Can we ever be safe again?

On returning home from work this afternoon, I heard about the suicide bomber in Istanbul. A guy, supposedly belonging to ISIS, blew himself up before the Aya Sophia mosque and killed at least 9 people, most of them Germans.

The world is no longer a safe place. Tourists will avoid going to regions where it is more likely that something would happen. Tourism in Egypt, Marocco and Tunisia has sunk and many hotels will go bankrupt.

But also in Europe some places are no longer safe. There have been attempt already in London and Madrid, in Paris not so long ago. Next time it could be Amsterdam or Brussels.

I suppose a lot of people will become afraid to leave their homes. Actually, that's what the terrorists want. For us to be afraid - of them. But being afraid gets you nowhere. A lesson I learned from my grandmother, who survided two world wars and had to be unafraid to make it through. She faced the army of the Kaiser and came eye to eye with the Gestapo ... and lied bravely about the whereabouts of her husband. (My granddad was officer in the Belgian army, he was taken POW, escaped the prison camp and went underground in France.)