That Tuesday five years ago I was at home, propped up on the sofa, dozing in and out of a nap, idly watching CNN those times I was awake. I was feeling under the weather and was blowing my nose into wads of tissue. Sometime around 9 that evening, I turned my head to the left and glanced at the television screen. I heard CNN reporters talking about some plane accidentally flying into the Twin Tower and how it could be due to some disturbance in the aircraft navigation system.
And then I saw the other plane smash into the Twin Towers. Actually I remember it flying gently and just seem to slip into the building. And, orange flames.
Years on, I remember the initial incredulity. The CNN reporters too sounded baffled. A lady newsreader was going on about navigation systems. These ended after there were reports of other incidents, namely at the Pentagon and a field outside Pennsylvannia.
I have friends in New York at the time, those who work in the Foreign Service and I was terrified for them. I have never been to New York, so I had no inkling as to where their location was in relation to the Twin Towers. The hours before we made contact and thankfully hear news of them being okay, in my mind their location could very well be next to the Towers.
Prior to September 11, I felt untouched by the terrorist events of the world. It was something that happened in the news, those bombs and guns and furious IRAs and Jihadists amongst others. Although I lived in London for a few years, and until now I am extra-vigilant of dustbins, after that day terrorism elevated itself onto a different plateau. We now have Muslims willing to pilot aeroplanes into buildings, although perhaps it is to the Japanese that credit should be given for suicide bombings via aeroplane. Those directly and indirectly affected, and travel, will never be the same again.
The world went mad after September 11 and security for the Americans stepped up the same time as suspicions against those who are Muslims were intensified. And vice versa might I add. All around Asia, US embassies in Malaysia, Jakarta, Singapore were on the highest alert and demonstrations against the U.S might abound.
Whatever it is that has been said about my country, what I remember most about the days following 9/11, was that we remained remarkably unaffected by the huge global events that was happening in America, the Middle East and elsewhere. A predominantly Muslim country, we had no demonstrations, no change in how we perceive those from a different religion and our expatriates felt safe.
Outside of Brunei, we have to be careful as our Bins and Bintis and Hajis and Hajahs, and the way we may look, are unfortunately a cause of suspicion at the immigration lines and train and tube stations, at shopping complexes, at school, at universities.
At home though, we just all get along.
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