Frekonomics of Terrorism

“Emm, I don’t feel great. Don’t know but have this thing running back of my mind, you know, It is very recent that, I was sitting down at Forum Mall, Bangalore waiting for my friend to pick me up. Finally, he arrived at 9ish and later at 10:30am I learned that they found a live bomb at the mall. Not too long after that, I was supposed to be in Delhi around October and to squeeze in the extra holiday on Oct-2, 08 I pushed my trip, nothing much but there were blasts in Pahadganj, where I was supposed to go. Top it all, I was to be in Mumbai on 26^th night, and where else would we hang out but for Mondy’s and Leo’s, had to make small detour to Pune and incidentally there was wild wild west during that time in Bombay.”

I think something to that effect were my words, sinking and slouching and shrinking in the chair in front of an old lady who was adjusting her spectacles while taking down notes. Counselling, I figure goes like that.

Well, I sorta feel lucky to be alive you know, don’t know what are the emotions of Indian team touring in New Zealand and what are those of Srilankans who are being flown out of Pakistan as I write.

Makes me wonder about the Frekonomics of Terrorism. If the crowd doesn’t have a face then terrorism is absolutely invisible which can’t be seen through any filter or with any microscope. I don’t know how the world in few years would look like but having grown up in the circumstances, I really can’t imagine it without acts of terrorism and mass death threats.

Terrorism seems to be part of eco-socio system. It is a lucrative business and is also one of the top employers, although which involves handing CRS (Compulsory Retirement Scheme) offers to some innocent folks, kids and some realignment of geography and fabric of society.

Some place gets bombed or shot or is in ruins, you need to cops, army, investigating agencies with their top notch psi-fi gadgets, bunch of politicians from opposition and power brokers for their shot at glory, truck load of journalists-not just local but all over the world. Now, they need to be flown in and kept somewhere, taken care of, they are humans so they will consume products from your country while covering the shocking incident that just occurred. Photo-journalist will clicks the tears before they roll down the cheeks and fall down on ground, because that way the story goes extra mile. Roles would need to be developed, digital images would need printing and publishing.

Machines will churn, wheels will turn, billions of terabytes would exchange servers, plastic cards will be swapped and figures guarded by passwords will blink n change…

Schools will be razed to ground, cities will be burnt, bridges will be made to collapse, public anger will burn civil services and properties down, We’ll need engineers to engineer new structures, builders and contractors to undertake the job and of the ones who have survived will put the mortar and will happily work once they are promised a memorial for the lost lives right in front of the towering complex that is to come up.

Those of us, who are miles away, are also bound to get affected. I mean someone is driving a plane into one of the tallest structures in the world, someone just killed themselves thousands around them by pressing a button, subway train rolled out of one station but before it got anywhere it was into pieces, bar you used to get drunk at now sports bullet marks...how can you not be affected?

We may agree or we may not, we are affected and some seek help consciously by settling on a chair or couch, others contribute to the revenue of mobile carriers by spending most of the time on phone, some express themselves in art and so, other lot is more interesting, subconsciously drift to oblivion, alcohol, grass, smoke, coke, pill …today you are alive you don’t know if you would be tomorrow then what the fuck, might as well have some fun mate…

Legal and illegal medicine industry flourishes, shrinks and counsellors make some money by letting us cope with the situation.

Governments get to point fingers and totally indulge in blame game, people involved in latest multi-billion dollar scams and goof ups get a breather because no one is looking at them.

Television and news, if they haven’t made enough money by telecasting the re-runs of CCTV coverage and footage of ruin, get to make some more money by covering peace march and protests. Social enthusiasts too get to rub shoulders with some serious activist. You feel you did your part. You sign a check or pay some money for relief money, you find some more peace.

Movies industry, they hardly wait these days, after an incident directors, writers tour the ruins and the place, so they have the masala (plot) for their movie which we all will happily watch and feel happy that we survived what actually happened a few years back.

And such an all encompassing business, all that it takes is –a bunch of aimless, futureless young fellas blinded by religion or political agendas/ propagandas. Deliver flawless speech, promise them their virgins or heaven or whatever gets them off, blind them with faith and greater good, you are done with recruiting. Don’t really need HR section in the business because not that you need to offer pension or pay tax or cut provident fund, mostly they die so there is no issue of pink slips either.

Arm dealers, am sure greet their customers based on their demand and bank balances, not a lot of good-will or rapport building needed there.

And all that is at stake is a few good men, who put their lives in the line of fire to fulfil their duties, some innocent kids who could be tomorrows doctors, teachers if nothing at least bread earners for their families, a few mothers who are supporting their families, men, old people-our grand parents and silent structures who have served us, narrated the history to us and who have stood the test of time and weather but failed this one…

Well, looking at the regularity of these terror strikes, I guess someone has the feakonomics of terrorism all figured out.

Don’t be upset. You are still breathing and probably reading the post. Mostly, there is nothing personal, guess it’s just their business.

Neo