We have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further — we will realize that humanity is indivisible.New threats make no distinction between races, nations or regions. A new insecurity has entered every mind, regardless of wealth or status. A deeper awareness of the bonds that bind us all — in pain as in prosperity — has gripped young and old.
–Kofi Annan
The 9/11 attacks are considered the biggest massacre in the history of humanity. A thousand people dead in a matter of minutes. And yet most people do not consider this as the only parameter to consider it the biggest massacre in the history. Today as an aftermath of the attack, multi-trillion dollars have been blown into the war against terrorism. It has pushed the world to a brink of complete economic chaos. It has resulted in a kind of victory that the Al-Qaeda and Osama bin
Laden had never planned for.
Though, an economic chaos is not the only major consequence. As Kofi Annan had once stated, it gave the world a common enemy. People now realise that extremists have no boundaries; they can go to any limits to get what they want. And as later events have unfolded, it has been proved. Countries like India and the United States of America have come together to fight this malice. It has improved international relations. Governments have changed policies drastically. The 9/11 attacks for surely have changed the face of the world. However, Mr. Kofi Annan has taken an a very optimistic view to the whole event.
Let me share an anecdote. I was browsing through the internet and I came across a joke. It was about a Muslim mother talking to her friend about her terrorist children. The punchline has the woman sighing, “They blow up so fast”. It is a pitch perfect parody of every mothers lament that children grow up so fast. One day, I was reading an article which said, “Sniff the armpit of America
as the 9/11 decade comes close to an end, and the odour is unmistakably fear”.
Such article over the internet prompted me to read more into the general psyche of people post 9/11. And what I found was undoubtedly a complete contrast of what Mr. Kofi Annan had quoted. Let me share another anecdote at this point. In 2001, after the attacks, a Virgin Atlantic Airways flight travelling from Europe to LA saw an incident. Somewhere over Canada, the attendant noticed a suspicious looking object behind a seat. Immediately the cabin erupted in panic and an emergency
landing took place. The passengers were evacuated and a bomb squad was sent in to analyse this ’suspicious-looking object’. As it turned out, it was just a cell phone!
On the 11th of September, 2001, terrorist did more than just destroy two buildings. They altered the human psyche. And the details are telling. In the years immediately after 2001, American pharmacists reported a 25% increase in the sale of anti-anxiety drugs. The University of Michigan, Ann-Harbour conducted a study in the months immediately following the attacks, on some 1000
odd people and found that 49% of the respondents had their sense of security and safety shaken. And some 60% have difficulty in sleeping. Harvard conducted a similar study which showed that 57% people had taken steps to protect themselves, such as taking precaution in opening mails and avoiding public events.
These figures are certainly shocking in the very least, if not depressing. Such an over-reaction shows just how fearful ordinary people are. There is nothing wrong with feeling fear. Fear is one of the most basic emotions; and in way one of the most important ones. It is like pain. No body likes pain, but is the most important part of a natural alarm system that has ensured human existence and survival for a very long time. But when this fear starts to take over our lives, in a way, starts to control our lives, it throws the world into perpetual disorder and chaos.
To illustrate the severity of this constant psychological fear state, doctors and scientists across The USA have noticed changing blood patterns among people. The vessels close to skin are slowly constricting, so that more blood is available to the large muscles. This is an effect of constant fear, triggering the natural response to run at the sight of fear.
Post 9/11, we constantly hear Indian students being beaten up in foreign countries, being called ’Pakis’. People are getting anxious based on the skin colour. Defence agencies all across the world have started introducing new policies that are bordering paranoia. Some might argue that this paranoia is justified. But terrorists and insurgents are using this paranoia (‘Perception Management and Psychological Warfare’ PSYWAR, as this kind of guerilla warfare is termed) to further aggravate the alienation of the people in terrorism affected areas like India.
Agreed that the general level of anxiety should ease with time. But sparse incidents, as are witnessed all over India through the past years, months and weeks, has further aggravated the anxiety levels in people. Just recently, when Ahmedabad was on a high alert, I remember my parents calling up, anxious that I not go out of campus. The small blasts that we have witnessed all over India, might, to some extent be considered small as compared to the 9/11 attack, but collectively they have a very severe effect. Just recently it was reported in California, a man opened an envelope and a powdery substance spilled out. He alerted the flight attendant. Once the plane lands, FBI rushes in to investigate. The powdery substance turned out to be confetti powder. People are being alienated; governments are imposing more and more ‘unavoidable inconveniences’ in everyday life.
Mr. Kofi Annan shared a very optimistic view of the human nature. When words like Islamophobia are coined, it in no way helps in uniting people against a common faceless enemy. Coincidentally, he himself was quoted as saying, “When the world is compelled to coin a new term to take account of the increasingly widespread bigotry, that is sad and troubling development.”
