Month: September 2001

Should FarmAid be cancelled? It’s not for another five weeks, and it is for a good cause.
Should normal life be suspended indefinitely? Surely to do so concedes defeat?

Is it possible to become saturated by the events of the last few days? A sort of numbness sets in. You flick through the paper or websites or radio channels thinking to yourself “yeh, heard that, and that….. that too ……no, nothing new”. I guess that’s what started me on looking for other sources of news, information and opinion from other parts of the world – a desire to find some fresh angle on the whole episode.
But instead I feel jaded. Words just seem to run out at times, and when they do, feelings run out also.
Ever since I first heard of the first plane hitting the World Trade Centre, I’ve tried to be detached and objective – I’ve always held the opinion that if you can remain that way, you can reason better. But the endless repeated interviews with people holding photos of their missing loved ones, hoping that somehow they managed to survive falling 100 storeys in a collapsing burning building; the images of the twisted mess that is all that is left of the buildings and aircraft; the recordings of those dreadful telephone calls from people in the buildings or on the planes – these things easily erode the detachment.
And if that is how it can impact upon someone many thousands of miles away, with no friend or family directly involved, it is easy to see why those close to the scene can be promoting the idea of vengeance.
I just hope that those who make the decisions to send troops, seamen, airmen and munitions against whoever it is they decide to attack can remain level-headed and dispassionate enough to make the right decisions, and do not fall victim to the “red mist” of anger. That would be a very dangerous path to go down, and, in my opinion, would inevitably lead to still worse death, destruction and suffering than we have already seen.

I previously expressed an interest in finding non-UK and non-US news sources covering the US terrorist attacks. Well nobody pointed any out to me, so I went and found a few of my own. Try these:
Asahi, Japan.
Ha’aretz, Israel.
Pravda, Russia – features lots of reader feedback and carries a disturbing article today about people selling fragments of the fallen buildings as souvenirs.
Arabic News, a clearing house for news stories covering the entire Middle East.
Pakistan News Service – very interesting. Reports today that Colin Powell has announced the lifting of US sanctions against Pakistan, and that the EU has relaxed trade quotas on Pakistani textile exports (a major source of revenue) – I’ve not seen this reported anywhere else.

ADDENDUM: Cal suggests adding The Times of India, which I note carries an article suggesting that a close associate on Osama bin Laden, wanted on terrorist charges by the Jordanian authorities, is living in exile in London.

I’ve struggled into work this morning, albeit late, in spite of the worst cold I’ve had in years. Just too much to do.
I was at the station in Chichester at 11 o’clock. The three minutes silence for the victims of the terrorist acts in the US was observed. I have never, ever, heard the city so quiet. There was total and absolute silence. Everyone on the platforms sat or stood still. The workmen on the new Wiley building removed their hardhats and stood on the scaffolding. Cars stopped on the roads. The only sounds that could be heard were a dog barking, a child crying and the distant toll of the cathedral bells (which you can never normally hear at the station).
I think it was a remarkable symbol of how ordinary people here, far removed geographically from the disaster site, have been touched by events. I have never seen the silence so closely observed – certainly it was more closely observed than it is on Remembrance Day.
The silence was finally broken on the platforms at Chichester by a security announcement, warning passengers not to leave bags and packages unattended – something that I had never heard at Chichester before this week, and symbolic in its own right.

Nipped out for a couple of whiskies with Paul F, Julie and Arron. Several others seen too. Should sleep well now.

Idle thought: how might Al Gore have reacted to this?

Excellent links resource about the events in NYC, mainly linking to blogs.

Iain Duncan-Smith has won the Tory leadership contest by wide margin.

More pictures have been added at Ultradio.

It’s probably far too soon to be publishing ideas of the sort expressed in this article. Whilst there may be more than a grain of truth in what is written, we must remember that the American administration in power now is not the same as the administrations that preceded it. Nor is the American administration the same as the American people – most Americans are quite capable of thinking for themselves on their own two feet, and do not blindly follow what the President says. However, I am concerned that the Democrats have said they will give whatever the President asks for (the leader of the Democrats in the Senate said words to this effect in an interview I heard on the BBC at lunch time) – an unquestioning attitude is surely the wrong attitude.

I’d be interested to see some media coverage from Arab nations. I heard some reports this morning on BBC Radio of what the press are reporting in Egypt and Pakistan – a combination of horror, revulsion, fear and apprehension. The Egyptian press is particularly angry at western media for giving “undue prominence” to the small number of Palestinians who celebrated the terrorists’ actions. The Pakistani press comments on the fact that the Afghan people did not elect the Taleban regime, are in many cases oppressed by it, are in some places fighting it, and did not invite Osama bin Laden into their country.

Further thought: on Tuesday morning, the FBI and other authorities knew nothing about the attacks that were clearly being planned and had been planned for a long time, in spite of having the largest counter-terrorist budget in the world. And yet, within 36 hours, they are confident that Osama bin Laden is the culprit. Journalists, commentators and experts in other parts of the world (i.e. outside the US) are not so sure. I’m not an expert, but you have to wonder if a man who has to keep moving around a war torn, ravaged, mountainous country, cut off from the rest of the world and isolated from the global communications network is really in a position to organise this. Even if he was involved, could he have achieved it alone?
Experts I have heard speaking about bin Laden are quick to point out that, whilst he is a figurehead and leader of the network (they don’t use the word “organisation”), there are plenty of other well equipped, well organised, well supported and powerful men who are just as capable of organising and achieving the destruction we have all witnessed.
I think we should be careful not to be too hasty to codemn bin Laden before there is real evidence to link him with this – remember McVeigh.

Also, in just the same way as we must not accuse all Americans of being knee-jerk reactionaries, baying for blood and vengeance, equally we must not accuse all members of Islam of being fundamentalist extremists seeking to destroy “American imperialism”. From what I have seen, read and heard, the vast overwhelming majority of Islamic people are utterly horrified by what has happened. This is not about Islam – this is about terrorists.
If we head down that path, then we shall be in the same situation that exists in Northern Ireland – people caught up in their own history, trapped and unable to move forward – a place where people with different religions (even though they believe in the same god) can not live together. A place where taxi drivers of one faith are murdered if they take a fare into an area dominated by members of the other faith. A place where teenagers are shot in the knees as punishment for what they believe in. A place where five year old children are the targets of stun grenades as they walk to school because of their faith.
If we head down the path of blaming Islamic faith, then that situation will not just be confined to Northern Ireland, or even to the Middle East – it will become global, and will truly be hell on earth.