Job Discussion Forums

[dmb]

I've been racking my brain. I can't remember Am I alone?
I do remember where I was when Lady Di died/was killed though.

[JosephP]

I happened to be on an airplane when the planes smashed into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. I was flying from Boise, Idaho to Seattle to connect with a Hawaiian airlines flight to Honolulu. I remember the flight attendent with a rather dazed look on her face walking the center aisle carefully scrutinizing the passengers. At the time we passengers had no idea what was transpiring on the other side of the continent. On arrival at Sea-Tac when I was walking up the pier to go get checked in to my connecting flight I overheard two fellas saying that all flights were probably going to be canceled. It was a gorgeous day so I couldn't fathom why any flights would be canceled. I briefly glanced at a TV monitor in a bar at the top of the pier and saw a big building burning. "Hmmm...that's not a good thing" I remember thinking. I still didn't know the situation. When I reached the Hawaiian Airlines counter it was totally devoided of staff and a hand-scrawled note stating that all flights would be delayed a minimum of seven hours. I thought,"Well, it looks like a stretch of drinking overpriced airport coffee for me." I returned to the bar and it was there that I got the news.
Fortunately I have a brother in Seattle and was able to get hold of him and he was able to put me up until the flights to Hawaii resumed four days later. It was a relief to get to Honolulu. Walking along the Ala Wai Canal, looking at the Ko'olau Mountains, feeling the warm sun on my back, the trade winds riffling the water, I thought, god, people enjoy screwing things up, but the sun rises, the winds blow, and the fish in the canal are going about there business.

[nomadder]

Dmb that's the only other big new event that I can also remember where I was -strange because it was near where I saw her when she came to visit my small Canadian city many years earlier.

[donfan]

[Gordon]

It changed a lot for me. Within 2 months of 9/11, my wife and I both lost our jobs; her airline went out of business and I got laid off because students no longer wanted to study in Vancouver because it was too dangerous.

So who cares about only our own little world. The world is a whole lot different now. The world is becoming more polarized all the time, terrorism is not going to go away. I think N. Korea is next on the radar screen.

[Chris]

For some reason I woke up rather early. I had just finished a temp job in Milwaukee that summer the previous Friday, and was preparing to go back to Poland. That meant getting my work visa from the Polish consulate and buying my airplane ticket.

So, my mom and I were making breakfast and my dad was watching the Today Show. I looked at the TV and saw one of the towers burning. They were talking about what possibly happened, etc when before my eyes the 2nd plane headed towards the 2nd tower and crashed into it. Right then, and for the next few days, my body went numb.

Needless to say, I didn't buy my airplane ticket that day.

As for Donfon wondering how the world has changed.. Many of my colleagues here in Poland had great jobs in travel that were eliminated as a direct result of 9/11. Security has tightened so much, it's incredible, particularily if you are traveling to or from the US. I was amazed at the security I encountered in the US this Christmas. Politically, so many things have changed that it'd be impossible to enumerate them here.

I'm sorry to see that you are rather blind to what is happening outside of your world, wherever you may be.

[Chris]

Oh, and an acquaintance of mine--a Jordanian/Palestinian friend of my Iraqi friend (confusing?)--was one of the nearly 3000 people who perished that day. I had only met him a few times, but I remembered him quite well. He had lived in Milwaukee for 15 years before he went to NYC in 2000. When the TV affiliates in Milwaukee showed his picture on TV, I was absolutely shocked.

[donfan]

[donfan]

To me even Bali was more important than 9/11.

[leeroy]

Naturally, I condemn pretty much any conscious action which leads to a loss of life in the scale/context of 9/11.

In terms of "events that have caused loss of life", objectively speaking though, 9/11 has barely been a speck of dust considering everything that's happened worldwide over the last 100 years if all we are considering is a crude bodycount.

If the same events had transpired (with a similar loss of life) in, say, Kenya - would we be discussing it now? I often hear it pointed out that 9/11 was in fact a small taster for the developed world to feel what the developing world experiences/has experienced almost on a daily basis.

The point was that 9/11 was closer to home - it's understandable that we pay more attention to it than, say, genocide in Rwanda - as it is on our (as in "The West's") doorstep.

As The Economist highlights, in fact what this event did was point out to the American public that

a) The USA is not invincible, and
b) is not universally popular - often quite the opposite.

The overwhelming message that I got from the US media immediately post 9/11 was not "Why did this happen?" but "Who are these people, we're gonna blow the f** out of them!". What could have been a wake-up call for the American public to take a more active interest how their government's foreign policies affect other nations instead emerged as an apparent confirmation that the "foreign world" is a dangerous one, and one that has to tamed and sometimes punished.

Consequently, although initially sympathy was shared worldwide for America, this quickly turned back into cynicism and mistrust of the USA's (seemingly) unilateral and over-aggressive policies.

I remember seeing a website soon after 9/11, whereby the webmaster had placed a big message on the homepage.

"i saw the people dancing in the streets in whateverthef*** arab country it was and all i say is bomb them all. i dont care if there women and children if anyone dances because of that s*** they all deserve to die. nuke the bas*****."

It's difficult to sympathise for long with such attitudes. Sadly, for me (and I think most around the world) it will be America's response to 9/11 that sticks in our minds more than the event itself.

I have no sympathy for terrorists, and am certainly glad that regime changes have been forced upon Afganistan and Iraq. But as some have been pointing out for a while now - the issue is not a conventional "USA vs. (insert country)". Many have argued that simply attacking other countries (however justified) is not going to be enough.

[ls650]

[CountryClub]

Well put leeroy. I think the opportunity for critical evaluation following the events of 9/11 were sadly lost.

[Chris]

Hmmm...

First of all, I have to agree with much of what Leeroy has said. The general American public really didn't/doesn't care much about the world outside their little part of it. Before 9/11, US foreign policy was a joke (and much of it still is).

Donfan: you are a very lucky person if the world hasn't changed much for you.

Replying to your: "oh that's right - the world revolves around the US - silly me to think that something that happens outside its borders may be more important."



I never said that.

I am a very unpatriotic American, and probably will never again live on American soil for any length of time for the rest of my life. Just maybe for a visit here and there.

My acquaintance who died at the WTC was not American. As you should have read, he was Arab (Palestinian/Greek Orthodox). The first person I called after the attack was my Mexican friend living in Milwaukee. After a few hours I went online and chatted with my Polish friends. The few days after 9/11 I hung out with my German, Egyptian, Tunisian, French ( of Moroccan descent), Iraqi, Indian, Canadian, etc friends (I don't have many American ones--maybe because I don't have much in common with most of my "compatriots"). I felt horrible for my non-caucasian friends because some of them were victims of hate "tauntings". My Egyptian friend even changed his name for the first few months afterwards because Kareem is too Arab.

What I did say that you failed to read (I assume) is that 9/11, for better (mostly likely not) or worse (most definately is) has changed the world we live in.

November 9th, 1989 (the fall of the Berlin Wall) is the next biggest date that I will always remember. This was a very happy date, and yes, I must say that the changes that came about, with the wall falling down as the symbol, were also globally reaching.

But in the current arena we call the world, unfortunately, the consequences of 9/11 have been and will be felt directly or indirectly throughout much of it.

NOT ONLY IN THE USA

[yaramaz]

I feel it here in Turkey, not just in the Istanbul bombings at the end of last year, or in the war planes that flew over my school every 15 minutes last spring, but also in travel: to get back to Canada, I usually have to pass through the US. My god, I get grilled! I get quizzed at length about why I am in Turkey, do I speak Turkish, where exactly do I live and how did I get to the airport (was driven by my muslim terrorist boyfriend, sir!), blah blah blah. Last time it took 25 minutes. And I am as white and waspy (in name and face) as you can get-- I pity those with unusual surnames or darker complexions...

[arioch36]

Curious, why do you ask?

The morning of 9/11 i was headed on the Greyhoound bus going to New York City to get my visa. Just before you get to New York City you are on the New Jersey Side, you cross the Hudson river to get to the city, with a perfect view of the World trade Center, Empire State building, etc.

As we crossed the river, one of the towers had some smoke. It didn't look so bad at first. All the buses go to a big terminal near the Chinese consulate. When we came in, we heard that a plane had struck the tower. Every one figured it was a small plane that struck the tower by accident. Then, on live TV, you could see the second plane headed for the tower. It was one of the most disturbing sights I have seen in my life, when the instant realization came that here was a deliberate act of cruelty and murder, and there was nothing any one could do to stop it.

It's not the number of people who die that creates an impact.

I was in the Air Force for 12 years..aeromedical evacuation, also working on the ground. The most disturbingthing I think I ever saw was on an icy road two girls, 18, were returning home from a high school party/function. They weren't drunk, but they lost control of the car. The girl lost both legs and was dying. Her last words were concern for her mother, that her mother would worry if she didn't come home on time. And you were helpless as you watched her blled to death.

It was the same feeling as watching that plane hit the tower. Seeing the tower collapse, knowing hundreds of rescue workers work allowing themselves to die. Seeing on TV people holding hands and jumping to their deaths together. that has an impact that will last. I'm not a New York City person, but I was amazed at the way they reacted. Spontaneously generous to the surviviors. At least initially blaming no one. Where I was at the port authority (everyone was stranded at the time) one person walked down the street yelling at muslims. Many people told him to shut up. Made me "proud" of them

9/11 just brought a very real problem to a head. Actually, until this moment the world had it's head in the the sand, and the world policy to terrorism was a joke. It's sad that many feel this to be an American thing. Bali, the Phillipines, Saudi Arabia Morocco, many non Americans targeted. It was a wake up call that rich terrorists (because bin laden greatest success is that he and his followers are rich, not poor) constsitute a threat across the world, and there was no international cooperation to do anything about.