I M 9/11 - 5 Years Later

Like millions of people all over the I saw the unthinkable horror of Nine-Eleven live on tv; the first tower was burning and then the second plane crashing into the WTC.

Now it's 5 years later and it still is in our minds, not only because what happened that day, but also because it was an introduction to years of more terror, wars, governments deceiving the people. Citizens of the free world are more and more restricted in their freedom and checked for suspicious behauvior for 'security reasons', so the islam fundamentalists who envie our freedom can be satisfied.
The press in the western world, specially in the US, was limited in it's search for objective information and got false information from governments. By saying "Either you're with us or you're against us" president G.W. Bush suggested that any critizism on his policy was suspicious.
And most of the US media were (more than) willing to comply with this rule.

These days you can read and watch many articles and documentaries about 9/11, about how it happened, what went wrong, conspiracy theories and the aftermath.
Here are some links to information and comments:

The 9/11 Commision Report
The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, an educational comic strip version of the report
There was also a Spiderman and Superman 9/11 comic and Art Spiegelman's "In The shadow Of No Towers".

Joel Meyerowitz published a book, "Aftermath", with photo's of Ground Zero. In 9 months he made about 8.500 photo's of the scene. On the 5th of September he had took a picture of the Twin Towers in all their glory, from his loft-window in Manhattan.

911 Digital archive, a collection of personal stories, pictures, drawings expressing feelings and comments on 9/11.

The Memory Hole, a site with recordings of conversations of airtraffic-controllers, policemen, firefighters in the World Trade Center, radio, reports and articles.

Mobile photos

Now I don't have a normal internet connection anymore (only through my mobile phone or at the public library) I have to explore new ways to post new items to my weblogs.

One way is to use a mobile phone, with a camera built-in, and that's what I started to do recently. I've send cameraphone pictures to my photo site at Flickr and I have setup a new site at Msn Space (bilingual, English & Dutch) where I send them to also.

New Orleans - The Aftermath

Months after Katrina hit New Orleans, people are trying to rescue their homes from total destruction, by the authorities if they are 50% or more damaged.

Lots of N.O. residents still forced to live temporary elsewhere.
But the Mardi Gras was celebrated anyway, although it was a "bitter sweet" one, said the Mayor.

The Dutch connection

Civil engineers of the Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch authority on waterways and the protection of them, were invited to the US to advise on the subject of the protection of New Orleans and a delegation from Louisiana visited the socalled "Delta Works", the system of protection against flooding of the Netherlands, built after the catastrophic flooding in 1953.
Dutch architects made designs for rebuilding New Orleans

More links about New Orleans after Katrina:

Metroblogging New Orleans N.O. flickr group (photo collection)

The World In Pictures

Still without internet connection at home (entering this post at the public library) I find some interesting links in magazines and newspapers occasionally.
Like this website that show the world's hot news in a collection of pictures.

At this date it goes back to 2004 (click on 'History') and you can choose a photo collection by clicking on one of the words from the list on the right.

Interesting concept.

More pictures that showed what was going on in the world can be found at World Press Photo, which has a yearly contest for professional photographers and recently choose a new selection of meaningful photos

Disconnected

Hello dear visitor, thanks for dropping by. I haven't been able to update my blog lately.
Since 3 days I'm without internet-connection and before that I only had a connection through dialup. I hope to have a dsl-connection again soon.
In the Netherlands where I live you need a phoneline connected by the former state-owned phonecompany who had a monopoly for a long time, to get a dsl-connection, in most cases.
Recently ther are more offers that can do without the phoneline, but not many companies have a network that covers the whole country.
As a web-addict I miss the daily browsing, listening to podcasts online, or downloading them, working on my websites, chatting with friends.
And of course I'm missing some of the hype and buzz going on on the web.

I hope to be able to post some more interesting news here soon, so don't forget to come back now and then!

Hurricane Katrina blogging

Quickly after the hurricane Katrina disaster bloggers started posting messages and photos to the web and special web-pages were set-up for exchanging information.
People who live or happen to be in the disaster-area tell first-hand stories, show photos of the scene, or give practical information like maps, lists of survivors.

Metroblogging New Orleans

A list of where people are and how to contact them

The Hurricane Katrina photo pool (flickr)

Hurricane Katrina disaster

After hurricane Katrina another disaster struck the south of the US: inaction and incompetence of the authorities.

FEMA, the federal emergency agency is doing press-conferences while people are dying, governors keep saying military troops are send in for rescue operations and to restore order,
so where are these troops hiding? Thugs are ruling the city with weapons they looted from the supermarket, a New Orleans police office had to protect itself against them with snipers, 20 percent of police officers didn't show up for duty in New Orleans. What is this? Some third world country?

Listen to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, fed up with slow response (CNN-webpage), interviewed by WWL Radio

In the meantime thousands of people are still trapped in alarming conditions in hospitals, elderly homes, churches, and dying like animals....And many are still missing.

I'm afraid there's a cynical, racial issue playing a part in this inaction: most of the victims are black and poor.....not very interesting for politicians to care for.....