Rising East Online

Multiculturalism and the ‘war on terror’

Hollywood Comes to London Town

—Adrian Prickett

East London is a target again, as it was in World War Two. Planes will crash into Canary Wharf, and bombs will destroy the Olympic Games – unless we are all vigilant.

This is what our politicians tell us. But they seem to be working from a Hollywood script in which Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson or Wesley Snipes (take your pick) is about to save Docklands with nothing more than a gun, a radio, and a bit of community support.

The Hollywood governments of today pronounce that we are all at risk. But are we in East London really under threat of a terrorist attack? Yes, we have iconic buildings and red buses, and the world’s biggest sporting event is on its way here, but is anyone really scared of a terrorist attack? Should be we?

Today’s terrorists and governments agree on the importance of images, which have become almost more important that the number of actual deaths. If no one had died, during the 7/7 attacks would the impact of the images from that day have been any less strong? In the ‘war on terror’, we are constantly reminded of what could happen with repeated images of 9/11 and 7/7, as if they occur every week.

What happened on these dates was a tragedy, but since then there has not been much terror in the streets of New York or London. We are led to believe that terrorism impinges on us all, all the time. But without wanting to sound heartless, as shocking as these attacks were, their effects on myself and my life were tiny – and rightly so, I think.

Terror is something we are all supposed to be worried about, but from my point of view, there is little we can do about this limited threat to individual life. Hollywood governments may promote terror as the greatest living danger of our lifetime, but it has very little impact on me in my East London existence. Let’s leave the fearful spectacle of terror to the scriptwriters.

Adrian Prickett is studying journalism

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