February 13, 2007

Should We Cancel the Meeting?

Six of us are in a meeting with the boss. It’s mostly locals, but the boss is a foreigner. And since a bomb just exploded that morning on a bus with commuters, with a number of casualties, the boss wonders whether we shouldn’t cancel the meeting.

So the boss says: “I don’t know how you guys feel about this meeting. I mean, are we okay about this meeting? Or would you rather go home?”

The following conversation develops among the six locals;
“Nah, we fine.”
“Sure we’re fine. Why, did something happen?”
“Didn’t you hear about the bus?”
”Yes, I did, but that was this morning. Did anything else happen?”
”No, just the bus bomb.”
“Oh no, then I’m fine.”
"Yes, m too."
“Yes, we’re used to it.”
“Oh, it’s normal thing.”
“Not that we don’t care about the people that died.”
“Oh no, it’s not that, we care, you see, it’s just that . . “
“Well, it’s not the first time.”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s not the first time.”
“I mean, it happens all the time.”
“And it’s quite far away too.”
“Yes, it’s not even in the neighborhood.”
“No, it’s far away. Nothing to worry about.”
“Not now at least.”
“Yes, we’ve been through this before.”
”Yes, we have. If we are going to cancel every meeting every time something explodes, we are not going to have any meetings anymore.”
Laughter erupts.

And so we continue the meeting. But at the same time, we are wondering. We are not going to end up in the same shit as the Iraqis, right?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Every time I hear of a bomb I have the same conversation with my staff. How they can continue working straight after these things happen is beyond me. Five years living here , the last two including numerous bombs and a war and I am also starting to think this is normal. I even end up telling Friends and family back home that its miles away and it was not targeted at me so I am safe.

Anonymous said...

Well I spent all eveninng in a traffic jam. Is that normal? For years this has been going on now, and it's getting worse every year. And I heard prices for milk and bread are going up. But what can you do, we just keep on going with everyday life.