September 11, 2001 - Reactions "in the streets"


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1)  Different Worlds. Discussion with a foreign friend, September 13, 2001

F: Foreigner; G: German

F:  When I went to catch my train, on Tuesday, there were hundreds of people there at the train station,    watching those pictures from New York on a big silver screen. I guess they all didn't want to be alone, that night. You know, people in my country wouldn't be that afraid or shocked. I guess this is how people react, when they used to think of life as a party that never ends.
G:  I guess we will be partying again, soon.... Anyway, your picture of this country is sort of weird, don't you think so?
F:  Can you imagine how you'd feel, if you were Palestinean? And what would you do, if you were?
G:  Great question.... I don't know.
F:  Come on! You can't tell me that you have no imagination!
G:  I guess it's simple. I'm not a Palestinean. If I were, and if I lived in a refugee camp, or somewhere in the occupied territories.... How can I know? It's a different world.
F:  Well. You get the news, don't you? And human beings aren't all that different - regardless of culture and everything. Give it a try.
G:  Umm.... ok. I'd try to make things better - I guess. Be trying to do get as much information as I can.    Trying not to let hate blind me. I'd try to get myself some income I can live of, and to have some fun with, if that's possible. And I'd try to help others.
F:  Naah.... I don't think you would. After all, you would have parents that hate the Israelis and the Americans. Family, friends, teachers.... Certainly not all of them. But how do you know you wouldn't?
G:  Mh.... yes. That's probably why I said it's two different worlds.


2)  Discussing nightmares. Morning coffee in a German "Kaffee-Bude",
     September 28, 2001

A Kaffeebude is a small shop. There's an elderly lady who works next door. She's there almost every morning. Even on weekends, when she usually drives a cab to earn some extra money, she would drop in for a coffee or two. She didn't have a good sleep last night.


E.L.: Elderly Lady; S.O.: Someone/Someone else

E.L.: 

You know, I hate these bad dreams. I don't have real nasty dreams, too often.    But when they happen, I wake up after a while, sweating all over, and I have to get up and take some medicine, against asthma. How am I looking today?
All:  Great.
S.O.:  Just as good as ever.
E.L.:  That's good. I tried my best, this morning, in front of the mirror.... Yes, actually, my dream was about a mirror, and a terrorist attack. Can you believe it? It was a wild dream, you know.
S.O.:  How did it go?
E.L.:  I was standing in front of a mirror. And all of a sudden, I saw a helicopter, just behind me, approaching my window, as fast as hell. I just grabbed all the documents of my family, and mine, and ran for my poor life!
S.O.:  That's funny. I wouldn't think much of any documents, with a kamikaze helicopter chasing me.
E.L.:  Yes, it can't be real, right? I kept thinking after waking up, what all this documents stuff was about....    You know, when me and my children left my ex husband in a rush, long ago, I did remember to take some laundry with me - but I forgot all the documents.

External links
Cult of the Sucicide Bomber
The Independent, March 14, 2008

The radical loser (Hans Magnus Enzensberger)
Sign and Sight, December 1 2005



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