September 24, 2001

Yes, I’ve been silent for a long time … It’s partly been due to a desire to let things heal and settle down and partly because I wasn’t sure that I wasn’t doing more harm than good with my rants with the current emotional climate – at least in the US. But I’ve heard from several people (including Kurt Rosencrants who was personally affected by the tragedy at the WTC and yet hasn’t descended to hatred like so many of those around us) and I have realized that I do need to keep on saying what I feel in the hope that I might be able to make a difference in some small measure in these troubled times.

I had planned to write something about healing and rebuilding instead of my usual rants last Monday or Tuesday but then I heard on the radio that there was a list of songs that at least some of the radio stations had been asked to refrain from playing. This list includes songs like John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Elton John’s “Rocket Man”! This put me in the mood for a rant and I decided not to post at all that day but I feel I should speak about it now – what the heck are we trying to do? Bury our heads in the sand and say that it never happened? Or go into Vietnam-mode and try to change history to make it seem that things happened differently? It was a great catastrophe and many innocents lost their lives due to the stupidity of a few shortsighted individuals – we should remember it and learn what we can from it … not try to bury it all as if it never happened! I don’t know how the people affected by this personally would feel and so can’t say that I speak for them, but personally I think all this sudden scramble to remove WTC references from movies, games etc. is a completely meaningless act!

Speaking of stupidity, let me move onto something a bit less nationally or globally significant … I saw what must be one of the stupidest tech-tricks today :p I was driving to work and I suddenly noticed that there was this woman in the next lane who was turned almost ninety degrees towards the right-hand window while driving. I was curious and looked a bit more and saw that she was reading something and for a few moments I thought that she was reading from a notepad but then it occurred to me that the notepad must be really well lit because I could see the writing on it from my car! I then realized that she was actually looking at a notebook computer while driving … it was an Excel spreadsheet and she was working on it while driving in heavy Monday morning traffic!! Even more scarier, she got on my lane right behind me moments later and I can tell you that I was constantly checking my rear-view mirror till she got on the next lane :p

Tags:
Posted by Fahim at 8:13 am  |  No Comments