Human Traffic

Today, on my way to work on the bus (going for drinks later) the bus had to stop due to a traffic accident. Now, I know these are not uncommon but the sight of a man lying deathly still in the road made me feel so upset I was almost in tears. Now, I am a bit of the sentimental sort and I do cry at movies (TV progs and books too, sometimes news reports…) and I suppose can be described as a little too compassionate but the thought of a person losing his life doing such a thing as cycling to work really got to me. I disembarked the bus mainly because it was not moving but also because I wanted to see if there was anything I could do, luckily the man started moving and there were quite a few people assisting him, and then the ambulance turned up. Even though I had seen him move, I still felt like crying!

Just after 9/11, I was working for an American company based in the City of London – I felt exactly the same after this. Watching it unfold on the news I did cry, especially the shots of people throwing themselves out of buildings and the people running into the building just before it collapsed – to this day I cannot bring myself to read/watch any of the 9/11 inspired movies, books, etc. After this attack, there were many threats in London and we had a fair few scares where we had to evacuate and whole areas of the City were cordoned off – everyone was in emergency disaster mode and security was paramount. They taught us what to do in the event of an emergency, where to go and what to do – mostly it was very sketchy information as nobody really knew what to do, whilst this was going on reports of extreme bravery, sacrifice and horror were being fed to us on a daily basis by the media.

I had many discussions with colleagues on what we would do if something like that happened – some were concerned with finding their families who also worked in the City, others would just try and get home or go to the allocated spots outside the City – I said I would grab a first aid box and go into the aftermath. I don’t why I said this as some of my colleagues were a bit open mouthed, but this is what I would have done if anything had happened.

It’s crazy – here is a girl who would cry at the thought of someone dying on his way to work, yet I would go in there and hope to do something, to make a difference.

Why would humans do this to each other? Why can life be snatched away so easily?

Also yesterday this morning, I saw another man hiding his bottle of drink under his coat. It was 8am in the morning – and this man had shown me his demons. A friend mine invited Biker and I round for dinner and then proceeded to get so drunk she was almost abusive and we could make no sense of her – why would she do this? I read reports on BBC news about child slavery – it makes me want to weep as I guiltily eat Easter Eggs made from cocoa beans harvested by the hands of child slaves. Today I have read in my magazine stories about anorexics and the reasons why, I have also read a moving account of a 7/7 London survivor. I had moved out of London when this happened but was due to visit, and thinking back to my usual routine in London would probably have been caught up in Kings Cross.

There is nothing like a disaster to make you feel all the more fallible and all the more human.