A Decade Ago: Remembering 9/11 Ten Years Later
A decade ago, I had returned from my Vietnam trip for a while, but had still been reveling in the experience (I had been in Hanoi and Siagon for a feature film project which lasted on-and-off for 4 months) and contemplated-notion of moving there to start a career and family (yes, there was a 'girl' … *cough*).
A decade ago, my hair was shoulder-long and I had a waist. Together with a decent tan, I was an arrogant bastard who smiled readily at the ladies. A decade ago, I reckon I was at the prime of my previous career. A decade ago, I was pretty fearless, and thinking back, pretty clueless too.
A decade ago, I watched the news-cast of an airplane crashing into one of the Twin Towers in New York city. I remember watching with mouth agape. I remember being numbed to the fear of what I had witnessed on the television. It was - after all - thousands of miles away from Singapore, right? But unfortunately no, it was a television screen away. And the news did all but repeat the imagery over, and over, and over again. I was angry. Angry why something like this could ever have happened? Angry how the hell something like this COULD happen!
Everything changed after that. EVERYTHING. The world would never be the same again. All the goodness of humanity, all the evilness of mortality, no longer made any traditional sense anymore. We could justify the existence of war, we lament natural disasters, we could even condemn acts of terrorists, but this? This seemed beyond rationality. This was beyond "reasons" - this was pure unadulterated EVIL. This became the "trigger" for the gun pointing against the Globe. Click. BANG.
Singapore is a day 'faster' compared to the US (in date only) but the repeats on CNN were a day late, as what we had witnessed was the after-reports of the disaster.
A decade ago, there was no Twitter. A decade ago there was no Facebook. Hell, MySpace haven't even existed yet, and the word "social media" might well have been a fantasy notion, like Santa Claus or the Unicorn. A decade ago, news was ruled by traditional media and we only knew what happened around the world via newspaper reports, or news on television. Now? We know exactly when there is an earthquake halfway around the world, from the person who had experienced it first hand. Now we see twitvids of said earthquake.
A decade ago, we found out the infamous 9/11 the day after, here in Singapore. But regardless of instantaneous news or source of information, the memory and aftermath forever remains, and a decade later, we mourn still for the tragedy which affected the nation, which affected the world. For the innocents taken by the tragedy, and for the courage and strength of those who dashed INTO the tragedy to save lives, you are remembered.
A decade ago, my hair was shoulder-long and I had a waist. Together with a decent tan, I was an arrogant bastard who smiled readily at the ladies. A decade ago, I reckon I was at the prime of my previous career. A decade ago, I was pretty fearless, and thinking back, pretty clueless too.
A decade ago, I watched the news-cast of an airplane crashing into one of the Twin Towers in New York city. I remember watching with mouth agape. I remember being numbed to the fear of what I had witnessed on the television. It was - after all - thousands of miles away from Singapore, right? But unfortunately no, it was a television screen away. And the news did all but repeat the imagery over, and over, and over again. I was angry. Angry why something like this could ever have happened? Angry how the hell something like this COULD happen!
Everything changed after that. EVERYTHING. The world would never be the same again. All the goodness of humanity, all the evilness of mortality, no longer made any traditional sense anymore. We could justify the existence of war, we lament natural disasters, we could even condemn acts of terrorists, but this? This seemed beyond rationality. This was beyond "reasons" - this was pure unadulterated EVIL. This became the "trigger" for the gun pointing against the Globe. Click. BANG.
Singapore is a day 'faster' compared to the US (in date only) but the repeats on CNN were a day late, as what we had witnessed was the after-reports of the disaster.
A decade ago, there was no Twitter. A decade ago there was no Facebook. Hell, MySpace haven't even existed yet, and the word "social media" might well have been a fantasy notion, like Santa Claus or the Unicorn. A decade ago, news was ruled by traditional media and we only knew what happened around the world via newspaper reports, or news on television. Now? We know exactly when there is an earthquake halfway around the world, from the person who had experienced it first hand. Now we see twitvids of said earthquake.
A decade ago, we found out the infamous 9/11 the day after, here in Singapore. But regardless of instantaneous news or source of information, the memory and aftermath forever remains, and a decade later, we mourn still for the tragedy which affected the nation, which affected the world. For the innocents taken by the tragedy, and for the courage and strength of those who dashed INTO the tragedy to save lives, you are remembered.
