After the Paris attacks, what next?

Hello everyone. So much has been said about the Paris attacks already and indeed, I had already wrote a very long, heartfelt piece earlier this year after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, explaining the nature of French society to my readers (if you have not read it, I encourage you to do so please as it does set the context for what happened this week.) I have experienced a lot of raw emotions since the attack on Friday night, I have lived in Paris both as a student and have worked there. I have friends in Paris, I love Paris and Paris has loved me back in a way that I find it hard to put in words. It is a city that has put her arms around me and made me feel at home in the time I lived, studied and worked, when I go to Paris, I feel like I am going home (something I don't feel when I go to Singapore). It is hard to describe my emotions at the moment - it goes beyond feeling the urge to cry, it is anger really, just raw anger, demanding revenge. There is a sense of, "how dare you do this to my city, to my people, how dare you carry out such atrocities against the innocents. Whatever your agenda is, how can you justify taking it out on the innocent people in an attack like that?"

I was at the vigil in London's Trafalgar Square. 

But of course, it is not random innocent people the terrorists have any gripe against - this is an attack on all of Paris, on all of France and indeed, on all of humanity. The aim of such attacks is to spread terror (hence the word 'terrorism'), to instill fear in ordinary folks like you and I. They chose to target vulnerable, innocent people who were attending a concert, going to a football match, having an evening meal in a restaurant, meeting friends at a local bar. These are not people like presidents or military generals who have armed body guards and bullet proof vests , quite the contrary. This is why it angers me so: that it is a cowardly attack on the most vulnerable. Look, I know the situation in Syria is a mess and I blame Western governments for having meddled in the Middle East: from George Bush senior to Putin, they have made matters worse in the Middle East. But what can killing random, innocent people achieve?

Well, it achieves one thing: the terrorists seek to divide society. They are trying to make reasonable folks like me angry and react against Islam: they want a war. They want people like me to blame Muslims for what happened in Paris, they want non-Muslims to point the finger at Islam and blame Islam for the bloodbath. They want Islamophobia to increase in Europe so more Muslims will join ISIS and become their foot soldiers and suicide bombers. Let me be the first to deny them that. Instead, angry as I am, I want to start and continue this conversation with Muslims about the situation: let's talk. There are so many people on this earth of ours, we have to learn to get along with each other and respect each other. Yes we are different but we can all learn to be tolerant, live and let live. I would like to share a link to a wonderful statement posted by a Singaporean Muslim who spoke up on the issue (this has well and truly gone viral) and it makes so much sense. Let's talk, that's all I am trying to get us all to do now (and don't be shy, do leave a comment below), let's have a conversation, open up our hearts and minds to speak about solutions to stop the hate.

Can we have a sensible conversation about the issue please?

Many cities have experienced such horrific attacks: New York, Madrid, Mumbai, Moscow, Kuta (Bali) and of course, London. I have lived in London since 1997 and have lived through two terrorism attacks: the 7 July 2005 London Bombings and the 1999 nail bomb attacks in London. On both occasions, I had narrow escapes. During the 7 July 2005 London bombing which targeted public transport, I was trying to get a train to an audition in West London that morning when the bombs went off - had the suicide bombers picked a different station, I could have well been blown up. When the bomb went off in the Admiral Duncan Bar in 1999, I had been on that very street, outside that bar just 10 minutes before the bomb went off. Had I been there 10 minutes later, I could have well been blown up. So yes, perhaps these personal experiences (and narrow escapes) makes it easier for me to identify with the people in Paris today and what they are going through. I can understand what they went through, what they are feeling now.

So, what next? I think the first thing that such an experience does to you is that it puts everything in perspective. Sometimes we can get hung up over the little things in life that annoy you (in my case, house hunting has been a real headache, the process turned out to be a lot more complicated then I thought; and some stupid idiot was rude to me at work recently) - feelings like that jolt you back to reality and you think, okay, it is time to focus on the things that really matter. Pull the focus back and look at the big picture. That is how many people like myself deal with the situation - we are fortunate to have escaped unscathed, so we do not take anything for granted and simply push on with a renewed vigour, to achieving the things which are important to us. I guess you have to try to be constructive and channel all this energy in the right direction, otherwise it just consumes you from the inside and it becomes destructive.

Paris will still be there tomorrow, the day after, next year and many years to come. Visitors will be understandably nervous about visiting Paris now, but cast your minds back: you're talking about a city which has bounced back after everything from the French revolution to two world wars. As discussed in other areas like Tunisia affected by terrorism, guess what? People have short memories and the tourists only stay away for a limited period of time before eventually returning. This is a big city with 12 million people in the greater Paris Metropolitan area, it is a city of immense cultural importance and most of all,it is a highly productive city which offers so many opportunities from work to education: that is why so many people continue to move to Paris even after all these traumatic events. In the short run, security will be beefed up to prevent further attacks but eventually, things will return to normal after some time.

What will the future hold? There is a problem with assimilation in France - it is the elephant in the room that nobody talks about. France has a significant Muslim minority: with an estimated 7 million Muslims in France, France has the biggest Muslim popularity in any European country. And herein lies the problem: the nature of French society is such that you must assimilate if you want to live in France. It doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what the colour of your skin is, as long as you abandon the culture of your country of origin and embrace a French identity, you will be wholeheartedly accepted. I found this out first hand: look, I hold a British passport, I grew up in Ang Mo Kio in Singapore, there's nothing French about my background, yet in having embraced the French language and the French education system, the French have been extremely welcoming to me - in a way that no other nationality has ever. The kind of love I felt in France truly exceeded any I felt in Singapore, the country where I was born and spent the first 21 years of my life. But here's the thing: the French will accept and love you on their terms, not yours.

I totally love Paris, I feel so at home there.

All I can say is this: if you don't like the French system, if you are not prepared to accept the way they are in France, then fine, kindly fuck off to another country where you will feel happier. It's that simple. Don't get me wrong - the majority of Muslims in France are well assimilated, but there is a small minority who are not and they are the ones who cause all kinds of trouble. This is a complex issue and whilst the Muslims blame the whites for being racist, the wider French society (including French people who are not white) blame the Muslims for not assimilating. We then end up in this ridiculous situation, like arguing about what came first: the chicken or the egg. It is a moot point, I don't give a fuck who started it: let's move on - the minorities need to make a greater effort to assimilate and the majority need to stamp out any kind of racism, Islamophobia or bigotry when they witness it amongst their midst. Both parties need to put aside their differences and work together if we are to get along. And as for the any party who claims, "but they started it blah blah blah", I have this to say, "Do you want to be part of the solution or part of the problem?"

There is so much more I can say about the whole situation, but I shall end here with a wonderful video, one of the most heartfelt speeches that made me cry. Here is Madonna's speech in Stockholm the day after the Paris bombings. She is such an inspirational woman and I am lucky to have had the honour of having met her and worked for her in the past when she lived in the UK.  There is in fact a longer version of this speech (plus her performance of Like A Prayer) available on Youtube but I am not allowed to embed it here in my blog. Many thanks for reading. Merci beaucoup.