What happened in Brussels is heartbreaking and horrifying. Please don’t undermine it by saying that we only care about things like this if they happen in “white countries”. Not today.Â
Belgium is a very small country - no matter where you reside you’ll always be at most an hour’s drive from Brussels. Everyone in Belgium is affected by this one way or another. A very large percentage of the population in Belgium commute to Brussels to work - and with the country on “lockdown” many people are required to stay put and won’t have a way to know for sure if their loved ones are ok. A similar attack happened in Madrid (which is only a bit smaller than Belgium) in 2004 and I remember the desperation I felt when I was 8 years old and waiting in school to find out if my mother was at the station at the time of the bombings. We all just waited to have our names called out by the principal if one of our parents happened to make contact with the school.Â
Not to mention people traveling by plane to visit loved ones or go home after not seeing their families in a while - people in other countries who will find it near impossible to contact their loved ones at the airport with the phone lines down. This is horrifying and so very sad. Don’t try to turn this into some statement about how we don’t care about other countries when this is personally affecting everyone in Belgium. Also, shame on fucking Donald Trump for yet again using this tragedy as a way to make some fear mongering, xenophobic statements. I have no words.Â
Personally, I am not a religious person. But I am praying for Belgium.Â
