Brussels Lockdown
Nov. 23rd, 2015 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
franceslievensI am not scared, just very very very annoyed.
I'd love to call it all a farce, but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nwhyte says it so much more eloquently without calling it that.
Of course it's not a farce. It's serious. But can you take this threat too serious? Closing schools is in fact taking away children's rights (I'm going to teach about that later this week).
The (new) Headteacher was sitting alone in the school today because there were workmen coming. She asked teachers to join her tomorrow, to think about what to do on Wednesday. There were angry replies that people were advised not to go to Brussels. People weren't advised not to go to Brussels. People were advised to stay away from crowded places. There are no crowded places in Brussels tomorrow. The walk from the train station to school is probably the best guarded walk of town.
We all get a feel for what it means to live in an occupied city (I'll be talking about that later this week as well). In the first place it's a very quiet city. And it's tiring: not to know, and not being able to go out with the kids, because frankly there is nothing fun to do. It was LB's first comment on not having to go to school today: "Then the cinema will be closed." And she really wants to see that film about Sint Nick.
I'd love to call it all a farce, but
nwhyte says it so much more eloquently without calling it that.Of course it's not a farce. It's serious. But can you take this threat too serious? Closing schools is in fact taking away children's rights (I'm going to teach about that later this week).
The (new) Headteacher was sitting alone in the school today because there were workmen coming. She asked teachers to join her tomorrow, to think about what to do on Wednesday. There were angry replies that people were advised not to go to Brussels. People weren't advised not to go to Brussels. People were advised to stay away from crowded places. There are no crowded places in Brussels tomorrow. The walk from the train station to school is probably the best guarded walk of town.
We all get a feel for what it means to live in an occupied city (I'll be talking about that later this week as well). In the first place it's a very quiet city. And it's tiring: not to know, and not being able to go out with the kids, because frankly there is nothing fun to do. It was LB's first comment on not having to go to school today: "Then the cinema will be closed." And she really wants to see that film about Sint Nick.
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no subject
Date: 2015-11-24 05:09 pm (UTC)There is caution and there is making people afraid - sometimes both happen at the same time.
Closing schools is a big decision, but then I remembered the siege of Beslan, but of course you can only keep schools shut for a couple of days, if there is an immediate threat and preferably until you've neutralised this threat.
Is this going to be our new normal in Europe? My grown students told me about their worries about going to Christmas markets in the big cities, any crowded places and when there was a loud bang at night (it turned out to be a car engine blowing up) the police came very quickly and they said they had been really scared.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-24 08:14 pm (UTC)We're going back to school tomorrow, with measures in place that should keep the bad guys out. We'll see how it goes this week...