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| [Nettime-bold] Now Europe Digest: A Day of Mourning |
N O W E U R O P E D I G E S T
Europe's Online Business Forum
<http://nowEurope.com>
................................
List Moderator: Steven Carlson
<mailto:steve@noweurope.com>
................................
Issue for: Fri, Sep 14, 2001
................................
// FOREWORD //
A Day of Mourning
~Steven Carlson
// FEATURED POST //
Internet in Time of War
~Dana Blankenhorn
// CONTINUING DISCUSSIONS //
NYC, DC ... Europe?
~Rick Bruner
~Gabor Diossy
~Margaret Schroeder
~Hugo De Stoop
~Antonio Morlacchi
~Marilyn Scott-Waters
// FOREWORD //
From: Steven Carlson <steve@noweurope.com>
Subject: A Day of Mourning
Friends,
The past few days have been traumatic. Many of us are obsessively
following the news on TV and the Net, trying to absorb it all.
It's like nothing else is happening in the world, and in one
sense that's true.
It's now clear that September 11 was not just an American
tragedy. On the news last night, we saw counts of the missing and
dead from countries around the world. New York is more than just
a US city, it's also the financial capital of the world, with a
trading volume greater than London, Frankfurt and Tokyo combined.
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the most powerful military
force on the planet, and for the first time in history NATO has
invoked article five, which means the other 18 member nations now
view this as an attack on their soil.
The world stands still as we struggle for an adequate response.
Today is a national day of mourning in the United States, and the
EU held three minutes of silence at 12.00 CET urging citizens of
its member states to take part in a moment of unity and mourning.
Sometimes pictures speak louder than words. This page links to
several good graphic and flash presentations about Sept 11:
<http://www.nixlog.com/infographics>
It's heartening to see an outpouring of goodwill taking place.
We've seen many small acts of kindness, from volunteers on the
streets of Manhattan, to websites set up to help people locate
their missing family and friends:
Gesture of help ripples out over the Net
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2812198,00.html>
Many of you have sent in thoughts and reflections about this
tragedy, many of which I've published in today's nowEurope
digest. I got a LOT of mail on the topic, so I choose to publish
just a selection of those messages, and I've even edited a few
for length.
I'd now like to return to our normal discussion (if that's even
possible). It's not clear what all the consequences of this event
will be, but it's clear that our world will be different.
Some questions are already being decided. Unfortunately, law
enforcement now has a powerful argument against Internet privacy:
FBI steps up net surveillance, following terror attack
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/57/21626.html>
ISPs aid FBI in terrorist search
<http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7141812.html>
This event will have far-reaching consequences.
Steven Carlson
nowEurope moderator
// FEATURED POST //
From: Dana Blankenhorn <dana@a-clue.com>
Subject: Internet in Time of War
Many important Internet issues were settled on September 11,
2001.
Ipv6 will mandate identification and authentication of all users.
Project Carnivore will go ahead, at an accelerated pace. Debates
about privacy vs. security are over, and security will win all of
them (for a time) - even if that means your online liberties
disappear. Even if that means the Internet as we knew it is
destroyed.
I spent the day in desultory interviews with executives from
Internet security companies. They all foresaw a day where all
traffic is encrypted. Massive efforts will now begin to prevent
that. All encrypted traffic is suspicious, and will be, for some
time to come.
But for business the Internet is more vital than ever. It will be
months before air travel becomes anything like routine - we have
to learn new routines. So Internet conferencing of all types -
text, IM, e-mail, video and audio - will suddenly become
commonplace.
Markets will open more quickly than we think possible, because of
the Internet. The NASDAQ will open first. A decentralized,
networked marketplace isn't as easy to destroy as the terrorists
thought. The markets will open (through tears) because keeping
them closed gives evil a victory.
Reality is filled with shades of gray, but those shades are lost
in time of war. This is war time. I'm a fan of the movies of the
1940s, filled with the wildest flag-waving propaganda, and the
cause was just. But that was followed immediately by another
conflict, the Cold War, where those same feelings of
black-and-white gave us McCarthyism, and then Vietnam.
There is no good war in front of us, and no easy enemy. So we
face only the specter of McCarthyism, the dehumanization of the
other which was itself just steps removed from the horrors of
Hitler and Stalin and Tojo. Many of those who counsel peace or
patience may face hatred instead. It is hard to maintain
rationality, to be a grown-up, in these times, but we must do
that.
Dana Blankenhorn
http://a-clue.com
// CONTINUING DISCUSSIONS //
From: Rick Bruner <rick@bruner.net>
Subject: NYC, DC ... Europe?
I'm glad to say we're "okay" -- physically, anyway. The phone has
been ringing a lot, so I thought I'd let everyone outside NY who
knows us know not to worry for our sake.
I have to say, I'm not well, really, emotionally. Both Adrienne
and I are walking around like zombies. I woke up this morning,
after going to be early, and for a second felt well-rested and
pleased till I remembered the WTC was gone. I'm sure you all have
friends in NY and personal impressions of the place and that
people feel this tragedy strongly all over the world, but it does
feel particularly weird living through this from on Manhattan. I
thought you might be interested in some of my impressions, or
more to the point, I feel the need to write about it.
It's still completely surreal in Manhattan. I actually haven't
ventured out too much, just for a couple of hours yesterday to
midtown (we recently moved to Harlem, so the actual disaster zone
is almost 10 miles south). Yesterday, most businesses were shut
along Broadway all the way up into the Upper West Side, and
traffic was very sparse. I rode my bike down along the Hudson
River bike path (new in the last year), and a few hundred people
were walking up from downtown all the way above 100th street. A
few hundred people were out along a pedestrian peer staring
silently downtown at the white clouds of smoke steadily filling
the sky.
The absence of the buildings is striking, in a sense exactly
because it's not striking. You look downtown from a peer at 65th
Street and try to picture exactly where they were, how high from
that vantage point, and its hard, because they were the very
landmark you depended on to orient yourself to the skyline. Its
almost dizzying. It doesn't look like New York City anymore. As
some on the peer said, it just looks like a dirty city with a lot
of small buildings. Adrienne commented that she wouldn't be able
to find her direction downtown anymore, as we're all accustomed
to looking down the avenues for them to confirm which was south.
The human tragedy is impossible to comprehend. Everyone's waiting
for a number of casualties, and I'm getting a sick sense it may
be more like 10,000 than 2,000. Who knows. As far as we know,
none of our close friends or associates are missing, but we're
bracing ourselves to start hearing of people we know, friends and
relatives of friends, and so on. I can foresee that for years,
we'll meet people at cocktail parties who tell for the thousandth
time the story of escaping from the 87th floor, or those whose
loved ones weren't so lucky. Adrienne works temping at Credit
Suisse First Boston, and it seems sure that many of her banking
associates will know people there.
Even cooped up in the apartment in Harlem, it's inescapable the
sound of sirens and the non-stop TV coverage. I don't know how it
is in the rest of the country, but for the second day, every
major network and local channel has aired nothing but
uninterrupted news. None has broken for a commercial yet. Its
numbing. I'm sure it's more than you're getting in the rest of
the country, or at least more personal, as almost half of what
they're broadcasting is emergency numbers, blood donation
centers, shelter addresses, school and business closings, traffic
information and so on. I tried to buy an NY Times this morning,
but they were all sold out by the early morning hours. I'm going
to go later to the NY Times headquarters to see if I can get one,
partly for posterity.
I was, in fact, planning to be at 40 Wall St. yesterday morning.
When I do so (an office I go to with some frequency in recent
months), I bicycle right by the WTC. Thank God I'm lazy, so I
suggested to my associate 11am so I could sleep late. By the time
I was up, the buildings were on fire. I watched live on TV as
both collapsed. I'll never forget that as long as I live. The TV
announcer and I were simultaneous trying to make sense of what we
were seeing in this cloud of dust, them just as disbelieving and
speechless as I was. That split second when the first one fell
changed everything. Until then, it was "just" a terrible tragedy
and incredible terrorist attack, but to witness those iconic
buildings disintegrating was something beyond comprehension, and
still is. A close friend watched them both go from his East
Village rooftop.
Strangers on the street yearn to talk to each other, but no one
knows what to say, so we avoid eye contact more than ever. Yet no
one can talk about anything else. I walked yesterday behind a
Jewish guy explaining to a black couple about the 6-Day War, and
in front of my building a bunch of Hispanic kids were discussing
the Camp David Peace Accord.
It's going to be weeks or months before any sense of "normalcy"
returns to the city. It's already had an immediate impact on both
Adi and my work, as her bank work has been suspended for at least
the next few days (she works on 23rd St., but the industry is
just so shaken), and I don't dare follow up on any of my pending
freelance business proposals right now, as it's just not the time
to be doing business here yet.
Frankly, I'm quite worried about what the impact of this whole
thing will be on the economy, something I've heard virtually no
discussion about so far on TV or radio. I really wonder how much
the US economy depended on the very people killed and
infrastructure destroyed. Morgan Stanley alone must have suffered
a significant portion of its work force killed, as it took up
many floors of the towers. Not to mention the fact that the
entire Financial District is going to be closed for business for
at least a week or two while they cordon it off to clean up the
debris.
Anyway, I'm far from the only one in the world stunned by this
drama, so I won't go on. God help us all.
Peace and love,
Rick
-----------------------> next message <-----------------------
From: Gabor Diossy <gdiossy@graphisoft.hu>
Subject: NYC, DC ... Europe?
Hi Steve,
Thanks a lot for your e-mail. I think that the attack was not
against America or New York, but against all freedom loving
people. Therefore it is quite natural that not only the US but
all NATO members (and possibly non-NATO member democracies)
should be ready to stand up against such barbarism together. Yes,
we in Hungary can also be in danger. But the most dangerous thing
would be to let the fanatic murderous scum overcome.
Regards,
Gabor Diossy
-----------------------> next message <-----------------------
From: Margaret Schroeder <schroeder@singsing.East.Sun.COM>
Subject: NYC, DC ... Europe?
Steven,
The Boston area is also struggling with much loss as 2 of the
planes originated here. My colleagues, neighbors and relatives of
friends were lost in the tragedy.
It scares me when I see the words "war" attached to the country
of Hungary. My mother was in a concentration camp on the
Hungarian/ Yugoslav border during World War II. We can't
allow the horror of those times to happen again. My mother still
lives with the terror and loss over 50 years later.
E-mail across countries and cultures, while a simple thing to do,
helps foster the kinds of communication and relationships that
will help us unite outside our nationalistic boundaries and
develop foster a global community. Keep up the dialogue for the
sake of those we have lost and for those we don't want to lose.
Best Regards,
Margaret
Sun Centers Business Strategy
-----------------------> next message <-----------------------
From: Hugo De Stoop <hugo@firsttuesday.com>
Subject: NYC, DC ... Europe?
In order to participate to this forum I would like to post an
article written by a Canadian journalist. Not everything is
accurate but it is worth sharing Pass it on...
[Moderator notes: This text has been widely circulated in recent
days, and you might be surprised to know, it actually dates from
1973. You'll find the link, below.]
Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a
remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a
Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of
his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:
"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as
the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on
all the earth.
"Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were
lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in
billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of
these countries is today paying even the interest on its
remaining debts to the United States.
"When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the
Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted
and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
"When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that
hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were
flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.
"The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of
dollars! into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those
countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans."
<snip>
"Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is
damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come
out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they
are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating
over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."
Stand proud, America!"
<http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/ccf/news/unique/am_text.html>
-----------------------> next message <-----------------------
From: Antonio Morlacchi <font@mclink.it>
Subject: NYC, DC ... Europe?
I read with great interest your reports but I never participated
before. However, on this unbelievable moment writing is urging to
me, as I need to express my solidarity to any American. Maybe I
need to hear from smart people that I'm not alone, we're not
alone in facing new and unexpected forms of barbarity where human
life has no value at all, starting from the attackers' ones.
Unfortunately I have just questions, not answers.
We must struggle today in the right way and I don't know what
this "right" way is, but then we must start thinking at the world
and how to use money, technologies, skills to create a better
world for all of mankind, not just the 20% controlling the
80% of the world's wealth. Can you imagine what could happens if
such an attack like the Manhattan one would be driven tomorrow
against one of the old and unsafe Russian nuclear plants?
kind regards,
Antonio Morlacchi
Milan, Italy
-----------------------> next message <-----------------------
From: Marilyn Scott-Waters <scottwaters@mediaone.net>
Subject: NYC, DC ... Europe?
Hey Steve,
Hello from California. Thanks for the page of links. We are still
trying to make sense of everything here.
One thing that did come out of this tragedy is that technology
was our friend in a time of crisis. I have several friends that
live in DC and was able to get emails saying that they were okay.
It was a relief.
We are all sad, I find that the men tend to be angry and the
women tend to be scared. Just a generalization. I have a friend
who had long surfer hair that just got a buzz cut in response to
the attack. He didn't want to look like a hippie. sigh...
Best thoughts, Marilyn.
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