It has been a year already - MH17

I recall myself saying five years after 9/11 why Americans are still able to weep for the lives lost that day.

Now I feel myself in the same situation. It's been exactly a year after a passenger plane had been shot down about the Ukraine, 298 lives lost in one split second. I had no personal bond with the victims, just a woman that worked at the University I had attended and talked to the past, others people lost loved ones and coworkers. People they shared a closer bond with.

But seeing all the flags fly half-staff in the Netherlands has giving me a gut wrenching feeling again. It's been a year but for some the pain is still fresh. It's been a year and no one has taken responsibility of it.

The official inquiry is out and it was the Pro-Russian fighters who have shot down the plane. Putin does not believe in an International Court, and with this sentiment I feel that he has spat in the faces of the people left behind.

I fear we will never see justice over this. As long as the Netherlands has dependence on Russia or as long as that maniac is in power.

All we can do now is mourn the lives lost and try to give it a place in our lives.

But now I understand what the Americans felt.