19 March 2011 1645 GMT

Do you know what that timestamp is? It is 1300553100 in Unix epoch format. But that does not mean anything.
Do you know what you were doing on the 19th of March 2011 at 16:45? I do, but probably just because I started writing this post on the 19th, a couple of hours after that timestamp. I was at home, in my home town, watching TV. I felt safe and warm.

It took me a long time to write this post, I started on the 19th of March and this post will probably never be completely finished in order to be accurate.

19 March 2011 16:45 was the timestamp when a French jet fired the first shot on a target in Libya. The hit was reported to be “successful”. History or historians will tell if that day will be remembered, if it was just, if it was part of a major plan or if it will have any direct consequences.
For me, it was one of the moments (not the first, but probably the strongest) I realized that no matter how safe and warm you feel right now, everything can change quite quickly. It was a moment I realized that facts far away and politics can indeed affect lives. To the point of ending it.

And my conclusion was not that we must go right now and live our life because tomorrow it may end, but on the contrary, make sure that what you do does not cause harm to someone. Because for all the good you feel, someone else, somewhere else, might be running to save a soul or might be fighting for their life. They might be good, they might be bad. If we were in their shoes we might be better or we might be worse.

It might not make a difference now and it might not make a difference ever, but I feel compassion for the people who have suffered from the politics of the current Lybian rule, and for the people who will suffer from the politics of the next Lybian rule, and for the people who will suffer from the politics of our rule or any other politics.
It is utopic, but politics – any kind of politics – should not change anyones lives to something worse. It should only give them the option to change it to the better. If 1 person is hurt without that person assuming the risk fully aware, then, to that person and to that persons family, I see no way of justifying the better good.

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