Excerpt from an email 21/08/07

Today I had the rare opportunity to walk down (albeit a very short distance) Central district. A day after the stab of an Afghan American aid worker I’m still very shaken by the news. I think for a moment a sense of fear gripped me and my heart rate jolted, my footsteps paced faster…there was the need to rush in and out of shops and back into the car. I feel ashamed that I have descended to this urgent state of panic. I used to wind down the car window and peek out, greeting beggars I did not have money to disperse to, hoping my ‘salam’ would offer them just what the word carried, peace. Now even the blinds are halfway up (I am not even using the term halfway down!) – my drives to and from work are the only peeks I can have of a world I now fear. And it is sad that something so beautiful could be fragmented by one shot. Just Like a broken mirror.