E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

20 years ago, when blogging was a new past-time, and this blog had just recently begun, a major terrorist attack took place in London. This is what I posted that day, here, exactly 20 years ago: "The thing we feared most has happened: Madrid-style, multiple terrorist attacks on the London Underground and bus routes in the heart of London, timed with surgical cruelty after London's Olympic win and the start of the G8 summit. It is an unsettling time, and there have been many casualties. So far, over 33 fatalities have been reported. It is - weatherwise and ironically (as in New York in 2001) - a warm, sunny day now, with lovely blue skies. Tens of thousands of would-be commuters are slowly walking home early. With no underground system, some mainline services closed, and few buses in Zone 1, some will be walking for hours. The streets are eerily calm, punctuated by sirens. The people of London, accustomed to such things, are brave and will endure, but this is a sad day for all ...

Eyewear was a very young blog of a few weeks, when tragedy struck London, ten years ago today in the morning. Here is what we wrote then: 'The thing we feared most has happened: Madrid-style, multiple terrorist attacks on the London Underground and bus routes in the heart of London, timed with surgical cruelty after London's Olympic win and the start of the G8 summit. It is an unsettling time, and there have been many casualties. So far, over 33 fatalities have been reported. It is - weatherwise and ironically (as in New York in 2001) - a warm, sunny day now, with lovely blue skies. Tens of thousands of would-be commuters are slowly walking home early. With no underground system, some mainline services closed, and few buses in Zone 1, some will be walking for hours. The streets are eerily calm, punctuated by sirens. The people of London, accustomed to such things, are brave and will endure, but this is a sad day for all who love London and live here.' Sadly, i...

It has been five years since that shocking, terrible day in London - which began around now, as commuters headed to work - now called 7/7  - when bombers took many lives, and ground London to a halt.  The day before London had been awarded the 2012 Olympic Games.  I remember thinking - London will never recover.  But I was new to London, and didn't yet realise that its fabled "Blitz spirit" was genuinely present.  Or rather, people just got on with it - walking home, walking to work.  But people died. The tube and buses became, symbolically, more deadly (for awhile); and an innocent man was soon afterwards shot dead in public.  There has been no successful terrorist attack in England since then.  Were lessons learned?  Is the war in Afghanistan working?  Londoners don't fear for their safety these days.  Five years is a long time.  Yet, families, friends, loved ones, remain permanently changed by July 7, 2005.  We must s...