Yesterday the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris was attacked by two (allegedly Islamist) gunmen. The attack resulted in 12 deaths, most of them the magazine’s cartoonists and journalists, who were very well known in France, some for over fourty years. The alleged gunmen, two radicalized brothers of Algerian descent are still at large, as I am writing this.

Today at noon the whole France showed solidarity to the victims with a 1-minute silence. These signs were posted in our campus building this morning:

This reminds me of how it felt after the 9/11 attacks—we were living in the USA then. Although not exactly the same kind of terror act, I can feel the same disbelief and desperation in the French people now.