Apr 11, 2022·edited Apr 11, 2022Liked by Luigi Cappel
So I was at Deutsche Bank London, Equities, on a dev team with a pile of Aussies and Kiwis. So we watched the whole thing. TV screens everywhere of course. It felt like a movie, the shape of it.
So a few weeks later we're suffering many annoying restrictions in the name of security and I'm applying for a job at an American broker - 32nd floor or something in the big tower in Canary Wharf. Note I do have a personal rule not to work for American banks etc because the working culture's shit, so not sure how that happened.
Anyways, I'm sitting there watching how close the planes flying to City Airport come to the building. Big planes, little planes. Close. Terrifying. Thinking no freakin' way I'm working here.
But later I think, wow that's a metric for how real the threat actually is. All this crap we go through is purely performative, theatre to make us fearful, but the proximity of those planes to London's premier tower of capitalists was a reliable measure of what's real.
It was like a movie wasn't it? Like the Christchurch Mosque shooting video that I sadly saw, which looked just like a computer game. Not too long after that I arrived at Heathrow Airport with 3 sets of 3 Petanque balls in my hand luggage. That might be another post :D
Yes it could have happened in London. I am glad that nothing like that has happened again.
Apr 12, 2022·edited Apr 12, 2022Liked by Luigi Cappel
It has of course, mainly not in countries 'we' care about...
Crib sheet for 'our' way of war:
Shock and awe - killing civilians
Degrading infrastructure - killing civilians and attacking civilian infrastructure
Putting pressure on Saddam, Milosevic, the Taliban etc etc - killing civilians
Terror the only currency we know.
Fun fact, I was on a train at Edgeware Road 7 July 2005, felt the edge of the blast lift my carriage a few inches. Lucky not to be one of those I saw leaving smoke stained and injured.
Was also close enough to hear the IRA attack Downing Street in 1991 and see the burned out van, just after I moved here. But that one arguably fit no definition of terrorism...
Wow on those experiences Stephen, the train must have been scary. Downing Street, Wow, hard to imagine. You've reminded me of more close calls for me too. Tokyo got home a week before the sarin attack on the train, and a late decision not to go to Earl's court in 1994 to see Pink Floyd, the night the stadium collapsed. Went to see Starlight Express instead and hated it.
So I was at Deutsche Bank London, Equities, on a dev team with a pile of Aussies and Kiwis. So we watched the whole thing. TV screens everywhere of course. It felt like a movie, the shape of it.
So a few weeks later we're suffering many annoying restrictions in the name of security and I'm applying for a job at an American broker - 32nd floor or something in the big tower in Canary Wharf. Note I do have a personal rule not to work for American banks etc because the working culture's shit, so not sure how that happened.
Anyways, I'm sitting there watching how close the planes flying to City Airport come to the building. Big planes, little planes. Close. Terrifying. Thinking no freakin' way I'm working here.
But later I think, wow that's a metric for how real the threat actually is. All this crap we go through is purely performative, theatre to make us fearful, but the proximity of those planes to London's premier tower of capitalists was a reliable measure of what's real.
It was like a movie wasn't it? Like the Christchurch Mosque shooting video that I sadly saw, which looked just like a computer game. Not too long after that I arrived at Heathrow Airport with 3 sets of 3 Petanque balls in my hand luggage. That might be another post :D
Yes it could have happened in London. I am glad that nothing like that has happened again.
It has of course, mainly not in countries 'we' care about...
Crib sheet for 'our' way of war:
Shock and awe - killing civilians
Degrading infrastructure - killing civilians and attacking civilian infrastructure
Putting pressure on Saddam, Milosevic, the Taliban etc etc - killing civilians
Terror the only currency we know.
Fun fact, I was on a train at Edgeware Road 7 July 2005, felt the edge of the blast lift my carriage a few inches. Lucky not to be one of those I saw leaving smoke stained and injured.
Was also close enough to hear the IRA attack Downing Street in 1991 and see the burned out van, just after I moved here. But that one arguably fit no definition of terrorism...
Wow on those experiences Stephen, the train must have been scary. Downing Street, Wow, hard to imagine. You've reminded me of more close calls for me too. Tokyo got home a week before the sarin attack on the train, and a late decision not to go to Earl's court in 1994 to see Pink Floyd, the night the stadium collapsed. Went to see Starlight Express instead and hated it.