Oh yeah… I forgot… I’m fine…

It really wasn’t really until I started getting emails and comments asking if I was ok, that I remembered that the KFC and McDonalds had been bombed the other day. So yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for your concern though. My penchant for fried chicken did not endanger me on that particular day. The KFC is actually at the bottom of my street, but not to worry Mother, that’s still about 25 blocks away. I was sitting up with a friend that night when the bomb went off and I didn’t hear a thing, so it couldn’t have been a huge explosion. It certainly took the windows out of the franchise though. Interestingly, Subaru Kazoo and I got a craving for KFC the very next day. I didn’t think to ask which location it was delivered from.

Anyway, I’m not exactly sure how to portray that this isn’t that big of a deal. It would be more frightening to me if it was random, but it wasn’t. There was a nationwide general strike called by one of the opposition parties for Friday. Generally, I love it when strikes are called because the whole city shuts down and I don’t have to go to work. The best ones are transportation strikes due to fuel prices or some such beef, because then no buses run, no one can get anywhere, and I’m definitely not headed for work. Strikes here are serious business. But since this one was politically motivated, they try to rile up the radical elements to put on a show. It was a pretty half-assed strike to be truthful, the city wasn’t really affected on Friday because not many people really reacted to the call for strike.

So the bombings early Friday morning, may or may not have been directly linked to the group that called the strike, but nevertheless, it was definitely the motivation. I guess the logic is that they hate President Musharraf, they hate his cooperation with the United States, and thus they hate the symbols of American capitalism. So, the poor fast-food outlets get blasted. It doesn’t seem to occur to anyone that the franchises are staffed and frequented by Pakistani’s and that that’s the only people who will be hurt in something like this. It’s a tiny blip on KFC’s global radar. Thankfully, no one was killed this time around, but last time, while I was in Africa, a KFC was gutted and 6 people were killed.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I use my head. When a strike is called, I don’t go to any areas I would consider of higher risk. In general, I don’t go to the fast-food outlets very often anyway. Why eat the same crap I can get at home when I’m surrounded by amazing food?