What the Mumbai Attacks Say About the City and Travel Security
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 12.01.08 | 12:15 PM ET
Like everyone, I spent the last few days following updates on the horrible terrorist attacks that killed nearly 200 people, including 18 foreigners, in Mumbai. A couple of articles published in recent days have struck me. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Suketu Mehta explained why Mumbai, of all Indian cities, is an appealing target for terrorists.
“Mumbai is all about dhandha, or transaction,” Mehta writes. “From the street food vendor squatting on a sidewalk, fiercely guarding his little business, to the tycoons and their dreams of acquiring Hollywood, this city understands money and has no guilt about the getting and spending of it.”
It’s odd, I know, but the piece brought to mind these Mumbai-meets-West sneakers I saw earlier this year in London. Something tells me the terrorists wouldn’t approve.
Another particularly noteworthy piece, I thought, was this look at what the attacks mean for luxury hotels around the world. They’ve become key targets, writes Keith Bradsher, and the prognosis isn’t good:
“[H]otel executives and security experts say that little can be done to stop extensively trained gunmen with military assault rifles and grenades who launch attacks.”