My phone buzzed. A WhatsApp message from a friend. So I clicked on the piece of video which had been sent to me. As I half watched, I was waiting for something funny to happen as most WhatsApp videos I receive are generally funny out-takes. This one wasn’t.

It was the video of the mass murder in Christchurch which the killer had himself filmed. Modern day communication meant I had the video on my phone before there was a general plea for people not to share the footage.

I was frozen in shock and just stopped watching it when the penny dropped and I realised what I was actually watching. I felt physically sick. I warned my children to be very careful when opening any links or messages in case they may have received the same.

Unfortunately it was too late. Patrick and a few of his friends had also been shown the video by another of their pals. Thankfully he said he wasn’t too fazed by it and like me had not watched it in its entirety.

Lesson

But it’s a lesson to us all, be careful when sending links like this. In hindsight, it made me realise that I too may have shared videos with friends in the past which, while not disturbing for me, may have been for the recipient in the same way I was totally numbed by this very disturbing grizzly footage.

It was a real attack on my senses to be exposed to it and I shudder now thinking about what I saw, despite pressing stop once I knew what it was

I think if any of us want to share something like this with friends (and I have no idea why we would want to), we should ask them first before sending. I immediately deleted the message but it did shake me and I wish I hadn’t opened it.

It was a real attack on my senses to be exposed to it and I shudder now thinking about what I saw, despite pressing stop once I knew what it was.

And just while talking about that horrific attack in New Zealand, isn’t it interesting that it was not referred to as a terror attack? If it had been an Islamic fundamentalist who had gone into a Catholic church shooting worshippers it would have been called a terrorist attack.

It seems that “terror” has become the colloquial term to refer exclusively to attacks by Islamic fundamentalists.

Compassionate leadership

We often complain about politicians and their lack of leadership. It is terrible that it took a horrific event like this, but the New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern showed terrific and compassionate leadership within minutes of the attack.

She demonstrated what a real national leader is meant to be. And her immediate change to gun laws and her declaration never to utter the name of the attacker were as appropriate a response as could be expected in such circumstances.

She has emerged for me a shining example of goodness and compassion in the midst of a senseless act in a increasingly intolerant world. It manifests itself through politics as we may very well discover in the upcoming European elections.

Anger, intolerance and division is worryingly driving a wedge through democracy and dragging policy to the extremes at the expense of the sort of leadership displayed by Jacinda Ardern.

Food trends

When the CEO of food giant Greencore refers to tangible trends regarding food trends, you sit up and take note.

Among the many revealing facts Patrick Coveney shared with our listeners on Countrywide last Saturday was that 30% of their new product innovations are totally vegan or include “free from” components over the past year.

“It is from a small base but four years ago 3,000 people partook in Veganuary (in the UK). This January, that number was 200,000,” said Coveney. Hmmm, interesting!