ChangeWaves

It was a bright Tuesday I remember, when I switched on the television to watch whatever was showing after I was done with my house chores. And

World_Trade_Center_Bombing

there it was ….breaking news on DW television The Twin Towers had been bombed. As a-wanna-be journalist then, I quickly remembered the bombings of US Embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania and immediately thought the attacks on America were orchestrated by the same people. I remember saying out aloud, “that’s Osama Bin Laden.” But I didn’t make a lot of sense of it then.

Al-Qaeda agents attacked the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, most of the victims were East Africans. In Nairobi, over 200 people died and another 4,000 were wounded. In Dar es Salaam, the attack killed over 10 people and wounded 85. Only months earlier, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group inspired by al-Qaeda, had burnt to death 80 students of Uganda Technical College Kichwamba (New vision Newspaper, Sept 11, 2011).

From my history lessons, I knew America was a super power but I didn’t know of what significance the World Trade Centre was. I had never been to America before.The following day, our local Ugandan newspaper the Monitor had a bold headline ‘Disaster’ while the New Vision had ‘America under Attack’ and both had pictures of the smoking towers.
At that time, I didn’t understand the magnitude but I knew whatever that had happened to America the superpower that it is, will not change America alone but the world. And I was right.
For starters, America decided to hunt down the mastermind of the attack. This time I saw more pictures of the man with a long beard – Osama Bin Laden who was the alleged mastermind of the attack. As a child, I had watched as my parents and older siblings sat around the radio set to listen to any updates of the gulf war. I imagined it would be the same with America attacking Afghanistan and later Iraq.

With these wars, I leant more about other countries and cities in the world. Afghanistan, Kandahar, Kabul, Iraq and so on.

New words were added to my vocabulary; Terror, terrorism, terrorist, terrorist attack, bomb, caves, 9/11,  Al-Qaeda, Taliban, and the famous phrase by then American President George Bush “We shall smoke them out.” New phobias emerged; phobia for people who belong to certain religious sects, phobia for planes, name it! Security checks at airports became tighter. Indeed the world was never to be the same again and so did I.

Nine years or so down the road, I got an opportunity to travel to New York City. While admiring the Manhattan skyline, looking at the skyscrapers from my Hotel on 42nd street, I imagined how someone could target the tallest skyscrapers in the area. One of my mentors who is familiar with Manhattan told me “for once New York was quiet.” Imagine the city that apparently never goes to sleep.

But how could a sane person plan to kill thousands of people at once. Is there a God somewhere who can surely justify that? Is there a person so heartless who can second this? Is there a people so ruthless that they are determined to continue such a legacy? Ten years later, we have more wars, more dead people, maximum security prisons and CNN reports there is a confirmed terrorist threat against America again to coincide with the 9/11 memorial events!

And I can only ask one question: Where is the love? If every God says murder is a sin, then why are people killing each other? Ten years after 9/11, the world needs love. I hope when I blog, ten years from now, it will be to celebrate the love in the world. But 9/11, I will always remember!