In my last blog I spoke about travelling by train from London to Valencia. While I had some problems with ticketing, the journey itself was very pleasent. When I boarded in St. Pancras, London I went through tight security as though I was flying, but when I boarded at Gare du Lyon, Paris there was absolutely no security at all. I could have dragged anything at all on board. Later in the trip we started making stops in the country, where, again people coming on board could have brought God-knows-what with them.
You have a lot of time to think as the train speeds along and you look out at the changing scenery. I did reflect on the difference in security, and I marvelled that given the odd things that people are doing these days, I thought it amazing nothing of a serious nature had happened on a train that I was aware of. I didn't mention this in my blog because I did not want to possibly bring the lack of security to the attention of the wrong person.
What a difference a week can make. This week a very serious attempt was made to kill a train full of people by a man loaded down with weapons. Thankfully, he was brought down by people near to him who were prepared to act quickly and decisively. Without their actions we would be dealing with a very grave tragedy.
Now it is clear for all to see that probably most trains of Europe lack security. We take our lives in our own hands, in most cases when boarding a train. However, having said that perhaps we should pause and count the ways that our lives can end in violence, and ask the question: Why is this so?
In the Western Hemisphere, for which I include Europe, people have been killed at work. A number have been killed in restaurants while simply having a meal. People have been killed on buses and the metro. While sunning themselves on the beach half naked, 38 people were attacked for doing nothing at all. Others were attacked just because they were curious about culture in a musuem. Still others were killed while attending church or bible study. Others have been killed by simply going about their business, including in the cinema, and sometimes by the police who are supposed to serve and to protect.
I have probably not included every type of incidence that may end your life, but of course we have to add the old standby of travelling by plane, and now train to get from one place to another.
What is really happening?
The only thng I can think of, especially when we factor in all the regional conflicts that end so many lives, is that we may be seeing Mother Nature at work in culling of the human species. Seven billion people on the planet is too many to be sustained. By 2050 it has been said that earth's population will reach ten billion. That cannot happen. Such numbers cannot sustain themselves and earth's resources will be well over stretched. So, we are seeing strange happenings that fall short of the nuclear option, but it is not too strange to believe that that solution will not be used.
No-one is happy about this, but reality can be harsh.
Copyright (c) 2015 Eugene Carmichael
