#brusselsattack2016

Since yesterday I'm trying to find the words to express how I feel. Yesterday my country, my city of birth has been touch by a terrorist bomb attack. The airport has been bomb. The place who has seen me leaving for many country in the world, the place I go every year to travel. The explosion was near the Starbucks I go everytime just to drink my coffee before the take off. I can't believe all this. I'm left without any words to express my feelings. I'm left in pain after all this. I'm heartbroken to see this happening to my country. My beautiful country. The center of Europe. Brussels was a place where I always felt myself safe. How can I be safe now?

In a little less than 4 months I'm gonna go to this airport to go in Italy. Will I feel okay to go there? I don't think so. But I can't stop myself from living because of some ignorant people. We have to keep living. We can't give them the honor of taking our freedom away.

Our world is going crazy. Many country have been affected by those attack in Brussels. It has many nationalities in Brussels. We are a very multicultural country. Why this had to happen here? I wish we would have been safe a little bit longer. But no one can deny that we weren't expecting it. Everyone was excepting it. We were just hoping for a little bit more time. I was hoping for a little bit more time. It will never be the same anymore. World is not the same anymore

We had so much shit in this world because of some people who think that the doing something right in the name of a religion. This has nothing to do with religion. This has to do with people who think that their "religion" is asking them to do that. But the truth is no one have ever ask them to do this. Islam have never ask people to kill innocents.

I'm sick of this shit !! I'm sick of this world not turning right anymore. I wish we could go back but there is no turning back.

Yesterday, on the 22nd of March, Belgium was rocked by a series of bombings in public places, more specifically, Brussels Airport in Zaventem and the Maalbeek metro station near the European district. At this point, 32 people have been confirmed to have died, either at the bombings or having succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. Many are still fighting for their lives and many more have been maimed for life through the nail bombs used in the departure lobby of the airport.

Sounds familiar? These type of attacks have been happening all over the world for a while now, just last week four people died in a suicide attack in the heart of Istanbul and a week before that 34 people let their life in the bombing of a transportation hub in Ankara. That same day, there was a shooting in an Ivory Coast hotel that left 18 dead.

But what makes Brussels different? In Dutch we have a somewhat insensitive saying that can be literally translated into “the-far-from-my-bed-show” which means exactly what it says: it’s something happening somewhere far away. However, yesterday, it wasn’t happening somewhere far away: I work for Levi Strauss Europe, whose offices are located in one of the business campuses around Brussels Airport, so like hundreds of others, I take the train to the airport and catch a transit bus to the campus, which is only a couple of minutes away. I’m in Brussels Airport just about every single day, I’ve had countless of coffees in the Starbucks in the departures lounge with friends or colleagues because I missed one of my train connections and had some time to kill. I would have been at the airport at the time of the bombs going off, like I would’ve been any other day, but because some weird twist of fate, I wasn’t; I had booked a tattoo appointment that day and had just woken up and gotten out of bed when I saw the breaking news notifications on my phone that there had been two explosions in the airport. I jumped in the shower and when I got out I saw I had several missed calls from my manager and a confirmation that these explosions had been bomb explosions - there had been an attack.

Suddenly, the scenes of carnage wasn’t from some far away country, it was happening at home. Another phone call from my manager, who had forgotten I had a day off and let out a relieved sigh: “Thanks God you’re ok, I thought you were in the airport”. He told that me that two of our colleagues were having a coffee at the Starbucks when the bombs went off, but were miraculously unharmed and now stuck in one of the airport hotels that was in lock down. I rushed downstairs and turned on the TV to follow the live news feed: footage from people rushing out of a smoking airport - my airport.

Belgium is a small country everyone knows someone who lives or works in Brussels, so this has affected just about everyone in Belgium in some way, but I want to thank everyone who has shown their support and solidarity for Brussels - I can confirm that it’s truly heart warming to see the overwhelmingly positive global response to these kind of tragedies. 

 Tomorrow, I’m getting the planned tattoo with one small addition: 22/03.

To the family and friends who lost their loved ones in the Brussels attacks I send my heart and sympathies out to you. And to the ones who are injured and stuck in hospital beds, I send my hope and Godspeed to you.

Love from a little girl in America

BY MAULDIN ECONOMICS 

Geopolitical expert George Friedman wasn’t surprised when terror struck Brussels this week. He thinks the European Union, institutionally paralyzed and unable to respond properly, will stay in the crosshairs. 

Speaking in a Mauldin Economics video, Friedman says Europe isn’t immune from history. It was supposed to bring peace and prosperity, but the continent has neither. 

Terrorists Are Winning in Europe

According to Friedman, no one can defeat terrorism, but governments can minimize it. Doing so will take intrusive measures the Europeans don’t seem willing to take. 

The return of internal border controls spells the end of passport-free travel but won’t stop terrorists. It is simply impossible to screen so many people effectively. Even if it were, evading the checkpoints is laughably easy.

The latest plan to stop Mediterranean refugee flows won’t help, either. It is yet another attempt to outsource enforcement to someone else, this time Turkey. It is far from clear that Turkey can or will keep its part of the deal. 

Extremism Is on the Rise

Each terror attack strengthens Europe’s far right parties. Their anti-Muslim rhetoric further isolates the Muslim population and enables more attacks. 

The economic reality is that Europe needs Muslim labor, but Europeans increasingly don’t want Muslims in their midst. Since they can’t have it both ways, Friedman says the chaos will continue.

The European Union Is Tearing Itself Apart

The European Union as an institution is tearing itself apart. Terrorism is only part of its problem. Unemployment in southern Europe is at staggering levels, and the EU member states can’t agree how to solve it. So they do nothing.

Despite all this, Friedman doesn’t expect an EU breakup. He thinks it will simply fade away into irrelevance, issuing edicts everyone ignores. 

The once-powerful fantasy that Brussels could reshape Europe into a centralized union is dead. As such, no one should expect the EU to stop terrorism. It can’t and it won’t.

Watch the full interview (7:35) below or on the Mauldin Economics site.

Subscribe to George Friedman’s free weekly newsletter This Week in Geopolitics

Let me start out by saying I’m an “expert” on absolutely nothing, but consider myself fairly educated and endowed with common sense.

#CallBrussles is a campaign started two months ago (in January) by visit.brussels (Brussels official tourism and convention website) due to the enormous decline in tourism the city was experiencing after major terror alerts and news alerts late last year. As is shown, various phones where placed throughout the city of Brussels and a number was advertised that any international could call to query nearby locals that picked up the handset about the safety of the city. A hashtag campaign was also started, as you can see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vu_nVyyvxg This is all good and well, you can’t fault a city for trying to drum up tourism, especially one as historically and culturally important to Belgium and Europe.  Where a problem begins, is when PR campaigns and hashtag campaigns are looked upon as legitimate information and advisories regarding terror threats. The US State Department has regularly updated the travel advisory to reflect the increased threat levels in Brussels (and Belgium), which has since March of last year (also taking care to note the increased risk of threat during both national and international holiday periods) steadily rose and was maintained between Level-3 ( high threat) and Level-4 (serious threat of imminent attack) since November of last year.

http://belgium.usembassy.gov/security_messages.html

Also noted by the state department, European authorities continuously warned of the increased risks of terror threats from ISIS/ISIL.

EUROPE:  Credible information indicates terrorist groups such as ISIL and al-Qa’ida and its affiliates continue to plot near-term attacks in Europe.  All European countries remain vulnerable to attacks from transnational terrorist organizations. European authorities continue to warn of the possibility of attacks conducted by lone individuals inspired by extremist organizations that could occur with little to no warning.  Extremists have targeted large sporting events, theatres, open markets, aviation services, transportation systems, and public venues where people congregate.  Authorities believe there is a high likelihood terror attacks in Europe will continue as European members of ISIL return from Syria and Iraq.  European governments are taking action to guard against terrorist attacks; however, all European countries remain potentially vulnerable.

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/worldwide-caution.html#Europe

The UK Government also had similar warning on it’s travel advisory page for Belgium.

Terrorism

There is a high threat from terrorism. Attacks could be indiscriminate, including on public transport and transport hubs and in other places visited by foreigners.

Brussels hosts a number of international institutions (EU and NATO) and government and foreign embassy buildings which are sensitive locations.

There is considered to be a heightened threat of terrorist attack globally against UK interests and British nationals, from groups or individuals motivated by the conflict in Iraq and Syria. You should be vigilant at this time.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/belgium/terrorism

Why does this matter? Individuals need to take all available information into consideration before making plans for international travel. While a foreign municipalities tourism and convention committee may have a snappy, cute advert that shows happy and joyful locals describing how great and safe their city is...that is the view of an agency who’s primary goal is to maintain and invent news ways to attract tourists. As far as local sentiment regarding terror threats, while it can be interesting collaboration of anecdotal evidence, it does not replace the warnings and advisories issued by legitimate organizations/agencies who have the resources, trained personnel, and intelligence sources that you’re average citizen doesn’t. Those organizations/agencies exist to help safeguard the public and help keep the public informed in regard to potential hazards and threats.

This applies doubly for your own country and municipalities. If your city, state, region, ect... has issued an increased threat level advisory,  it is best to heed it and take steps to help safeguard yourself and your loved ones.