Today is the 10th
anniversary of the Bali bombing. Two bombs exploded in 2 nightclubs killing 202
people. Among the dead were 2 of my Master’s degree students.
Almost a year earlier a group of
Swedish students arrived. Male and female, blond, blued eyed (and what is I
believe is called) fit, immediately popular with the local students. They
worked and played incredibly hard. Every holiday was spent travelling, South-East
Asia, Hong Kong and Japan. Saturday nights were spent in the Staff club putting
the world to rights.
October came, they had finished
and passed the course. For their last trip they decided on Bali. Since they
were flying on Friday we met in the Staff Club on Thursday night. Usual farewell
happenings, they insisted on buying the drinks, photographs and as they left to
pack, handshakes and hugs.
After the bombing, we met the
survivors, their parents and reflected upon the cruel twist of fate. The entire
group had met in a bar for a round of drinks. Two of the young men decided to
make their way to a nightclub. The rest of the group decided to stay “for
another round”, heard the explosions and lived.
John
2 comments:
That's awful - I'm sorry John.
Life is so precious and it seems doubly unfair that everything can seemingly turn on a dime.
Let us hope hate and war shall not undo us.
Dillinger
“everything can seemingly turn on a dime”
Too right Dillinger. We are happily going along and get diabetes. We walk into a bar and meet our future wife. We pick up a newspaper read an advert and our next job is staring us in the face. So many of the really important things in our lives are down to chance.
Anyway it will soon be the weekend, get a few bottles of Rioja in, have a good one.
Eddie
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