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The World We Live In

Terrorism has created a culture of fear all over the world, but we must not allow unacceptable acts of violence to affect our way of life.
A citizen participates in a vigil outside the French consulate in New York | Source: Shutterstock
By
  • Imran Amed

NEW YORK, United States — One of the privileges of being at the helm of BoF, tasked with the responsibility of meeting with the BoF community, is getting first-hand feedback, input and market insights from the people I meet around the world. Usually, this has to do with the forces shaping the fashion industry, be it talented new designers or the best retail concepts. But in recent weeks, as I have travelled from Rome to Dubai to Mumbai to Miami to New York, there has been a more worrying message and feeling I have been hearing from all of you, as a series of terrorist attacks have taken place around the world.

Last week, as I was setting sail from Miami on the Norwegian Getaway cruise liner, home to Summit at Sea, a French friend and early reader of BoF, living in Rio de Janeiro, also on board, pulled me aside and asked if I had heard what was going on in Paris. I hadn't. His phone was lighting up with messages from friends witnessing the horrific attacks, as they happened. Eventually, he learned that two of his friends had died.

Over the course of the weekend, in between watching talks from Edward Snowden, Eric Schmidt, Martha Stewart and Harry Belafonte, I was glued to the BBC World News, which, in the middle of the Caribbean Sea was my only connection to the rest of the world, as mobile phone service was not available. My stomach turned and my heart sunk as I heard the stories of the people who had lost their lives. When we finally returned to shore, my social media feeds were filled with stories of BoF friends in Paris who had been personally impacted by the violence, some of whom had to take refuge in the houses of strangers as the violence unfolded.

But of course, Paris is not alone. It is now clear that the Russian airliner, which fell from the sky on October 31 over Egypt, was brought down by a homemade explosive device, killing 224 people. The day before the Paris attacks, a bomb in Beirut killed 43 people.  Each of these events has touched the BoF community, raising the spectre of future terrorist attacks, and surfacing memories of the incidents we have already lived through in New York, Nairobi, Mumbai, Ottawa and Sydney — not to mention Tel Aviv, Palestine and Baghdad, where terrorist violence has, sadly, become a part of day-to-day life.

Reflecting on all the violence the other night before a dinner, kindly hosted by Kim Hastreiter from Paper Magazine, she took me out to her balcony and showed me the unobstructed view she'd had of the 9/11 attacks from her apartment in Washington Square Park in New York. Listening to Kim's stories reminded me of the way I felt that same day in Boston, watching the twin towers come down on TV, where many of my Harvard Business School classmates had friends and family working, not knowing what it all meant. It was horrifying.

We are living in an era of terrorism and unacceptable violence, but wherever you are, whatever your religion, however you see yourself on the political spectrum, we must stand against terrorism and mass murder and not allow it to affect our way of life and our freedom. We must also stand against the racism, bigotry and hatred that has surfaced in the wake of all the terror.

Terrorists want to divide us and make us live in fear. I hope for all of our sakes that we don't let them achieve their goals. We must stand together in solidarity in order to beat them. Otherwise, what hope is there for any of us?

Imran Amed, Founder and Editor-in-Chief

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