Nightmarish Day - no news in Venezuela and appalling news from Boston ...

I have been meaning to get back into blogging after all these visitors and trips that I had over the past weeks but somehow haven't managed. This may have been caused in part by a technology glitch that for some reason doesn't allow me to blog from my phone anymore...

In any case, last night I was ready to blog again because I got so worked up about the elections in Venezuela. After Chavez' death, it seemed like this would be a time for the opposition to finally help this completely run down country back on its feet - so there I was, rooting for Capriles (not that I know much about him other than what his facebook says), following Twitter #Venezuela last night, hoping to get a result but getting more and more tired so I could't stay up for it. Amazing how many Twitter updates I found though - better than watching TV. Could probably start doing the same with #Boston right now.

Actually, this brings me to the other reason why I feel like I needed to get back into blogging - so the day after we get back from Boston, Patriots Day, shortly after I was telling my co-worker that I was very upset to not have been able to stay for the marathon, I hear about the terrible events on skype.
A very weird sensation crept into our office, people were in between having to check all those disgusting news sites (and they are really, really sensationalist in this country - ok, let me check, but probably Spiegel online is not any better than them) and just trying not to think of it or speak about it. Ok, so Spiegel does not have blood on the cover image at least - unlike many of the American sites. Wall Street Journal freaked me out a little by the use of 'act of terror' but then again - what do we expect from this rather conservative news outlet?  The Huffington Post titles 'Boston Mahem' - not sure I prefer that. Creepy to see the streets we were walking and riding on by bus only yesterday filled with panid-ridden people. It's probably best to just say away from all of this horrible reporting. When we went to the gym after work, there was no way to stay away from it though as each and every channel showed nothing else. The worst is the exploitation of the human sentiments - reporters should not be allowed to interview people who are so clearly in a state of shock. I saw someone on facebook asking whether there was anyone in Boston to speak to ABC news - that's the last thing I would have wanted to ask people to do in that situation. It feels like the camera would almost look for crying, heart-broken people...

On my way, I even saw the first American flag being put up next to the building where I work - gave me a little bit of a chill as well. At the same time, of course, it's understandable that right where I work, at the heart of where 9/11 happened, people would be very, very sensitive. So I'm curious what the mood in the office will be like tomorrow - of course it'll be paramount to learn more about who actually did this. Quite a relief that at least there wasn't a third bombing like people thought at first but rather an unrelated fire at the library. But because the library was called JFK - people first thought it happened at our airport and you could really feel the panic to start kicking in...


Really makes you wonder, why anyone would want to destroy such a peaceful and nice sports event that brings people from all over the globe together. But I have seen some good posts on how we shouldn't be wondering about why people do bad things but rather how a lot of good things come from these bad things. There are some nice stories of Bostonians taking in bystanders into their homes  - quite similar to what happened here in NY after Sandy. So hopefully in the end, human nature is still good. Just hope that this will be the message that sticks....