fredag 11 september 2009

Today we solemnly contemplate..

..the 8 years that have passed since the 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre in New York.
The attack and single event that more than anything in modern times for ever changed the course of history in the world. The event that eventually led to the wars in Irak and Afganistan..the Guantanamo..unbelievable scars in the minds of survivors, families, friends, firemen, hospital staff..
Perhaps the attack and its unprecedented impact also have contributed to tighten the world´s consciousness of the importance of keeping and increasing the levels of democracy. 
Today, on Swedish newscasts -all channels- people are recollecting where they were and what they were doing exactly the moment when they heard of the planes crasing into the twin towers. You will remember this very moment all your life as the older generation remembers what they did when they heard about the killing of Kennedy in Dallas, or how my great granddad probably remembered the two bullets fired on a Sarajevo
street on a sunny June morning in 1914 set in motion a series of events that shaped the world we live in today. World War One, World War Two, the Cold War and its conclusion all trace their origins to the gunshots that interrupted that summer day.

Today, 8 years after 9/11 is a day for reflections.