Elation and Outrage

It's funny being on the wrong time zone but nice to know that my American colleagues here have been well clued up on the news, having considerable empathy and understanding about what's going on back home. Another just walked past and asked about my "buds back home".

Yesterday I had an email from my old friend, Liz, telling me that "London Won" and I knew what she meant. How fantastic for London to win the Olympic bid, how fantastic an effort on behalf of the team and how great for London to go on with its needed regeneration. How great to see a bit of national pride in something, instead of our typical national ambivalence or worse. Just look at the whole Millenium Dome thing, ruined by Press prejudices. With an open mind I fail to see how anyone could not have be impressed by the Dome, or for example, could fail to notice how oddly collaborative it feels to be thrust into a game of mega table football with another 30 people on each team on each side of the table. There were a few low points, like 'The Body' and the legacy was ill thought though, though how different that would have been with a positive Press behind it. You have only to look at The Eden Project to see success from solid positive Press and another inspirational idea.

But this Olympics thing is great, something fantastic for us all to look forward to and aspire to. Paris is said to have more 50m swimming pools than the whole of England, so it is a great opportunity to force our investment in sport. I spent my whole young life quite hating sport, or being pretty disinterested in the whole thing. Growing up I am amazed at how it can bring people together in important ways, and how my brain feels clearer from participating in some sport myself sometimes.

Then this morning I learned that some misdirected mindless group bombed London. A long anticipated attack. One bomb outside a statue of Ghandi I understand, how ironic that we cannot learn successful ways to change the world from people like that, than mindless hate-inspiring extremists. It's hard being away today. It's hard to understand the point of an attack like this, I see no objective but generating hate.

Today I liked reading some of the things Red Ken had to say - it's nice to have a politician who says what he thinks, gets things done, and does not just 'make a statement', shame that he is too often in trouble for this. This is a terrible tradegy, particularly for friends and families of those killed and injured. But I have the strongest feeling that Brits are much much bigger than something like this and it will not inspire misdirected hatreds in return. Having spent lots of time in London recently, the richness of our multi-cultural society, especially there, is great to see and seems universally appreciated. I hope Muslims and all others who make up our British society, will continue to be universally valued as part of the richness we have. I hope they, nor others, become viewed with suspicians only genuinely attributable to a scant handful of misguided extremists who don't even understand their own 'mission' and have 'hatred' as their only goal.

I see the Olympic bid celebrations have been cancelled, which seems appropriate. But I hope the attitude of not bowing to terrorists prevails, and does not change what we have. Ultimately, lets us get back to celebrating "Coe's greatest victory".