nmah60.xml

nmah60.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-07-07

Just arriving home from the supermarket I flicked on the TV. There, on CNN was what I thought was a movie, showing the first WTC tower billowing smoke. As confused and bewildered as the commentators and TV reporters themselves sounded, I sat in disbelief wondering what on earth had just happened. Freak accident with a plane? Big fire outbreak up the top of the skyscraper? A terrorist attack? Dear God, no.

Then, like the rest on the western world, I stayed transfixed to the tv screen, with tears of distress, watching the next plane hit, hearing the reports of a strike at the Pentagon, witnessing the collapse of the first, then the second tower. I saw pictures of people screaming and running, covered with dust and blood, all as if it was a horror video I'd just brought back from the mall.

My life hasn't changed because the World Trade Centre was destroyed.

I did not lose friends or family. For those who did, then of course the answer would be entirely the reverse. But I say this because the way the world functions has not changed, and therefore, neither has my life. I think people have a tendency to say that it has altered the way we live and the way we think about things. I don't buy that.

Yesterday I went to the supermarket, and I picked up a video. I came home and turned the TV on. Tomorrow I'll go to work. I'll have three meals. I'll sleep in a warm bed. But more importantly I'll know that I can continue to do these things without any more risk of it changing than there ever has been.

The horror of the WTC destruction was as much symbolic as anything. It is easy to forget that the epicentre of a globalised economy, spearheaded by American democracy and capitalism was the main target of the terrorist act. Not the 3,000 lives. It is somewhat of a paradox then that the 3,000 lives lost seem infinitely more important than the vast and imposing skyscraper targets.

But today we are at no more risk of a sudden death at the hands of hostile armies, nuclear weapons, disease, car crashes, political oppression or terrorists than we ever have been. Quite the contrary. We live in a world safer than ever before.

If I came from Libya, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Zimbabwe or Afghanistan, one could not truthfully state such a thing.

By far the most important question to ask is 'why'? Why would people do this? What sort of desperate people could be driven to such acts of violence?

In answering this question it must be remembered that a whole community in Afghanistan, husbands, mothers, children, farmers and labourers will be asking the same thing as they see their country bombed from above.

Here lies the answer. Atrocity breeds atrocity. There is no doubt that those who flew the planes had before seen their homelands ravaged, their dignity striped and their families and friends killed.

Their response was to inflict the same suffering upon the enemy. Responding in a similar manner makes the Western world no better.

Poverty is most often at the roots of suffering and despair. This is what a war on terrorism brings. This is a lesson which needs to be learned. This is what should be remembered about September 11th

I lit a candle after the events on September 11th. I lit it for those who had died, for the families and friends who were affected, but most importantly in a desperate hope that what was to follow might not be as bad.

I don't think much of flags. To me they are symbols of a fragmented world. Flags have no relevance for what happened. Peoples from all the world - America, Europe, Asia, Africa - died when those towers collapsed. People from all the world continue to die - Asia, Africa.

My hope though is that the American flag can change it's stripes and become a force for good. Start by clearing third world debt. Spend half as much on foreign aid as on defence. Promote peace by halting the arms trade. Work on poverty in countries before the next war breaks loose.