Sydney Siege

Last Sunday, a gunman who has since been identified took 17 hostages. This happened at a Lindt Chocolate Factory in Sydney.



The hostages were held for 16 hours. During that time, many hostages were forced to stand in the shop windows and hold flags with messages reading “There is no God but Allah",



and "Mohammed is the prophet of God”.



Although, several news agencies reported that this was an ISIS flag and that ISIS was doing this.

During this time, at least 6 hostages escaped.



And on Monday (the next day), after 16 hours, police activated what they called an emergency action plan and stormed the café in the middle of the night.



There was a brief firefight which resulted in 3 deaths, which included the 50-year-old gunman, a 34-year-old man, and a 38-year-old woman.





2 women and 1 police officer were also hospitalized with non life-threatening injuries.



And after all this there are a few things I want to say:

1. To the man behind this, whose picture I will not show, I will say your name one time, Haron Monis, fuck you, I'm glad you're dead. He was a man who was charged with 50 counts of indecent exposure and sexual assault. And as an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife who was stabbed and lit on fire in Sydney last year.



He was also convicted of sending offensive letters to the family members of dead soldiers.

And I hate this man! I don't hate all Muslims or any group of people that just happen to also have something in sync with this man.

It made me sad that as soon as this situation happened, Muslim leaders had to brace for violence. It made me happy but also very sad that the hashtag #illridewithyou even had to be a thing.



A hashtag where Sydney commuters volunteered to ride by Muslim side to make sure they were safe. That makes about as much sense as hating all Christians, or people that believe in Christianity; because someone from that group bombed an abortion clinic.

These outliers are the worst. There are people that agree with them but know those few do not speak or act for the many. The many who want peace, not death. The many who promote the good of all people; who can look at the situation and feel for the hostages, those who went through this and were killed; who agree this is a travesty, it's terrible, it cannot stand. So many people are united by that anger, and this despair.

And it's on that note that I'm going to end this topic.

An Update on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

Malaysian police have identified the two men who had fake passports on the plane: 19-year-old Pouria Nourmohammadi Mehrdad, and 29-year-old Delavar Seyed Mohammad Reza.



It's been reported that the two men were Iranian and that there were trying to seek asylum. I know this because police have been talking with the 19-year-old passenger's mother.



And INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble, saying:



As of typing this there are still no answers as to what happened to the plane, and why.



Now, there is news that the search area for the aircraft has expanded. This, due to military radar, has shown that the plane may have diverted further away than previously thought. Additionally, it's been reported that a satellite imaging company is crowdsourcing to help along with the search.



But, the final message has been revealed; and it appeared to signal everything was normal. The message was from the flight pilot who stated: 'All right, good night'. And then they veered off into the Strait of Malacca? You see, the plane vanished over the South China sea, but information since then has been spotty. That's because the Malaysian Military has not done such a great job of staying consistent with their statements or, the Malaysian Media has been...I don't know...making stuff up? A Malaysian newspaper quoted the country's air force chief, Gen. Rodzali Daud, as saying, "The plane veered West before its disappearance." And then the air force chief was like:



But then, Malaysia's civilian aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, said that:



As it stands, the current search area is 27,000 nautical miles covering varying depths across the Strait of Malacca, and the Andaman Sea.



On a creepier note, friends and relatives of the 239 missing people have reported that they were able to call their relatives' cell phones, and that it would ring. They also reported that according to QQ, which is a Chinese instant messenger service, many people were indicated as still being online.



These reports were mostly ignored however, in large part due to communications experts explaining that a ringing phone isn't anything unusual, and that the calls were not likely to be ringing on the other end. A ringing on the initiating call's end indicated that the signal was searching for the phone.

This is one big, ridiculous, and very terrifying story. There's still no answers to the big question. I will keep you up to date as best I can. We'll have to wait and find out.