Reflections on Tuesday 11th September 2001.
Written on 14th September
My emotions on the destruction of the World Trade Center and Pentagon are one of a deep and gnawing sadness and absolute shock as I returned from New York some three weeks ago after a thoroughly enjoyable time in the Big Apple. I rushed home from work on Tuesday evening in order to catch Channel Four news. Alone in my living room I gasped as I watched that massive building enfold into dust and tears rolled down my face in sheer disbelief. My mind wondered about the thousands of people who must have been inside that huge building. I am sure none of us can imagine the terror wrought on those inside as the building collapsed.
I have fond memories of my friend and I visiting the World Trade Center on 3 occasions - twice to shop and once to visit the restaurant - "Window of the World" on the 107th floor. The first time we went to the World Trade Center my friend and I were laden with shopping and she appeared uninterested in going up to the 107th floor to marvel at the height and view. I also was weary so we didn't bother. I was disappointed and wondered if we would get another opportunity to visit as a friend of a friend told me:" You must visit Windows on the World!" I wanted to see it out of curiosity. Also I harbour a fascination and fear of heights.
The second opportunity was a wonderful treat from a generous friend one hot afternoon. I distinctly remember that lovely afternoon and the journey up to the 107th floor in the restaurant with my friend and our host. The lift operator, a friendly African American greeted us politely and told us that it would take us 40 seconds to get to the 107th floor. My stomach and head seemed to exchange places in that 40 seconds. I marveled at technology!!
The Windows of the World will also be memorable because it was where I tasted "sushi" for the first time and being a lousy photographer I have some fantastic pictures of New York from the World Trade Center. As usual we discussed politics over drinks and food. The standing joke between my friend and I when we went to various restaurants during our 3-week trip was to judge the food and the standards of the "rest rooms". We would cajole each other to be the first to visit the "restroom" in order to report to the other its state. There is no doubt that the Ladies toilets in the World Trade Center's Windows on the World were first class - beautiful brown marble and spacious cubicles, automatic flushing; an assistant to hand you a towel and hand cream!!
Afterwards our host insisted that we had to visit Wall Street as it was not far and he wanted us to see the grand financial center of the capitalist world in order to demystify it. I remember tailing behind mesmerized by the height of the World Trade Center as my friend and our host went on ahead. It was getting dark and I was eager to take some pictures of the building at night and did so. The third time we visited the Center was to shop in the cosmopolitan mall on the ground floor.
And now the building is no more. I keep thinking that if we had organized our holiday for some 3 weeks later it could have been us trapped in that building. The whole incident has left me feeling very much aware of my own mortality. But is has also left me fearful on both a personal and political level.
Presently, we are all still reeling in the human tragedy and grief; the meticulous logistics required to save lives; seeking out loved ones; supporting courageous firefighters, engineers, ambulance and hospital workers assist the injured and the bereaved. However, since the tragedy occurred I have been listening to panel discussions on Newsnight in England, BBC Radio 4, pronouncements by world politicians and commentators and reading the British press and seeking some analysis of why this has happened. All fingers are quickly pointing in the direction of one single individual: Ousama bin Laden the Saudi millionaire who is said to be responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing and the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
As a historian I tell my students that history is not made by individual action and that in order to understand reality we must look for underlying causes; we must seek to understand what motivates human beings to act in the way that they do and that it is only collective action that changes things.
However, ultimately Americans must - after this period of mourning - learn to understand that American foreign policy in parts of the world is at the heart of this colossal tragedy. The American people have to confront some painful truths about the actions their government has taken on their behalf; they must wake up to the reality that they are not the only people living on this planet.
The sheer arrogance of America as the world's only superpower, its hegemonic stranglehold over the UN, IMF, World Bank, its support for Israel; the punishment it has meted out to Iraq for the past 11 yrs that has caused incredulous suffering in that country, its bombing of Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998 - give a section of the Arab population around the world cause to seek to annihilate if not hurt the "Great Satan". And I think once has to be very careful in not tarnishing all Arabs with this position. The suicide bombers have succeeded in destroying that powerful symbol of American financial might - the World Trade Center and to some extent American military intelligence - the Pentagon. They have struck a mighty audacious blow. Americans are now hurting physically. The nation is convulsing in shock and horror. I am sure many Americans are thinking: how could this happen to us? That is the easy part because the answer is that four groups of men of Arab identity managed to foil the security system of the only superpower in the world and blow themselves and perhaps thousands of others by using knives to threaten those who sought to prevent them. The most critical question Americans need to be asking is: why did this happen? If they do not ponder over this question, no amount of amassment of F15, F16 fighter planes, nor preventing other countries from possessing biological and chemical weapons, nor American procurment of the new national missile defense system -Son of Star Wars - can prevent another suicide bomber. How does one protect oneself against an individual who is willing to destroy themselves in the name of a cause?
Most Americans are ignorant of the rest of the world, indifferent and perhaps uninterested; they do not care or believe their lifestyles and the policies of their government's fuel poverty, conflict and war around the world. As long as they can have cheap oil from the Middle East to drive their four wheel Range Rovers or Cadillacs whilst ordinary Palestinians Arabs live in wretched refugee camps in the occupied territories, Jordan and Lebanon; and that the free market can offer them a dozen flavors of Starbucks coffee from the Kenyan farmer who gets paid are mere $10.00 a pound - Americans are oblivious to the gross inequalities their way of life is built on and continues to be sustained.
Many ordinary Arabs whether in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia have no democratic rights to voice their disquiet against the autocratic corrupt governments they live under; nor say in the right of American bases to be established in their land - yet America turns a blind eye to undemocratic Arab regimes as it did to the tyrannical authoritarianism of many African regimes such as that of Mobutu in former Zaire and present day Moi in Kenya. Part of the problem is that America does not see herself and her actions connected to the rest of the world because she is superior - the only remaining superpower. Since the beginning of the 20th Century America has vacilated from isolationism and adventurism to pursue her own imperialist interests.
Many commentators have said that this tragedy marks the end of an era and speculations abound as to what will be the consequences of this tragedy on the economic, political and international levels. The NATO partners have resurrected Article 5 of the NATO constitution stating that an attack against one member state is an attack against all. Western leaders call for a concerted and united response to the war of "international terrorism". I fear that such talk is cultivating Western public opinion for an attack on Afghanistan. But is America & the West prepared for such a war? Are Americans prepared to commit ground troops and the return of more American body bags? If America attacks Afghanistan will its smart missiles discriminate between innocent Afghan civilians from those marked "fanatics", "terrorists", or "fundamentalists"?
What political action George Bush Jnr pursues in the next few weeks will certainly have ramifications. He is under pressure to define his Presidency, particularly after a dubious electoral victory. However, caution is necessary for rash and swift action will only create another thousand suicide bombers and more Ousama bin Ladens around the Muslim world. And how do you fight a suicide bomber? With smart missiles that detect suicide bombers? How do you fight "international terrorism"? I believe it is by rationally and critically looking at the causes that give rise to suicide bombers and so-called "terrorists" to prevent them arising in the future. We must seek to understand the underlying causes that gave rise to this terrible atrocity. And understanding is not the same as condoning such acts and their outcome. We must separate an explanation for their actions from a moral judgment on their acts.
At the end of the day, America (and Britain who might just as well be the 52nd state of America) need to force Israel to accept the various UN Security Resolutions on the Palestinian - Israeli question rather than use its veto to prevent their implementation. More importantly, America has to force Israel to accept the notion of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and that those Arab Palestinians within Israel have full democratic citizenship rights as any Israeli living within the borders of Israel. For too long Western European states, along with the United States of America have felt guilt at the plight of the Jews during the Second World War and therefore have remained silent as the oppressed Jews have become oppressors. The oppression of the Arab Palestinians has been ignored for too long because for some strange reason many Westerners do not see them as human. The present pain of Americans is no greater than that of the Palestinians. The difference is the Palestinians and many Arabs who feel a connection to this pain via Pan-Arabism, have endured a suffering and denial of basic human rights since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
I fear these truths will be difficult to swallow for many Americans. I deeply fear that the new century is likely to face war and I may be witness to it. But I hope it will not be long before ordinary Americans begin to digest some of these unpalatable realities . and that change towards a more just and equal world is possible .
Ama Biney
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