The Nexus of Assholery - Blogs reveal pain of London bombing survivors

The Nexus of Assholery
« Blogs reveal pain of London bombing survivors »

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
Dec 20, 2009, 6:53am

The Nexus of Assholery :: Get Interactive :: The Blogroll :: Blogs reveal pain of London bombing survivors

Author

Topic: Blogs reveal pain of London bombing survivors (Read 243 times)

Patrick Ross
Jerk-off

member is offline

[avatar]

Joined: May 2006
Gender: Male

Posts: 221
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Karma: 0

Blogs reveal pain of London bombing survivors
« Thread Started on Jul 4, 2006, 2:43pm »

Here's a relevant news story:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/st....60704?hub=World

Blogs reveal pain of London bombing survivors

Associated Press

LONDON -- Bloodied and bewildered strangers led each other from the wreckage of the London bombings last July 7.

A year later, many of them have forged close bonds -- sharing their experiences in a network of blogs.

Dozens of the 700 injured in the train and bus blasts have recounted their stories online and are using them to press the British government for a full public inquiry.

Advertising executive Rachel North, 35, has become a reluctant figurehead, drawing 150,000 readers to her online journal, which described the horror of the blast on a Piccadilly line carriage that killed 25 passengers.

As she rode the subway just six feet away from 19-year-old suicide bomber Jermaine Lindsay, North already was recalling an earlier trauma: reading a newly published magazine article about her rape in 2002, when a teenage assailant tied a wire noose around her neck and beat her unconscious.

North suffered only minor wounds in the bombing and returned home within hours. Unable to sleep, she posted a message on an Internet forum, describing the sickening feeling of the new attack.

"Clouds of choking smoke filled the tube carriage ... I thought I was about to die, or was dead," she wrote.

"There was silence for 10 secs. Then a terrible screaming."

"In 2002, when I was first attacked, I'd found reading the experiences of others who'd gone through the same thing helped, so I wanted to get my experience out," North told The Associated Press in an interview.

"It was cathartic for me, but I also hoped it would be read by those struggling with shock."

Soon after her first post, North was contacted by a survivor who had already taken the difficult first step of returning to London's Underground.

A day later, nauseous and shaking with fear, North returned to the subway and, by chance, met a third anxious survivor.

From those meetings grew King's Cross United -- a network of 110 victims of Lindsay's bomb, including members from Spain, Turkey and Singapore -- who trade advice on a Web site and meet in person.

"We make sure no one has to travel alone on the Underground if they're feeling uncomfortable," North said.

"We go to the pub, talk over our experience and make each other laugh. I can't think of a group of people I'd rather be blown up on the Underground with."

Holly Finch, a 38-year-old survivor and blogger, said "many of us have found each other ... my fear is that there are still hundreds of others suffering alone."

Despite the mutual support, North no longer uses the subway because she began to "smell the bomb, hear the bang and taste the smoke and blood."

Dozens of survivors will meet Friday to mark "a journey we never completed and that -- in some ways -- we'll always be on," North said.

They hope the anniversary not only will generate support for a public inquiry but also offer them a personal turning point.

"I can't be the blogging bomb girl forever.
I have a life to look forward to that is about more than this last year," North said.

On the Net:

Rachel North's journal, http://rachelnorthlondon.blogspot.com
Holly Finch's journal, http://hollyfinch.blogspot.com
Urban 75 London forum, http://www.urban75.org/london/bombs.html
Online public inquiry petition http://www.petitiononline.com/July7th/petition.html

Taken from www.CTV.ca

Link to Post - Back to Top IP:

Logged

www.nexusofassholery.blogspot.com

Click Here To Make This Board Ad-Free

This Board Hosted For FREE By ProBoards
Get Your Own Free Message Boards & Free Forums!