In 1990 I was living in London and I saw an ad looking for a copywriter and radio host at a radio station based in Monte Carlo.  I applied, turns out the boss was a Kiwi I’d worked with before so within a month I was living on the Cote D’Azur in the South of France.

I got a flat in the old town of Nice and spent the best 3 years of my life as a Provencale.

Every Bastille Day I went down to the Promenade des Anglais where tens of thousands always gathered.  There were floats and dancing girls, pounding music and fireworks from abarge moored in the Mediterranean.  Bastille Day is when the summer heat hits in.  This week the temperature has been 35 degrees Celsius in Nice. It’s is a joyous carnival of national pride.

ONGOING COVERAGE: Attack on Nice

Today that carnival has been decimated by a madman in a truck.  Taking aim  at the crowd he mowed down innocent revellers at 60 to 70 km an hour.  Finally coming to a halt leaving behind a trail of blood and death, he started firing a gun eventually cut down by security forces. Currently reports are that 60 are dead.  Hundreds are injured. The carnage has been described as unbelievable by an holidaying American who works in homicide.  It’s unlike anything seen before.

The dead include people of all types.  Young, old, tourists, locals, Christians and Muslims.  There are many dead bodies wearing the habib. One Arabic family have been quoted as saying they’ve lost their mother.  So this is not just an attack against our religion by another but an attack against all decent society.

There are reports that jihadist propaganda pamphlets were being distributed before the attack and the assumption is that is terror related.  What other reason could there be. Could anyone be that mad. And the initial details suggest a tactic that jihadi propaganda has promoted for several years, a vehicle ploughing into a crowd. For instance, Inspire magazine – affiliated with al-Qaida – urged the tactic several years ago.

Government sources in the UK are saying there are two immediate direct consequences for the UK if the attack is confirmed as a terrorist incident: fears about the decision by terrorists to use the tactic and the fact that past attacks overseas have led to increase in hate incidents directed at Muslims in Britain.

It’s time to reiterate that terror tactics are not designed to defeat but to instill fear. Recent report are that the ISIS caliphate is ever closer to collapse.  This could be the last desperate actions of a dying movement. But be that as it may.

We can’t let the fear they want to instill take over.  So will we now shy away from large public gatherings that could be attacked by a truck?  Will we stop going to the beautiful Cote D’Azur, one of the most popular holiday destinations in the world?  Or will we stand our ground and not let the bastards get us down?