The Twin Towers

I may be a bit prejudiced, but I think I work in one of the coolest office buildings on the African continent. I never get tired of seeing the Nation Centre, because in a way, its twin towers remind me of a Dr. Seuss illustration.

They're so round, and conical, and in my mind, whimsical. But that description isn't disrespectful, because I'm well aware of the power contained within those structures. The Nation Media Group is the second largest media company in Sub Saharan Africa, thank you very much. Like I've written earlier, compared to some of the other African media houses I've worked with the past few years, being here is like working for the New York Times.

And since I've mentioned New York, I can't NOT mention the fact that I'm remembering where I was 7 years ago today. I was at home, and spent the entire day glued to my television set...literally paralyzed by fear and horror watching the terrorist attacks in New York and DC and a field in Pennsylvania. It was one of my weeks off as a part-timer with NPR, so I was lying in bed watching the Today Show when Katie Couric broke the news about the first plane hitting one of the World Trade Center buildings. I remember thinking some drunken idiot must have flown a light plane into that skyscraper, and hoped the casualties would be minimal.

A few hours later, I was actually shriekiing in fear as I watched the World Trade Center buildings shudder and then collapse like a house of cards. And then there were the pictures of the plane flying into the Pentagon...played over and over and over and over. One part of me wanted to run screaming into the streets...but then I thought, "What if this really IS World War III, and we're being invaded? Maybe I'm safer just staying inside. Or what if the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Fundamentalist Christians are right, and this is Armageddon? Maybe I should just stay put until the Angel of Death comes a'knockin'. I mean, why make it easy for that sickle bearing bastard?"

Anyway, 7 years later, I still can't believe the World Trade Center is gone. I remember taking the elevator up to Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of one of the towers, just a few months before
9/11. The view was absolutely stunning, and of course I vowed to come back and have dinner to see the magnificent night time vista of The Big Apple.

Life goes on. And somehow, though the memories of that painful day will never truly fade, I can actually smile when I realize that 7 years later, I get to see Twin Towers every day, thousands and thousands of miles away from the place where America survived a near mortal blow to its heart.