A Young South African’s View: “Attack on Paris – What I Felt”
I am probably a few hours too late to express how I feel about what happened in Paris but I feel that it is important to address this issue and that is an indication that this matter cannot be overlooked in any way. I woke up this morning to the news of the attack on […]
I am probably a few hours too late to express how I feel about what happened in Paris but I feel that it is important to address this issue and that is an indication that this matter cannot be overlooked in any way.
I woke up this morning to the news of the attack on Paris and even though I cannot even begin to fathom of how much fear is surging through the veins of the people of Paris who had to witness such grim events, I believed that it was some way a true example of how humans have sort of become their own enemies.
We kill our own kind in order to get our own way.
Though, this cannot be applicable to all of us, as Paris is receiving tons of worldwide support against last night’s events and the events that may follow. Celebrities, politicians and everyday people have gone on to social media to show their support. Yes, this is remarkable but it still doesn’t address the issue at hand. We can post millions of #PrayForParis tweets but this won’t stop the terrorist organisation(s) that’s responsible for this.
This brings the question of: What can I do? Well, the sad reality is that there is not much that I can do as an individual. I live in a fairly large county on the tip of Africa but whatever I try to do as an individual cannot resolve issues of terrorism that are happening thousands of miles away from home.
Though, this limiting factor cannot stop me from being anti-terrorist. I am anti-war and that automatically makes me anti-terrorist. I do not believe that violent action can resolve any issue. I am not trying sound self-righteous but I am just indicating what I truly stand for. I stand for finding solutions to problems in a logical way- there cannot always be a solution to everything but it sure helps to look at problems from every angle in order to find prosperity from the problems.
It just baffles me as to WHY PEOPLE KILL ordinary civillians in the persuit of achieving some sort of justifiable goal. The goal may be justified but you cannot reach a goal at the expense of innocent civilians. I simply don’t understand how any of this can be justified but again we need to look at such aspects from every angle. Yes, that may seem impossble to do because there are almost 8-Billion inhabitants of this planet surging through life, but it won’t kill us to try (excuse the pun).
Okay, maybe trying is not the solution to everything but something drastic needs to be done against terrorist organisations.
If terrorist organisations are as big as they are today, then they must be getting support from somebody even bigger. I may sound like I’m really speculating now but it is a known fact that behind any mechanism there needs to be some sort of driving force, no matter how convoluted or advanced it is.
We may never find what that driving force is but everyone knows that the biggest driving force in life is emotion. What sort of emotion were those gunmen and suicide bombers going through? Were they scared? Did the surviving attackers feel proud of their gruesome actions? We can’t know what they felt as I can never fill the shoes of anyone who was involved.
I will like to finish-off by sending my condolences the families that lost loved-ones in last night’s attacks. This message may not bring them back but their well-being will be in my thoughts during this time of mourning.
I would also like to say that acts of terrorism are on-going every day. What happened yesterday was is indeed a major concern but [our concern for] terrorism should be bigger than the impact it had on Paris on Friday, November 13th 2015.
I support the fight against terrorism, and you should too.
-Natasha
NATASHA TSATSI is an aspiring young South African writer. She lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, with her parents and younger sister. Please see Natasha’s original post on her blog Thisisnatadrill here. Follow Natasha on Twitter here.
Paris Peace Symbol
A poignant image by Jean Jullien, a French graphic designer currently living in London, has become the most reposted symbol of peace on social media today.