Voices Of Hope
‘WE had wanted to talk about the G8 summit, global warming, poverty in Africa, that one of the anti-capitalist Peoples Golfing Association went round the course on par, how one of the Wombles looks like Euan Blair.
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| Standing firm |
But we cant. The papers wont allow it. The news 25 pages of it in the Times, another 25 in the Telegraph is dominated by the appalling scenes in London.
Then came blackness followed by the smell of flesh, gunpowder and burning rubber, come the words on the Timess wraparound front page, a quote from one the survivors who endured the horror on the London Underground.
Indeed, this is a day for quotes, as human voices try to make sense of the inhuman madness.
There are messages of sympathy and hope to the victims from such figures as the Pope, the Mayor of Paris, the chairman of the East London Mosque, the Israeli Foreign Minister, the Prime Minster of Spain and the members of G8.
And the Times produces a vox pop of its main writers. After the leader The calm shown in London was exemplary. The terrorists have only strengthened Britains resolve the columnists.
Matthew Parris takes up the theme of how the Blitz spirit returned; David Aaronovitch talks of a day of rumour, worry and turmoil; Amir Taheri mutters what they did, what they did; Rudy Giuliani delivers his message to the people of London; and Simon Barnes tells readers how our Olympic
This is no day for rash action, but a day for words, for trying to gather scrambled thoughts.
The Telegraph also has words lots of them. But its the pictures that stand out.
The Telegraphs broadsheet size gives its shots of Londoners reeling from the bombs that hit the city huge impact.
The photograph of a black man with deadlocks cradling a white woman as they walk away from the devastation in Russell Square shows a dignified and united London.
The picture of the bus blown to smithereens in Tavistock Square and the accompanying shot of the area around it, strewn with gruesome debris and bodies, seem possessed of a spiritual stillness.
There seems to be no sense of panic, no maelstrom of confusion, just the resolve to get on with doing what needs to be done…
Paul Sorene’
Posted: 8th, July 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
