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A FEW DAYS ago we heard news of the capture of a wanted terrorist, Salah Abdeslam. I didn’t rejoice. The fact that it took months to procure his capture didn’t fill me with awe in the Belgian security services. I thought they were simply lucky.
Protected by a community in collective fear and respect, he walked around freely because he knew he could. That is the sad reality of events that precipitated yesterday, the 22 March.
Yesterday morning upon waking, I was listening to the radio. Suddenly, amid all the talk of Irish politics was a new crisis. News from Brussels. I bolted up alert. A small explosion… maybe two. So, I went online and searched on twitter for updates. A small smoke cloud, crowds running. It didn’t seem initially like the end of world. Sadly, for some, it was.
I didn’t think deeply about it all until I was near the end of my regular walking commute after Maelbeek station when more and more blacked out cars screeched by in a flare of blue lights and speed. Something was happening and I just didn’t know what. I thought it was just part of the overall increase in security for the day after the attack in the airport. Though more was to come.
Just a normal day
That particular day I was attending a training session a few blocks down from the Committee of the Regions where I work as a trainee.
Upon entry, security into the building was tight and inside my classroom I glimpsed a scene of collective shock. Everyone was huddled on their phones searching for the latest information. We discussed what was happening and the sporadic official messages we received from our respective institutions. There were reports of a bomb at the Shuman Metro station only a block away from us, we weren’t sure. All we knew was that a class on European institutions was the least thing on our minds. So it was agreed to cancel the class.
I tried calling my parents yet the phone signals were blocked amid the storm of traffic. The official advice was to stay inside and await further instructions. So we waited, discussed events, our lives, our hopes for Europe, and the difficulties of multilingual integration for children in Belgian schools, while attending to a flood of concerned messages from home and abroad; then we waited some more.
I posted an update on social media, to reach the most amount of people the fastest, all the while it was really touching to know that people reached out to check if I was okay.
Surreal and terrifying. After so many years following events unfold through television and social media, growing up with endless cinematic entertainment that demanded the suspension of disbelief, it was striking and unbelievable how suddenly I was at the heart of an event the world would discuss and debate.
The streets and the sound of silence
Inside, we discussed when and where to go, difficulties from the closure of public transport. It was awful to stay inside on such a sunny day. I felt enclosed in the building, so I left late in the early evening. At that stage the ‘yellow alert’ security posters had all changed to ‘orange alert’, and we were bid farewell.
Walking down the street the first thing that hit me was the silence. Normally Rue Belliard (where the Committee of the Regions is), is a torrent of traffic, yesterday it was silent, surreal. Occasionally the odd police car ripped through that placid illusion of calm, yet largely, it was silent. People in the familiar stiff attire of the EU quarter made the long walk home while I passed the pair of soldiers I normally greet every morning. Yesterday was different. They wore their helmets and no smiles.
Walking home was a labyrinth, street after street were blocked by police and soldiers. While outside the EU Council the media scrummed to get a juicy background shot of Maelbeek in the background. I heard Chinese, Japanese, BBC British, Arabic, French and a few tongues I may never know.
Upon my return home, I met my fellow housemates crowded around the TV showing the latest updates. There was emotion in the air, horror and anger. One friend of friend was on the train only behind the one that exploded, so he had to walk through the tunnel to escape while another just missed that exact train by minutes.
Others stayed on lock down throughout Brussels all day like myself struggling to find the will to work as if it were a normal day. But it wasn’t.
A day that ripped through the heart of Brussels
It was a day that ripped through the heart of life in Brussels.
This Tuesday was a failure of the Belgian security services, that reminded us of a painful reality; some people cannot be reasoned with. Some cannot be bartered with and some cannot accept the idea of living in peace.
Growing up in Sligo, the troubles are a distant memory, dim and foggy with the passing of time. Something that I only recall happening through a TV screen or in the papers, not on my streets or in my life.
Yesterday reminded me of the traumatic reality of violence as an end. Just because it is on the screen doesn’t make it any less real. This Tuesday in Brussels, ordinary lives were lost. Not because they wanted anything nefarious or the like, but because others choose the path of hate. That is the reality.
I do not feel that it will get any better in the near future. As a human being, I am fed up of the idea that we should transfer the Paris bombing slogan ‘Je Suis’, to another tragedy.
Such an awful tragedy need not happen. European ideals of unity and pluralism should have prevented this level of raw hate and twisted beliefs. Yet it didn’t.
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So Truck drivers Hours are monitored for safety reasons BUT Doctors are allowed work All the hours under the Sun to the Detriment of patients wellbeing,Mmmmmmmm
@Larry Rawson: you wouldn’t let someone who hasn’t slept for three days service your car, but you are expected to put your life in their hands.
Why is this practice not addressed yes, as Junior Doctors working unsafe long hours is going on for years. Perhaps the Medical Consultants should now support the these people as most of the Juniors are filling in for them.
Successive Irish governments have been quite happy paying millions in fines rather than implement the european working time directive. These men and women whom help keep us alive are being so badly mistreated for as long as I can remember it’s a total disgrace. Having worked in a hospital for 25 yrs and having a good few friends in the medical profession, I honestly don’t know how they have put up with it for so long. Is it any wonder our best trained people are leaving the country. It’s long past time to start treating them with a lot more respect.
This unsafe practice, working long hours by Junior doctors is going on for years. Why is this practice not addressed yet, perhaps they need more support from the Medical Consultants who they are usually filling in for most of the time.
@Laz Mahon: the person who came up with this system was addicted to cocaine and therefore had problems sleeping. Not safe for the doctors going home after the shift or their patients during.
The HSE / Department of Health needs to be overhauled, latest contact for consultants require them to be on call up to 10 pm during working week and 6 pm at weekend, words fail me
37 hr week for all. Commuting should be included in the 37. Overtime banned. Working from home prioritised.
@François Pignon:You wouldn’t happen to be french by any chance?
“The measures would see employers penalised for non-compliance” – So the HSE, and by proxy the DOH and the taxpayer.
There’s no incentive for reform, the punishment is borne by the taxpayer and the health system. It’s difficult not to see this as another small step towards further privatisation of more and more of the health system. Slaintecare has been a joke, in a long line of sick jokes since the formation of the HSE from the regional health by board model (which we’re now returning to but under the HSE naming)
@Brendan Gordon: Here’s the thing Brendan. The old health board system worked better. It was more accountable at a local level. One of the reasons the HSE was established was to cut out a layer of management. Instead it added more layers and became more bureaucratic.
@Declan Moran: Oh I know, and the return to the regional health board system will add another layer of useless bureaucracatic dregs again. I was a swabber and applied for some higher roles and saw first hand how the slaintecare rollout is basically being treated as a gravy train for those short on useful skills and competencies but who know not to rock the boat. Everyone is covering for everyone else lest they be rumbled that a single competent professional could handle the workload of an entire department of domesticated apes
All this will do is increase wait times. They get paid enough. They know what they signed up for
@Colin Mahony: A person sleep deprived is more likely to crash than someone over the limit. Would like an intoxicated person doing/ assisting in a surgery on you or a loved one. Or indeed prescribing you/ administing medicine. Or even diagnosing you?? Imagine being treated for the wrong aliment because the doctor attending to you is finishing a 24hour shift and wasn’t/ couldn’t have been thinking straight. I think your position is out of complete ignorance of what been sleep deprived does to the mind and body.
@Colin Mahony: Colin , how will this increase wait times, Im curious to know?
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