As most of you know that Friday night Brussels went into a lockdown: metro closed, sports events cancelled, major shopping areas closed. This lock down continues and the city is still in the middle of some major operations. But what I am going to write about is our experience.
First, our neighbourhood is quite removed from the "action". We heed the same advice as everyone else and stay in or close to home. The possibilities and unknowns weigh on our minds. But aside from that little has changed. There is a guard at the park and some, but not all, stores are closed. It's been a good time to get to know neighbours better! And we hope that this is all we experience.
One observation I want to share is the mood of the city, from what I can see. A friend shared the twitter handle #Brusselslockdown and its worth searching. Apparently some people, as people do these days, were live tweeting the police operations. In response to the police asking people to not do this and to protect the police by diluting the hashtag stream, Belgian began flooding the hashtag with cat memes. It was a brilliant move to neutralize the possible threat the live tweeting presented, but also lightened the mood a bit, built solidarity and showed that while concerned and serious, the city would not overreact to the fear and anxiety.
No comments:
Post a Comment