably have a terrorist attack very soon, and it will probably happen again in a near future maybe in London or other european big city. Scary situation… I live near Paris by the way. And my dad who told me ‘don’t go to Egypt, it’s dangerous ‘ thanks dad I already live in a warzone ! (sorry for the bad english)