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I have been doing a lot of reflecting these days about the state of the world and more specifically the days post 9-11. It has been 8 years and where are we today? As a nation as a people, and of course personally? How has this changed me? Have done something better with my life? Have I improved the world in some small way? What did I learn from this? These are questions I think we all should ask ourselves, and answer them honestly. If we want the world to be a better place we need to ask some tough questions and be prepared for some tougher answers.
Iwas in Singapore on 9-11 2001. I had been there a week. I was working on the construction of a new ship in the Keppel shipyard. It was a terrifying experience, being outside of your country during somethng like that, surrounded by people who beleieved that what happened was justly desreved. The shipyard employed a lot of people from pakistan, Afganastan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. a great portion of them were muslims. there were about 30 of us Americans in a yard with thousands of these people living in less than habitable conditions. All eyes were on us. what would we do? How would we react? We held our heads up high and kept our eyes open. The Singaporeans were amazing and at every turn showed that they were very supportive of us as americans and as people. the memorial service they held for us was tremendous.
Despite the added security for us and the sympathy of the locals we could not help being a little paranoid. even after a month the fear was still there. The ship was completed without any drama,and we had gotten to know a lot of the afgan people and the Pakistanis as well and realized that they were just as nervous about us as we were of them. from this came understanding and respect. I think that I have personally looked at every place I go now through different eyes, respectful, and trying to be more understanding of the things that I am not familiar with or do not quite understand. I also try to educate myself about the people,place and customs of the area I am in.
