Intimidation and terror, even when perpetrated on totally innocent unsuspecting people in the most brutal way imaginable, achieves nothing even remotely like that which the evil mind imagines it should, and in time achieves the opposite.

Stay strong, and stay safe .

My thoughts and sympathy are with New Zealand today, and you and yours in particular.


Auckland, June, 2017

I lost a post (ethernet cable came loose so lost broadband connection) but that may have been a good thing because I waffled a little.  All I really want to say is that I echo the thoughts nordmann has expressed so well in his post.

Lady, first of all I join nordmann and I use his wording in his impeccable English, for whem I have no alternative:

Caro, "Stay strong, and stay safe .My thoughts and sympathy are with New Zealand today, and you and yours in particular." (cfr. nordmann).

And I wanted to add something to your "you said: supposed waffle". But too late this evening to "construct" an elaborated message.
Regards from Paul.

Agreed Paul. A very well written post by nordmann.

I'll add Australia too to the list of those needing sympathy at this time. I'd imagine that people there must be as appalled the rest of us that one of their own was (apparently) responsible for this outrage.

Thanks for those messages, Nordmann and others. 

We were away when it happened, and my husband came out of a shop telling me to listen to the news. I said that it was still 7 minutes to news time, and he said he thought there would be something now that I would want to know about. There has really been little else since then, and it gets a bit demoralising. My carer and I tried to avoid the subject today, but eventually I brought it up. 


These news items don't usually make me cry but I did feel the beginning of tears, as I thought "Those poor Muslims, just going to worship." At the time we were thinking there was "only" about 7 people killed; when we heard later it was 49, now 50 and possibly going higher, we were truly shocked. 
We have a lot of family members around Christchurch, and some of them were disrupted not able to get home, but most of them got their kids home at the same time as usual. Apparently he had planned on bombing a Dunedin mosque but decided there would be more people in ChCh.
 
Whatever it has shaken people up greatly. He was on no-one's radar and was thought of as a stable personality into gym activities, and holding a legal gun licence. The only positive I can get from this is that he seemed to be on his own and not part of a group. 


Planned events like the rugby in Dunedin and a Bryan Adams concert were abandonned and the Bangladeshi cricket team, due to start the third test in Dunedin were on the first available place home. 

Caro, I saw your update on Jiglu and thanks for your message overhere. And seemingly in Utrecht Netherlands it is also hate related. And now Erdogan using the event to emphasize his political aims...the politics are sunk deeply...in one local paper Erdogan called a dictator and an eulogy for your female prime minister handling the events the right way and with the subtile touch needed in such horror stories. Only some three years since we had it overhere in Brussels from the same sort (class? kind?) of people.
Kind regards, Paul.