The Peace Arch, on the Canadian-US border near Vancouver has an inscription that describes the two countries as children of the same mother.
From the perspective of this little New Zealander, the US is something like the oldest brother who left home while we were still tiny (OK… technically not born yet, 1776 vs. 1840).
You can be big and blustering, and we certainly don’t agree with you on everything… but dammit, you’re family.
Here’s the response from the President of India.
My wife is from China, and her parents still live in Tianjin (near Beijing). Her mother called and said it was all over the news there, and the Chinese reaction has been shocked, stunned, and saddened. As China Guy has mentioned, President Jiang Zemin sends his condolences.
On behalf of whoever agrees with me, thank you.
Though it probably won’t allay your fears too much, it might help just a little to know that telephone communication in and out of New York has been pretty much impossible for the past 2 days. My step mother has family in NY and wasn’t able to reach them (calling from Missouri) until late this afternoon. A friend of my boss’s who’s in Midtown NY, called this afternoon and said she’s been trying to get a long distance line every couple of hours for 2 days and was only just able to. Local calls within the city are getting through, but interstate and international calls are sporadic at best. Hopefully you’ll hear something soon. My thoughts are with you.
And let me add my thanks for the kindness and support shown by Dopers and other friends all around the world. It helps to feel we’re not so alone out here. Bless you all.
Yesterday Chretien pledged all help needed that we are able to give. Try this site.
/nitpick/
It wasn’t diverted to Yellowknife, it was diverted to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Two city blocks from my house.
Sigh. Dear CNN, and other world news organizations…the Yukon is not in Alaska, it is not part of the United States, nor is it a part of the Northwest Territories. I can see, with a mere 30,000 of us, how you’d want to lump all of us Northerners together so as to make a meaningful statistic, but jeez, Yellowknife and Whitehorse ARE a couple thousand km or so apart…
/end nitpick/
The reaction here is still stunned relief that it wasn’t real, that it was crew error at the worst possible time.
There was also just a little resentment, that something so many of us moved far away from could reach out to touch us so closely. I have friends who came from countries where this happens on people’s doorsteps, and that’s why they moved here. A bit of “how DARE these troubles come HERE!”
However, said resentment is overlaid with a thick layer of This Nonsense Is Not Allowed, And We Are Not Having It. Here or anywhere else, for that matter. We’d do it again in a heartbeat (only better). Anything we can do, so few and far away, we will.
Even a day and half later, Melbourne, Australia is still on 24 hour TV/radio coverage. The general response with everyone I’ve spoken to has ranged from sickened to upset. Except my family and close friends, which has been murderously angry, although we’re going to rely on the American military to carry out what needs to be done.
There have been people ringing up talkback radio and spouting the usual line about America bringing it on themselves, which has annoyed me a lot (I’m understating this, seeing as we’re not in the pit), but generally speaking they’re only the loud a…holes who are in the minority. I’m just waiting to have some left-wing yahoo at university put up an anti-American/pro-terrorist poster (this is the sort of thing we see all the time), so I can rip it down in front of them, and hopefully rip them down while I’m at it.
I’ve been praying the whole time since hearing about it shortly after it happened - 11-00pm local time, and my heart goes out to every American, knowing that none of our lives will ever be the same again.
tisiphone, there were planes sent to YK. Perhaps not the one in question, but they showed a 777 widebody on the news last night, at the YK airport. Not to mention that my dad was there.
Sorry Ginger. I did know that all us Northerners had flights, and Yellowknife participated just as much as anyone else did.
But the one actively suspected of being under hijack landed here, not Yellowknife. Just trying to correct some misinformation, y’know. Sorry if it came across wrong.
He was just on again a little while ago. The woman interviewing him, and he remained as clueless as last night, really made him look like a moron. He insisted that there was no evidence that the perpetrators were Muslims (although he did say, for just a little hope of his redemption, that such an attack was against the tenets of Islam), and that this is only some media tool to incite people against Muslims. He was asked if it’s proven that bin Laden was behind the attack and Afghanistan continued to give him refuge, would they not make themselves a valid taget? He asked if it would be ok if bin Laden were in Birmingham instead. Yeah, man, that’s a deep question. Like, how those awful Brits are so well known for willfully harboring known international terrorists and act proud of it. Yeah, man, groovy. Pass the bong!
Earlier today, I went on random ICQ chat, I usually don’t get or really welcome unsolicited messages (I am not female, and just have my name and hometown on the profile). Anyway a French girl and an Italian guy from Napoli, seeing my city on my profile, knew that I was in America, and was actually worried and genuinely concerned about me, saying they were sorry, and so on.
It was strange because while I feel terrible about it all, I am far away from New York and Washington, so I feel strange about accepting condolences that should go to other people. But I don’t think there has been this much genuine international solidarity since the WWII era.
Well, I went to the US consulate yesterday. There is a florist across the road, just up from the base of the Peak Tram. Unfortunately, the place was surrounded by Hong Kong tabloid paparazzi, taking photos of every Westerner in the area. I didn’t feel like being a wanker and giving them a photo op, so I’ll drop my flowers off at some stage today.
The consulate was closed, with a walking patrol of local policemen, and the rear entrance is behind a police barricade.
The South China Morning Post reports today that thousands of American tourists are stranded here at the moment, unable to get home because of the no flights restrictions imposed by the FAA.
I have a friend who works in Manhattan as a merchant banker, a fellow Aussie who likes to go to Yankees games, get drunk and smooch local NYC girls. No one has heard from him yet, as far as I know.
I saw that guy yesterday, and I got so mad I had to quit watching. He said something like “perhaps this will foster a dialogue and constructive debate on the errors of the Americans’ ways.”
By God, yes!!! As I watch the buildings burning, as I hear of people going from hospital to hospital desperately seeking loved ones who are not there and may never be recovered, I think “maybe this act of senseless evil will result in a dialogue.” Because if there’s one sure-fire way to start a constructive debate it’s by killing untold thousands of innocent people, right.
Jesus, what a moron.
My post was in response to SEMP’s post.
That fellow was just on the Beeb again, and I think his name was Anjem Choudry, or something close to that. The woman interviewing him paved a road for him to not sound like a total nut-job of the first degree. He did ok this time, but still is in denial. He did say, though, that if the American response is to bomb an Islamic country that that would be a mistake. I tend to agree with him, but for different reasons. I think, technically, any non-Muslim on the Arabian peninsula is an afront to Islam, and he mentioned something about American presence on Islamic territory. I’m sorry, and I don’t mean to sound like an ugly American, but that is the most Medieval thing about Islam. This is the 21st Century, not the 11th. If this situation is really going to lead to change for the better for the whole world, it’s about time Muslims acknowledged that all men and women are brothers, be they believers or not. If I want the cultural experience of visiting Mecca or Medina, what’s the harm?
Damn, I just got a bit off topic there, didn’t I? Oh well, these are interesting days indeed.
From the CNN website today:
An appropriate way of dealing with this: “as if it were an attack on themselves.”
This is not only an attack on the US, but an attack on a NATO ally, and on Western principles, freedoms and values.
From this report in The Sydney Morning Herald:
I suppose the guy in the airplane who called out on his cell phone before the plane crashed was lying when he said the terrorists looked to be of Middle-Eastern origin?
The Dutch government also declared that they would supply the USA any possible military (in addition to humanitarian) aid, even before the NATO statement was issued.
The attacks may have hit the US, but they affect us all. Whomever is responsible for this attacked the very concept of freedom itself.
(If that is poorly worded, I apologise… of course, I’m safe in Amsterdam here, and not nearly as affected as e.g. someone whose husband or wife may have been in the NY WTC… but you guys know what I’m saying, right?)