9/11 and its aftermath

 

Twenty years ago, I struggled to absorb the images of fire and smoke wafting from the World Trade Center.

I turned the TV on when the second plane was ready to hit the tower.  I thought it was a movie.

When I later saw the beams twisted and in rubble, it was eerie, very eerie!

It is still hard to process what happened but the melancholy and pain of that day have been replaced by hope as we see the One World Trade Center tower and adjacent buildings in lower Manhattan.

So, what has happened in the interim?  The masterminds behind the attack are incarcerated, and Osama bin Laden was killed.  The Taliban that provided a safe haven to OBL were overthrown but they are again back in charge.  Nearly 3000 people lost their lives in that horrible day and thousand upon thousand more in the wars that followed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and other Arab countries.  And the wars ended but the pain and confusion still persist for millions of people. 

The story America told itself in the aftermath was one of resilience but the grief is still alive in our hearts and tears are rushing down when the brutal events of that day and those that followed come to our minds.

Migrants

A young migrant woman from Syria plays the piano in Idomeni a small town in northern Greece while the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei and other NGO volunteers protect her from the torrential rain. 

Most of the migrants were loaded in inflatable boats by traffickers and made the crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands such as Lesvos.  

Over 800,000 refugees have come via the Aegean from Turkey.

Before moving to Idomeni several thousands spent most of the summer in little tents under the blazing summer sun.  Kids oblivious to the difficulties ahead play soccer in the migrant camp in the port of Piraeus in Greece. 

Few volunteer doctors, I was one of them, provided most basic health care in a Red Cross trailer.

A good number of them walked the distance of 500 plus kilometers from the port of Piraeus to the northern border of Greece.  Their hope was to reach countries in central or northern Europe.   

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency some 1,000,573 people had reached Europe across the Mediterranean, mainly thru Greece and Italy, in 2015. Of these, 3,735 were missing, believed drowned.  Although a lot has been accomplished much more needs to be done. It is important for all to recognize that throughout history refugees and migrants not only accept local culture but also contribute to the societies that host them.