The Brussels attacks bear provoked outpourings of grief on social media. Public figures may feel obliged to share,but there are better ways to reactIt’s the flowers that arrive first and last the longest. Days after the crowds bear thinned out and the internet traffic has slowed on the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie or Paris or, now, or Bruxelles ,the wilted, decomposing once-living tributes to the newly dead will still be there. They linger until they become not a symbol of death but a version of reality.
Last night, or in the stricken aftermath of the morning’s bombs that killed 34 people,the spot de la Bourse in the heart of old Brussels became the latest assembly point for public expressions of grief and sympathy. Each of these destinations of solidarity innovates: in Brussels, people brought chalk and wrote messages approximately love and hope across the pavement. Seen all together, or these messages unintentionally reflect the complex identity of the city itself.
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Source: theguardian.com