Day 3 in Seychelles: #JeSuisBruxelles

And then, one moment to the other, it all stopped making sense. We were arriving to yet another beach, we had rented a car for the day so we could visit the whole of the island, when a text message came. That was how we were told about the Brussels bomb attacks.

The first reaction was naturally shock, then confusion, then anger. And then silence. What could we tell each other? We felt so powerless and so distant. The beach was stunning but who cares?...

It is funny to discover how much we care for Brussels and for our family of friends there. We may bash the town all the time, think about life in other places, but today we realized that we are also Bruxellois and our home was under attack. We were at the check in area in Zaventem on Saturday morning. We use the Maalbeek metro station often, it used to be my metro station when I lived in that area not that long ago. And now, these places join the infamous list of terror attacks. A list that just doesn’t stop growing.

All that mattered was knowing that our friends were well and safe. We drove to a resort so we could use the internet there and be reachable. And we both had to control the tears when we saw the unbelievable number of messages from people that care about us. It was a humbling moment. People that we haven’t seen in a long time, people who we haven’t talked to in a long time, but people that still were worried about us and our safety. Thank you to all of you.

Facebook can be a tool of ignorance and a tool of hatred. I had many rants about its power and how it gives people a stage to display their prejudices. But today we also saw the other side of Facebook, the human side and the role it can play in bringing people together. As we saw, one by one, our friends checking themselves safe on Facebook we started calming down. As of now, when I write this, none of our friends and acquaintances has been victim of these horror attacks.

But we also know that this blessing is also a matter of luck. Pure luck. It could have been them, it could have been us. It wasn’t. It was over 250 others. People like me, who walk the same streets I do, take the same metro, fly from the same airport. They are not numbers, they have names and faces and families. Tonight there is no joy, only sorrow.

The only way to fight ignorance is through knowledge. You can only fight hatred with understanding and tolerance. We will win, not because they will stop but because we won’t. This is obviously not over, there will be more attacks and more victims. And of course, as long as there are conflicts where everyday people die for no other reason than the power and glory of a bunch of wankers, anger will continue to thrive. But what we can do, all of us Bruxellois, is to wake up tomorrow – in Brussels or in the Seychelles – and to continue living our lives loving each other and pursuing happiness. That is what we intend to do.

Seychelles

22/03/2016