I REMEMBER…STANDING ON THE ROOFTOP OBSERVATORY OF THE FORMER WORLD TRADE CENTER
… THE SIGHT OF WHICH DISAPPEARED IN THE MORNING OF 11 SEPTEMBER, 2001.
By Mansor Puteh
…AND WHAT ACTUALLY CAUSED IT TO HAPPEN?
IT WAS A SIGHT I WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE SEEN…STANDING PERCHED ON THE ROOFTOP OBSERVATORY OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER OR THE TWIN TOWERS, ON THE SOUTH TOWER AND ABOVE THE 110 FLOORS FROM ABOVE GROUND.
NOT A SOUL COULD BE SEEN BELOW IN THE STREETS AND VEHICLES PLYING THE STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY WERE LIKE ANTS.
All that you can think of then was to think of nothing and marvel at such a sight and to try and remember what sort of a person who could get the chance to be held so high in the sky towering above all the other buildings in it.
The Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan seemed to be history. It looked diminutive.
The rooftop observatory of the former Twin Towers offered a better view of the city from the south of Manhattan Island including its surrounding area.
But it was a sight and experience I had always wanted to skip visiting the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan for as long as possible through the three years I lived in the city.
I kept telling myself, ‘Next time…next time…I’ll take a trip to the Twin Towers and go to the observatory. Next time…’
Now with the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan gone, one can only stare at the blank space where the towers once stood and on the site which is now called Ground Zero, are a huge hole where the underground structures of the towers once were, where an underground car park and few other floors of shops and stores once were.
One can only watch from this view upwards at the vacant space and stare at the sky and clouds and imagine how nine years ago, there were the towers.
Now they are gone in a puff of smoke of sand and dust created by high impact from two commercial airplanes which ploughed into it one by one early in the morning of 11 September, 2001.
It is not a scene from a disaster movie created by Hollywood studios, although their creative writers and directors would have wanted to see the same towers disappear in such a fashion.
But alas, international political realities and some men had overtaken them by creating something more macabre and true. It is not fiction but reality.
Hollywood had demolished to smithereens the White House, where their presidents reside. They American and international audiences were thrilled at the sight of the House disappearing in a pile of smoke.
It is reminiscence of what happened to the Twin Towers much later.
Being a resident of this city, one does not normally want to show how excited with this world famous building and the others including the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island.
Only those who live in other cities and states in America would want to flock to go to these places that can give them the impression that they had indeed been to the city although the theater practitioners like to say till today that ‘if you have not been to Broadway, you have not arrived in the city’.
My friends from Malaysia who paid us a visit already had their list of places laces they wanted to visit and at the very top of the list are these buildings. Some had the Empire State Building then the World Trade Center because it is centrally located and in Midtown Manhattan and not too far away from the Grand Central or Times Square.
So after taking a walk in the square to shop for cheap souvenirs, they go to the Empire State Building. And may be if they are not tired they would go to the World Trade Center and then to the Statue of Liberty.
I was lucky to have got some Malaysian friends who were studying at various universities in Boston and other cities who paid us a visit. They were the ones who were responsible for me to show them the World Trade Center which I had not visited in the summer before.
And that turned to be the second and last visit I made to the Twin Towers. And being in summer, we were able to go to the rooftop observatory to view the whole city which stretched as far as the eye could see.
The first time I was there was in winter when the rooftop observatory was closed. They authorities thought it was very dangerous to allow anyone to go to the rooftop because of the strong winds.
So we had to be contented to stay at the observatory on the 110th floor and look at the scenery around the city through the thin mist that had enveloped it.
If it’s true that a small group of Arab Muslims who were said to be responsible for the carnage they created on the twin towers, then the question that begs an immediate answer is why did they have to waste their time, lives and energies to do so?
Was it so thrilling to them to do that?
There must be a reason good enough for them to be forced to do such a thing, and it has got to do with the foreign policies of America and what carnage that the country’s military might had caused many Muslim countries which could ill afford to retaliate.
One by one an Arab and Muslim country had been subjugated, destroyed and their wealth plundered.
Didn’t those Americans who were incensed by what had happened to their twin towers realize this?
They are in a state of denial. And America is also in a state of denial.
The longer they remain so, they are not able to find out what had caused their twin towers to collapse.
The Muslim World’s only hope is for Iran to go full nuclear so that it can become a strong deterrent to future American aggression.
In fact, even now, America has found it difficult to deal with Iran in such a nuclear-threatening state with the Zionist state feeling aghast at the recent development in Iran.
If Iran had not pursued a nuclear program, chances are the country would have been attacked by American and allied forces with the leadership and guidance of the Zionist state.
So Iran can be said to be a country in the Middle East and the Gulf Region that has provided the other countries in these regions stability which they could not have otherwise enjoyed.
By Mansor Puteh
…AND WHAT ACTUALLY CAUSED IT TO HAPPEN?
IT WAS A SIGHT I WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE SEEN…STANDING PERCHED ON THE ROOFTOP OBSERVATORY OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER OR THE TWIN TOWERS, ON THE SOUTH TOWER AND ABOVE THE 110 FLOORS FROM ABOVE GROUND.
NOT A SOUL COULD BE SEEN BELOW IN THE STREETS AND VEHICLES PLYING THE STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY WERE LIKE ANTS.
All that you can think of then was to think of nothing and marvel at such a sight and to try and remember what sort of a person who could get the chance to be held so high in the sky towering above all the other buildings in it.
The Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan seemed to be history. It looked diminutive.
The rooftop observatory of the former Twin Towers offered a better view of the city from the south of Manhattan Island including its surrounding area.
But it was a sight and experience I had always wanted to skip visiting the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan for as long as possible through the three years I lived in the city.
I kept telling myself, ‘Next time…next time…I’ll take a trip to the Twin Towers and go to the observatory. Next time…’
Now with the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan gone, one can only stare at the blank space where the towers once stood and on the site which is now called Ground Zero, are a huge hole where the underground structures of the towers once were, where an underground car park and few other floors of shops and stores once were.
One can only watch from this view upwards at the vacant space and stare at the sky and clouds and imagine how nine years ago, there were the towers.
Now they are gone in a puff of smoke of sand and dust created by high impact from two commercial airplanes which ploughed into it one by one early in the morning of 11 September, 2001.
It is not a scene from a disaster movie created by Hollywood studios, although their creative writers and directors would have wanted to see the same towers disappear in such a fashion.
But alas, international political realities and some men had overtaken them by creating something more macabre and true. It is not fiction but reality.
Hollywood had demolished to smithereens the White House, where their presidents reside. They American and international audiences were thrilled at the sight of the House disappearing in a pile of smoke.
It is reminiscence of what happened to the Twin Towers much later.
Being a resident of this city, one does not normally want to show how excited with this world famous building and the others including the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island.
Only those who live in other cities and states in America would want to flock to go to these places that can give them the impression that they had indeed been to the city although the theater practitioners like to say till today that ‘if you have not been to Broadway, you have not arrived in the city’.
My friends from Malaysia who paid us a visit already had their list of places laces they wanted to visit and at the very top of the list are these buildings. Some had the Empire State Building then the World Trade Center because it is centrally located and in Midtown Manhattan and not too far away from the Grand Central or Times Square.
So after taking a walk in the square to shop for cheap souvenirs, they go to the Empire State Building. And may be if they are not tired they would go to the World Trade Center and then to the Statue of Liberty.
I was lucky to have got some Malaysian friends who were studying at various universities in Boston and other cities who paid us a visit. They were the ones who were responsible for me to show them the World Trade Center which I had not visited in the summer before.
And that turned to be the second and last visit I made to the Twin Towers. And being in summer, we were able to go to the rooftop observatory to view the whole city which stretched as far as the eye could see.
The first time I was there was in winter when the rooftop observatory was closed. They authorities thought it was very dangerous to allow anyone to go to the rooftop because of the strong winds.
So we had to be contented to stay at the observatory on the 110th floor and look at the scenery around the city through the thin mist that had enveloped it.
If it’s true that a small group of Arab Muslims who were said to be responsible for the carnage they created on the twin towers, then the question that begs an immediate answer is why did they have to waste their time, lives and energies to do so?
Was it so thrilling to them to do that?
There must be a reason good enough for them to be forced to do such a thing, and it has got to do with the foreign policies of America and what carnage that the country’s military might had caused many Muslim countries which could ill afford to retaliate.
One by one an Arab and Muslim country had been subjugated, destroyed and their wealth plundered.
Didn’t those Americans who were incensed by what had happened to their twin towers realize this?
They are in a state of denial. And America is also in a state of denial.
The longer they remain so, they are not able to find out what had caused their twin towers to collapse.
The Muslim World’s only hope is for Iran to go full nuclear so that it can become a strong deterrent to future American aggression.
In fact, even now, America has found it difficult to deal with Iran in such a nuclear-threatening state with the Zionist state feeling aghast at the recent development in Iran.
If Iran had not pursued a nuclear program, chances are the country would have been attacked by American and allied forces with the leadership and guidance of the Zionist state.
So Iran can be said to be a country in the Middle East and the Gulf Region that has provided the other countries in these regions stability which they could not have otherwise enjoyed.
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