A stiff upper lip situation

By Libby

I'm finding that I can't wrap my head around the carnage in Mumbai. There's so many unanswered questions. It all feels so senseless to me. But the survivors stories resonate. Take Nick Hayward for example. A Brit who is the Asia-Pacific managing director of Euromoney Conferences missed certain death at the Taj Mahal hotel by a mere 30 seconds.

He tells a harrowing tale of hiding first in a small kitchen and then in a nearby restaurant with about 40 other people. They were stuck there for hours, listening to the mayhem, waiting for the barricade they erected to be breached. Thankfully, it never was and thanks to the wonders of modern technology, they were able to get progress reports from outside. This vignette from the end of the ordeal particularly struck me.

We all decided that even though we had alcohol within reach we wouldn’t touch it because it seemed like a bad idea to get drunk. ‘

But come 5am, we were fairly confident the police were going to get us out, so I marched over to the bar and found a bottle of vintage Cristal champagne and opened it and began pouring it into glasses.

‘Then the head waiter came rushing across to me and said, “No, no, you can’t do that!” and I said, 'Well we’re going to' and he said, 'No sir, those are the wrong type of glasses. I shall find you champagne flutes.'

'And he did. The service was immaculate.’

How very civilized and typically British. In the larger context, it seems to me Americans could learn a lesson here on how to deal with terror. The way to win against terror is not to cower in fear, or strike out at any potential target in the impossible hope of eliminating the danger, but to deal with it when it comes, trusting you have the wits and courage to survive. And when it appears you have won a battle, always use the proper champagne glass.

Comments

[James]

I seem to recall rather similar advice from a British friend in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 - just "keep your wits about you" or something to that effect.

[CP]

I feel the work of the hotel staff was also extremely commendable. They risked their lives in many occasion to save the lives of the guests. One waiter also apparently died by taking the bullet to save a guest.

Are you still thinking Naxalite inflicted this violence in mumbai ?? Check rediff.com or timesofindia.com as there are lot of evidence about LeT from Pak.

Currently, the Naxalite movement is only restricted among poor tribals belts in the eastern states. In those regions, all the fight (including between religions) is mainly duty lack of resources between poor people. And the corrupt politicians do not help.

But no other group is as heartless as these islamic terrorists, and do not usually target innocent civilians (including kids !).

[CP]

But I should make it clear, when I term 'islamic terrorists', I do not want to dishonor many wonderful and peaceful Indian Muslims, and many noble Pakistanis. For ages, Muslims lived peacefully with Hindus; but first the British Government followed the rule of divide and rule to gain strength in India and now it is the right-wing politicians. At the same time, Muslims are also getting extremely radicalized by the extreme elements inciting re-establishment of Islamic rule in India. The Pakistani soil is being used for this and most Pakistanis are in denial about this that their ISI created this frankestine.

[Libby]

James, that strikes me a very good advice.

CP, you're asking the wrong person. Cernig does the wonky analysis here. I'm not at all clear on who did this or why but I tend to trust Cernig's judgment on these things.

[CP]

Oops, my bad. I am new to this blog and did not see who the author was for this article. But my comment about commending the Indian staff is valid.

[Libby]

True CP. The hotel staff were true heroes.

[Steve Hynd]

CP, I'm reading everything I can find on the emerging evidence about the attacks. I'm still very cautious about ascribing them to the LeK, even though I'll freely admit that they were responsible for the 2006 train bombings (and i was one of the first to say so in the West, and to draw the pakistani connection).

All the evidence so far seems to rest on the confession of a junior terrorist. The trouble is, Indian torture of suspects is a well-documented unpleasant reality and tortured suspects will tell you exactly what you ask them to, or what they think you want to hear. The Indian press are making much of the leaked info, but then they would. I'd recommend the UK Guardian's coverage as the most balanced and open-minded I've seen so far.

I've seen articles ascribing these attacks to the LeK, to the Nxalites and to D-Company. None are yet convincing. My posts on the subject have been more about informing US readers who don't get to hear about the latter two and advising everyone to keep open minds. I know not everyone has taken them that way but that's what they were.

Regards, C

PS Thanks for sticking around and adding your voice to our dialogue on this subject. It's much appreciated.

[CP]

Cernig, while I agree about "interrogation technique" might lead to biased results, here are somethings I would like to point out:

Naxalites have no reason to kill foreigners; their qualms are against rich landowners in the states of Bihar and Orissa which are the poorest states, and have more inequity compared to other states.

Also most of the current naxalites are tribal people from East India (unlike the ones in past which covered a wider area starting with bengal). The armed gunman on the other hand looks more from very north of India (where there are no naxalites) or more specifically from Pakistan/Kashmir: see the guy on the left in the 3rd pic here: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/mumbai_under_attack.html)
I know that sounds not very scientific, but just as a European can distinguish a person from Greece to say someone from Norway, it can be done in other subcontinent too.

That said, I welcome this discussion with you and your insights.

Libby, sorry to take the liberty to continue this discussion in this space.

[CP]

Libby:
Here is a heartening NYT article about heroism of ordinary Mumbaites in the face of terror"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/world/asia/02heroes.html?hp

This city had impressed me with its response with their reaction to the flood in 2005 due to torrential rain. Instead of looting and robbing, people handed out food and help for other people. I read and felt that there was hope for the world, but after the Mumbai attack I feel awful.

[Libby]

Senseless violence upsets me too CP but I take heart from the stories of selfless courage and hope that the world balances out on the side of good.

[Steve Hynd]

CP, back in 2003 in a really seminal article Mark Sageman argued that modern terror networks are "bottom up" creations. Local indigenous groups reach out to bigger fish for aide in a distributed and robust network. But state-based intel agencies insist on thinking top-down and ascribing the actions of those small fish to direction from the bigger ones because that's the kind of thing state-based top-down directed organisations are conditioned to think. They can't see the wood for the trees.

Regards, C

[CP]

Libby,

Here is a abc video about how the hotel staff acted bravely.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6366075
Honestly, I am very disappointed by western media and blogs. All I hear are criticism about Indian people and country. Can't all the criticisms and theories wait for a while ? All countries have flaws, but is it good to poke when a country is hurting so much ? After 9/11, would be heartening to hear from the world media about America's flaws ( racism, treatment of native americans, capital punishment etc etc), instead of the resounding world support ? Indian people are really hurt right now, and all this blog can do is theorize and criticize them (not you)? Couldn't they have grace to wait for a little while !!

Oh and honestly IMHO, this british guy you blogged about seems to be more of a braggart than brave. But then he is white, so if he so even lifts his finger, we got to call him brave.

Cernig, keep on theorizing. It is as good as when western media was arguing over the definition of genocide, when it was actually happening in Rwanda.