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July 25, 2005
Tube Vigilance
Everyone is supposed to be taking extra care now to make sure they aren't sitting next to a suicide bomber on public transport. I keep meaning to, but always forget, as I have my head stuck in the Metro newspaper and the notion totally disappears. That's not a subtle advert for the fascinating qualities of the Metro though, just my inability to think of two things at once.
But I considered the alternatives, and I think I've decided that what I'm doing is probably helping my sanity, and keeping my stress down. Let's say I spot a young asian-looking man with a rucksack (this is our best guess demographic of a uicide bomber). What will I do?
Do I stand up and point at him and accuse him of trying to kill me? - No. if I do that and I'm right, he'll press the button and kill us all. If I'm wrong then it'll be pretty unpleasant for both of us, and a panicked carriage full of people could be very dangerous.
Another option is to get up and hurriedly walk away and say nothing. There are quite a lot of young asian-looking men with rucksacks on the tube though, and I could spend quite a lot of time walking from carriage to carriage raising my blood pressure. If buy some fluke I happen to get it right, and escape a blast, I'll probably feel guilty the rest of my life that I didn't alert the authorities.
Thirdly I can just sit there and worry, nervously glancing at the man, hoping I'll be OK, working out my options, keeping the panic in.
No, I think I've got it right by default. Read the paper like I've always done, and ignore every other passenger. This is after all the traditional London Underground way.
Posted by se71 at July 25, 2005 11:41 AM
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