Reading about a horrific shooting in Kenya that may have been perpetrated by a branch of Al Qaeda, I can't help being stuck on the fact that this happened in a mall, a shopping mall. In Nairobi, Kenya. I may be stuck in the past, but my images of Nairobi still come out National Geographic and some CD's of great scattie hip hop style singing.
How all American! Shoppers gunned down in a mall. Although this one is in Kenya. The place Obama is not from. Is this just another example of American culture infecting the world, including mass shootings? This one involves hostages, so the ending is still unclear and carnage is carnage, but the Westgate Mall in Nairobi? Am I the only one to notice the irony? I wonder if this Westgate Mall is related to the one in Texas? Both are "premier shopping malls." There are Westgate malls all over, San Jose, Santa Clara, Spartenburg South Carolina. Maybe it's just a common name for a shopping center.
The point is a shopping mall, a shooting in a shopping mall, just feels so American. And that is just weird.
One wonders.
