11 September 2007

9/11

"September 11th, the day that changed the world", such was the name of a documentary that one could see on TV tonight. I believe it's true. EVERYONE on this planet knows what he was doing on september 11th in 2001. As far as I am concerned, I was a trainee at SFR (Vodafone France) as a market manager assistant, it was a part of my studies then. Anyway, the job was in La Défense, Paris' business center (like the City in London) in one of the closest tower to the Arch of La Défense. I was working on the 24th floor and remember receiving a mail from a friend who was then in the US, it was around 14 or 15 pm and it took a while before we understood what was happening. My friend and then roomate Melanie was scared that it could happen in Paris too, but I believed that London would be first if something had to happen outside the States... The whole area was evacuated and we went home. By the time we were finally outside and on the way to take the subway, the people who were working in the lower floors must have been home since at least an hour to an hour and a half... After that, tension cooled down, we practice the evacuation in the following weeks and everything slowly started to go back to normal...

Then, two years later, another mail from another friend, in Sweden this time... On the 11th of September, Anna Lindh was murdered in Stockholm while doing her shopping. Anna Lindh was Minister for Foreign Affairs in Göran Persson's government at the time and was a very appreciated political person. In spite of her high position, she never had a bodyguard with her and on that day, she was shopping at NK, a big department store in the center of Stockholm when she was suddenly stabbed. A man was later arrested, it seems that he was suffering from psycholigical disorders. I was in France at the time, a year after my first stay in Sweden, but I had already been caught by my current country of adoption and I remember feeling a huge sadness. I feel sad for the Swedes, really sad. It was the second time one of their beloved politician was assassinated in the streets of Stockholm after Olof Palme, their Prime Minister, on the 28th of February 1986.

Luckily we won't remember everything that we did on those sad days. Let's hope 9/11 will be the one time that will be enough to remember that these things can happen and that we need to feel for the people who lost someone close.

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