Well it’s now 5am and I’ve been sitting here for five and a half hours and it’s still numbing.
Friends and family are calling each other all over the country and have been doing so all night in the wee hours. We’re all in shock. It’s like a sureal moment where we expect it to be announced as a War of the World’s fake - Hollywood’s latest publicity gimmick or something.
It can’t be real.
And yet it is.
I don’t know what else to say atm.
Condolances and best wishes to you all.
And bless and help us all.
I was listening to the radio (ABC, I think), and the broadcaster was saying something like, “We’re looking at a shot of Jerusalem where there is much celebration among the Arab community.”
What makes the OP think the French are dancing in the streets? If anything I am not in Europe but have communicating with people in Europe and watching German TV - they are MORTIFIED.
If anything the petty disputes between the EU and the USA will be set aside and hopefully all democratic nations will unite against this.
It’s raining, right now. There’s about 100-120 people there, in the rain - some come, some go, but there’s a crowd still.
Lots of flowers. Candles being snuffed by the rain and reignited. (I paused and lit a couple myself). Families arriving, their kids carrying flowers. And a mood of sadness and silent, helpless, grim anger.
Mjollnir, I can confirm that I saw the news broadcasting the celebrations in the street in some middle eastern city. The people were also claiming that this is a blow struck for Islam. I felt sick to my stomach to hear this.
Everyone here is completely shocked and scared. All of our tv stations are broadcasting nothing but coverage of this disaster. I’ve heard reports from our reporters across Canada that we are going to be helping any way we can, from taking the international flights and putting up the stranded in our homes, to providing blood and hospital equipment, to sending disaster relief workers.
I’m in Halifax, Nova Scotia and just tried to donate blood. The clinics are overwhelmed right now and it will be at least a three hour wait. I’ll try again later. Offers have been pouring in from all over the city to aid the stranded travellers and others. Halifax still remembers with great fondness the kindness and generosity of Americans during our terrible harbour explosion almost 90 years ago. Our thoughts are with you.
Even though I don’t have family in either NYC or DC, this is leaving me feeling very unsettled. I suppose that since I have lived all my adult life in a country at peace, I naively assumed that it would continue. What kind of world will my boys grow up in?
It has been very touching to read the comments you have given here. I teared up when I heard Tony Blair’s comments earlier on the radio, and the visions of the flowers and candles on the fence have brought me to tears again.
There are so many GOOD people in the world. Why are the bastards in the world able to create such havoc?
In Finland, I don’t know about reaction of people on the street - I’ve been on computer all day. My family’s been shocked and stunned. There’s very frequent coverage, and President Halonen and PM Lipponen have expressed their condolences and offered any kind of help possible.
I just got into work. A woman in the lift said “Isn’t it a terrible day?”, and I was confused. “Traffic?” I asked. She looked at me amazed and said, “You don’t know?”.
Oh my god. I’ve been sitting here reading the on-line news.
My deepest sympathies and condolences to all who have been affected.
We are all shocked. That’s quite unusual for us, Dutch. There isn’t a media outlet NOT relaying CNN and/or adding comments or translations. We could not be more involved as a nation if those towelheads blew up OUR WTC in Amsterdam. Thousands of passengers stranded at Schiphol Airport are being provided with accomodations. Other than that, there’s not much we can do. Our prime minister has also expressed his sympathies and that of the Dutch people.
Honestly, I’m not easily phased. Any terrorist attack in Northern Ireland, Israel or Spain worries me but that’s it. A fireworks depot exploded here last year and leveled an entire suburb: pretty bad, but the show must go on. But now, the scale of this disaster has yet to sink in. It’s the same for most people here.
I’d like to offer my condolances and heartfelt sympathies for all involved in some way, but I don’t know how…
Meanwhile, the Iraqi news had the tragedy in it’s English bulletin. Item #8 and the newsreader ended with something like: ‘Well, what goes around comes around’. My girlfriend saw that clip. Makes you sick, doesn’t it?
I’m reassured by the empathy of those throughout the world.
I apologize for my assumptions. On a day such as this, where both the skyline of a great city and the collective psyche of a great nation have been scarred forever, I can only assume the worst of everything.
They’re laying flowers at the gates to the American embasy in Wellington. The embassy’s been checking all incoming vehicles, and the gates are locked tight, but the flowers keep on coming. Little kiddies holding spring folowers, laying them in tribute. Oh, hell …
I found out when I went into a local appliance store, and saw an ABC News feed on one of our local TV channels. At first, I thought it was a masive fire in Manhattan, that’s all. And then, the enormity hit as I continued to listen.
Great stars, I’m crying over this. That innocent people simply living their lives could be killed so callously. Our government says they’re ready and willing to do all they possibly can to help out America in this terrible time. I hope there is something a small nation like ours can do to help.
The BBC website has several stories about world reaction (no links, sorry) but summed up they mainly said that outside the Islamic world there is shock and varying degrees of dismay. In Kenya and Tanzania, where the embassies were bombed a few years back, there was sympathy, but it was tempered with sentiments of “now they know how we felt.” Supposedly there will be some marches in Tanzania (I think ) by Muslim youth groups celebrating the attacks, but I think they will find themselves in the minority by showing such happy exuberance about it.
My colleagues and office workers are in a daze, and the office is very quiet. People are spending the morning logging onto Chinese language websites reading about it. The local newspaper editorials are condemning the attack and urging the United States to stand strong as it did after Pearl Harbour.
A lot of people watched it on the news last night - HK is 12 hours behind NY - so we got immediate coverage at a time when most people are watching TV.
Local Chinese have expressed to me their horror at the situation. A guy from Tienjin (north of Beijing) looks stunned. A colleague from Shanghai went to Manhattan last December for a holiday and was absolutely mortified.
I cannot emphasise anough to Americans that not one person here has expressed any satisfaction or pleasure at this travesty.
I will be going to the US consulate at lunch today to lay flowers.
Watched the end of The West Wing, 11.50 pm, just heading for bed and the news came on. I sat and watched, stunned until 3.00 am. Had to phone & wake my SO at midnight, because I needed some sense of not handling this all alone.
I saw the towers collapse live, and cried. Everyone at work is devastated and shocked. Most learnt only as they woke.
A workmate who was in the city said people in the streets are sober and upset-looking. There’s a way in which this makes us vulnerable as well, of course, but mostly australians have a good idea of just how hard this will be hitting you
I feel for all of you in the States so much right now. It’s appalling and shocking and I even am aware there are Dopers who live in new York and I’m worried for them.
People here are completely shocked. Absolutely stunned by what they are seeing on cable. Total disbelief.
Bombay, where I live in, has in the past been target to similar terrorist attacks, as has been the rest of India due to cross-border terrorism. We empathise completly with the grief and rage that Americans must be feeling right now.
People here are saying that enough is enough and its time that these terrorist organizations are hunted down and taken out. There’s a lot of anger on the streets right now. And that’s because Bombay has been a target before for a similar concerted terrorist attack and people empathise completely.
To all the Americans out there, our heart-felt condolences for ur loss.
