Sunday, September 12, 2004
In Remembrance
"Where were you when 9/11 happened?"
This is a question I am sure most of us have been asked during the course of the last three years. I clearly remember where I was. Where I am right now - browsing the net when I saw a headline on rediff that a plane, size undetermined, had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. I rushed to my TV and tuned into CNN and then saw the horrific incidents unfold from there on.
Three thousand innocent people died for the simple fact that they were Americans or because they decided to make America their home. The images were incessant and unsparing. Almost everyone who heard of the news and/or saw images of them, must have felt what I felt - profound sadness for the families of those innocent people who did not make it down the towers, anger towards those 19 hijackers and the masterminds and a feeling of numbness and utter disbelief.
Almost three years later, reminded by an interview of Bill Clinton I saw on Larry King Live recently, I asked myself another question:
"Where was I between April and June of 1994?"
And the answer was I was living my life as an Undergrad student in the UK finishing the second semester of my first year. We had a small-screen TV in our common kitchen in the dorm and I had a radio in my room. We would occasionally hear of the "news" in bits and pieces and before I mulled over too much on the events, more important matters like homeworks, mid-term exams and weekend trips to London would take precedence.
The news in question is the slaughter of one million people in Rwanda during this 90 day period. Yes, these were also a million innocent people murdered by members of the Hutu tribe just because they happened to belong to the Tutsi tribe or in some cases if they were Hutus who did not take the fashionable "let's get them Tutsis" line of thinking.
Even as three times as many people as those who died on 9/11 were being slaughtered each day for three months in Rwanda, I paid little attention to the happenings. But hey why blame me? There were no awe inspiring TV visuals for me to look at. There were few details and fewer people who were knowledgeable enough to comment. This was happening in a remote corner of Africa from where the world needed precious little. Somehow this story was just not cut out for prime time.
In the years hence, we have seen the fall of the Taliban and Saddam. In this battle between good and evil, the good side, i.e. us the civilized world, will wage wars pre-emptively if need be and strike before the evil has a chance to plan their next move. Weapons of Mass destruction will be curbed. We are creating a safer world where the darker side of the globe is being enlightened with freedom and democracy, as we know it.
There have been no terrorist attacks on the US since and very few of significant magnitude on the civilized world at large, barring a couple of minor hiccups like the Madrid bombings or the Bali attacks. The civilized world is safer today.
I breathe a sigh of relief. But, I am once again interrupted by bits and pieces of another piece of "news". 50, 000 have been killed in a genocide in Sudan's western region. Not sure about who is on the side of "good" and who on the side of "evil" in this conflict.
Did I say Sudan? I am so sorry, I forgot that is in Africa.
Didn't I tell you? I will only grieve if it is covered on primetime TV. I will only feel anger if the people who are killed look like familiar faces. I will only cheer from the sidelines if the war being covered on TV makes me feel I am on the side of the "good". I don't really care about the mass destruction of 50,000 people, all I know is there are no WMD's in Africa.
I am part of the civilized world, damn it.
This is a question I am sure most of us have been asked during the course of the last three years. I clearly remember where I was. Where I am right now - browsing the net when I saw a headline on rediff that a plane, size undetermined, had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. I rushed to my TV and tuned into CNN and then saw the horrific incidents unfold from there on.
Three thousand innocent people died for the simple fact that they were Americans or because they decided to make America their home. The images were incessant and unsparing. Almost everyone who heard of the news and/or saw images of them, must have felt what I felt - profound sadness for the families of those innocent people who did not make it down the towers, anger towards those 19 hijackers and the masterminds and a feeling of numbness and utter disbelief.
Almost three years later, reminded by an interview of Bill Clinton I saw on Larry King Live recently, I asked myself another question:
"Where was I between April and June of 1994?"
And the answer was I was living my life as an Undergrad student in the UK finishing the second semester of my first year. We had a small-screen TV in our common kitchen in the dorm and I had a radio in my room. We would occasionally hear of the "news" in bits and pieces and before I mulled over too much on the events, more important matters like homeworks, mid-term exams and weekend trips to London would take precedence.
The news in question is the slaughter of one million people in Rwanda during this 90 day period. Yes, these were also a million innocent people murdered by members of the Hutu tribe just because they happened to belong to the Tutsi tribe or in some cases if they were Hutus who did not take the fashionable "let's get them Tutsis" line of thinking.
Even as three times as many people as those who died on 9/11 were being slaughtered each day for three months in Rwanda, I paid little attention to the happenings. But hey why blame me? There were no awe inspiring TV visuals for me to look at. There were few details and fewer people who were knowledgeable enough to comment. This was happening in a remote corner of Africa from where the world needed precious little. Somehow this story was just not cut out for prime time.
In the years hence, we have seen the fall of the Taliban and Saddam. In this battle between good and evil, the good side, i.e. us the civilized world, will wage wars pre-emptively if need be and strike before the evil has a chance to plan their next move. Weapons of Mass destruction will be curbed. We are creating a safer world where the darker side of the globe is being enlightened with freedom and democracy, as we know it.
There have been no terrorist attacks on the US since and very few of significant magnitude on the civilized world at large, barring a couple of minor hiccups like the Madrid bombings or the Bali attacks. The civilized world is safer today.
I breathe a sigh of relief. But, I am once again interrupted by bits and pieces of another piece of "news". 50, 000 have been killed in a genocide in Sudan's western region. Not sure about who is on the side of "good" and who on the side of "evil" in this conflict.
Did I say Sudan? I am so sorry, I forgot that is in Africa.
Didn't I tell you? I will only grieve if it is covered on primetime TV. I will only feel anger if the people who are killed look like familiar faces. I will only cheer from the sidelines if the war being covered on TV makes me feel I am on the side of the "good". I don't really care about the mass destruction of 50,000 people, all I know is there are no WMD's in Africa.
I am part of the civilized world, damn it.
