Madrid bombings one year on

It is one year today since train bombs schocked Europe particularly the residents of Madrid. The pain is not gone as families still grieve. The Guardian reports that anger is being directed at politicians and media:

Although the scale of the casualties was different from September 11, there were similarities in the detailed planning and in the aim to kill as many as possible.

By chance, the Puerto Rican writer and academic Lisa Paravisini was present for both events. "The mood and the media coverage here was less cataclysmic," she said. "In New York, everything was paralysed, they went into high paranoia that the whole country was under attack like a Hollywood disaster movie. Here the aim was to get back to normal as quickly as possible."

There is a memorial at Atocha station in central Madrid where people can leave a computerised handprint and type in a message. There are 58,000 such handprints and messages now. Some say simply "No words are enough". Others are angry: "200 people died for an absurd religion and a God who doesn't exist."

Some of those who leave messages knew the victims, for others it is almost a tourist attraction as they pose beside video images next to platforms where passengers now face airport-style security..