Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Sydney, a World-City

Several years I wrote a blog post titled 7 cities of the world, a kind of 21st century equivalent of the 7 cities of Revelation in the late 1st century. Sydney, Singapore, London, New York and Los Angeles were among the five listed. Whenever something happens in one of these cities, you will get global attention by the global media as we had witnessed in the Sydney siege that ended in the early hours today. I watched pictures live as gunshots were heard midnight and it was tragic that this morning I read that a Sydney lawyer and the cafe manager had perished along with the lone gun man.
With globalization, social media and instant communication, criminals and terrorists are quick to seek maximum impact in world media with almost minimal effort. How can you predict and prevent someone will walk into a cafe with a shotgun with hostile intentions? It did give me the chill, not that I am a frequent Sydney visitor but coffee cafes are my favourite joints in Singapore and now innocence is lost. Whenever there is an evil act and death, a part of humanity dies with it, from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto to the downing of MH17 and now innocent lives are lost, a young mother and a young man with great potential and promise in life but cut short in the midst of their years. God created man and woman in his image and life is precious and living our lives to the fullest is surely God-intended purpose for humanity creation. The world convulses yet again. In Pakistan just hours ago more than 100 people, mostly children are killed by the Talibans but that will only a blip in the news because only World-cities catch the attention of the world.

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