Unsurprised

I honestly was devastated on Friday when I saw the dreadful news from Paris.  I thought of all the people killed and their devastated and bewildered families.  I thought of the injured and the utter havoc this will cause and the effects they will carry for the rest of their lives.  I thought of those who were physically unharmed but now had to remember the sound of the explosions and the shots and the screams again and again.  I thought of how strong the police and the medics would have to be to gather the remains, some in a very bad way, and try and give some dignity to the dead.

It ripples out.  Concerts have been cancelled in Paris.  I suppose the bands and the venues will have insurance, but how about the cafes that will now have that many fewer patrons?  A few less bieres and croque monsieurs, a few less coffees.  It takes the bite out of the profits of a lot of smaller businesses.  How many people are going to Disneyland Paris now?  How many want to risk the trip on Eurostar?  Rationally it should be the safest time to visit Paris, but this isn't a time when logical thought sounds strongest.  Lives will be a little harder in a city that takes a lot of revenue from tourists and visitors and where times are already tough.

The ripples move out a little further.  Far too many people are looking at Muslims as if they are they enemy.  So Western Muslims who are devastated at the attacks, just the same as I am, now have lives that bit harder.  A beauty salon has banned all Muslims.  I wonder how many other places will follow suit, not publicising it, not shouting about it, just quietly turning away those who do not look Western European with a lame excuse.

Hundreds of people dead or injured.  Thousands of people left traumatised.  Who knows how many taking a financial hit.  And millions of people needlessly smirched because a terrorist group have been violent in the name of a religion that has nothing to do with the slaughter of innocents.

I am unsurprised at the news article about the beauty salon.  I am very saddened.