Photo: AP
As grotesque as it is mesmerizing, this image shows a Sri Lankan suicide bomber a fraction after the explosive detonates.
From the Telegraph article:
The attack appeared to target six government ministers attending the community event, including the country’s oil and telecommunications ministers. Unconfirmed reports put the toll higher with claims more than 15 had died.
The ministers injured in yesterday’s explosion were part of a large crowd of Muslims celebrating Mawlid, the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, in Akuressa, a town on the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
A military spokesman said: “definitely it’s LTTE (Tamil Tigers).”
Everyday seems to carry with it the news of another attack, another bomb, somewhere in the world. Violence perpetrated to further an agenda, even a score, or simply to cause chaos.
When I hear of these acts, I can’t help but think of Carl Sagan’s words in the short film, Pale Blue Dot. He says:
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light..
Read the full transcript here.
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7 Comments... join the discussion!
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Eerie to say the least!
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What a photo, And what a way to put things in perspective from Sagan. Very True, Very Sad.
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What a good snapshot of how life can change drastically or even end in just the click of a camera.
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I'll have to read that Pale Blue Dot – pretty much what I think anyway, how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things – we like to think we are the pinnacle of everything, that nothing is above us. Can't we all just get along people??
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Yeh, I remember watching an ant's nest, and the ants leaving it to cross a path.
It made me think that that is how we might be in the big scheme of things: thinking we are all important and the centre of everything, when really we might be as important to the great scheme of things as those ants are to our planet.
Our trips into space might be like those ants on their journey, and maybe something might watch us sometimes as it passes our nest, as I watched those ants.
That'd explain all the flaws with our world anyway!
P.S. I've just been blogging about Taliban suicide bombers funnily enough!
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I’ve seen the blast on TV, it made my hairs stand on end. I prayed for those who died and their families. I also said a little prayer to the doers. I hope they’ll realize that the world will be a better place if we all think and act in a non-violent way.
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