Things are pretty grim here in the States. Much of the country and parts
of its its economy are at a standstill. It strikes me that
1. The promised 'millennium' apocalyptic moment did eventually arrive, nine
months later than expected. Anti-globalisation protestors never envisaged
THIS, I would hazard, even if they now have much to talk about
2. The death toll from these incidents will, while small in terms of those
generated by recent natural disasters and wars in developing countries (a
point well worth stressing), irevocably change the world geopolitical order
3. This will be exacerbated if the US response is disproportionate, tit-for-tat,
and poorly executed (in which case, we are all in serious trouble)
4. The terrorist strategy was supremely obvious - David slays Goliath? Allusions
to Pearl Harbour aside, has this ever been tried before? If it has, the
US domestic flight industry is going to have to look very hard at itself.
Many national security advisors are probably going to be fired as well.
5. US psychological resources to deal with risks and disasters of this sort
has been shown to be low - probably a response to having had several decades
of peacetime, which Europe, the Middle East and many other regions have
not enjoyed
6. The 'national security' lobby here will be almost impossible to hold
back. Although the Star Wars program will begin to look like a White Elephant
pretty soon, faced with these sorts of attacks.
7. I doubt the World Trade Center will ever be reborn.
8. Lots of ideas about organic urban environments can now be proven inappropriate.
Chaos, unpredictability, rapid change, and trauma ahead. The developing
world comes to New York.
My sympathies to anybody caught up in this personally.
Simon
Dr Simon Batterbury
Assistant Professor
Department of Geography and Regional Development
The University of Arizona
409 Harvill Building, Box #2
Tucson, AZ 85721-0076, USA
Phone: (520) 626-8054
Fax: (520) 621-2889
http://geog.arizona.edu/~web/faculty.html
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