II. Reading the articles discuss the motivation for and message of the terror acts; the scenes of those events; feelings of victims and on-lookers on the 11th of September 2001.

THE TERRIFYING, THE RIDICULOUS, AND THE ABSURD

Daily life in America, especially Washington DC, these days ranges from the terrifying to the absurd to the ridiculous.

First things first. The city in which I live and its environs, Washington DC, have been consumed with terror over the sniper shootings which have caught the attention of the world. For over a week now, and after 10 shootings, police, along with the FBI are unable to guess either the motives or the whereabouts of the man terrorizing the streets of the metropolitan Washington area.

After the latest shooting, on October 11, the terror which enveloped the city was diluted by the element of the ridiculous the moment the TV channels started a live coverage of the scene. The shooting took place at a gas station located close to a highway, and the police immediately started closing off some exits to trap the sniper and the getaway truck/van. Needless to say, the sniper made an easy escape: All he had to do was turn on the radio and listen as the reporters cited all the exits that were being blocked off and all the major roads where the police were doing checks.

Let us just hope that the local police do a better job of catching this curious product of our civilization than the Bush Jr. administration is doing in catching the products of a different one – Osama and Mullah Omar.

Bush is indignant at those "'who somehow doubted his courage in the face of danger." Once again, he is being ridiculous, for the fact remains that his plane was in no way facing danger, nor was it making any attempt to fly towards it.

In order to become convinced that our president ranges on the brink of the absurd every time he opens his mouth one must simply know how to read.

Fighting Back claims to be a comprehensive historical account of how the war on terrorism transformed the image of Bush as a political lightweight into an international heavyweight. Once again a translation is required: an international bully.

And on a final note of the ridiculous and terrifying, there was an absurd announcement last week from the conscience of the Christian Evangelists and a wonderful American, to borrow an adjective from our president, Rev. Jerry Fallwell. Apparently after extensive reading and deliberation, he had decided and managed to convince the Southern Bible belt that the prophet Mohammad was indeed a terrorist. Luckily for Mohammad, this announcement will not harm his fate, for he ascended to Allah 13 centuries ago and doesn't, unlike some of his followers, have to hide in the caves of Afghanistan.

If we are so lucky, perhaps we too shall soon join him while China is still behaving and before Confucius is proclaimed a suicide bomber.

TOWERING DETERMINATION

‘It would be a tragedy not to rebuild.
It would give the terrorists the victory they seek’

Six months ago Larry Silverstein fulfilled his dream of buying the 99-year lease on the World Trade Centre. In a matter of days after the tragedy struck, he is vowing to reconstruct lower Manhattan.

When Larry Silverstein, the 70-year-old indefatigable veteran of the New-York property scene, clinched the 99-year lease on the World Trade Center in April for a staggering $ 3-22bn, it was he said: “A dream comes true.”

Five days before his bid for the Center had been due, Silverstein was knocked down by a drunken driver and left with a broken pelvis. Undeterred, he summoned staff from Silverstein Properties, his family-owned real estate business, to the hospital and set up office around his bed.

At the time, one of his friends described him as: “The most optimistic man I’ve ever met. It’s grafted into his genetic code.”

He was at home in Manhattan on Tuesday when he learned that the first of the two towers had been hit.

In disbelief, he run down to his office on Fifth Avenue only to witness a scene he could never have imagined in his worst nightmare: a second plane crashing into the other tower. Within minutes both skyscrapers, the ultimate symbols of American business and economic might, crumbled and collapsed.

And yet, within days of the attack, Silverstein has vowed to help rebuild the complex. “It would be a tragedy of tragedies not to rebuild this part of New-York. It would give the terrorist the victory they seek. The city is not dead and cannot be allowed to die. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren.”

‘I HEARD PANIC FROM THE OTHER SIDE
OF OUR FLOOR’

Yesterday morning, I was at my desk on the 48^th floor in our Manhattan office when I heard panic from the other side of our floor. Out of their window, they saw the first tower being hit. Everyone believed it to be a terrible accident, and we were all watching when the second plane hit. Unbelievable.

My first selfish thought was of my boyfriend Jason, who I had left one hour earlier, in our apartment, two blocks from the Would Trade Center. We had moved in on Sunday and he was waiting for our phone to be installed.

Everyone quickly left and was trying to leave the city by the Subway. I decided to go downtown to try and wake Jason and get him out. The Subway was terrible. Women crying everywhere. I was sitting next to a lady who was hysterical. Her daughter was a waitress on the top of the WTC. Nothing could be said.

The train took us about half way downtown, when it abruptly stopped. The subway had been attacked. Everything went crazy as we all tried to scramble out of the train. After about 30 minutes, I finally got out and saw only one tower standing. I started running downtown, as I realized Jason really could be in proper danger. Little did I know quite how close he was to dying.

I was running against all the people, as police were telling us to get uptown. But I thought no one but me knew that he was in the flat. Then, suddenly, my phone rang and it was him. He had borrowed someone’s phone. He was in a state of shock, and when I found him, he was covered in dust and sobbing.

Jason had been sleeping when he heard the first crash. He joined four people who had done the same thing. They watched as burning people were jumping out of the towers. Jason said he counted nine people before he could not look anymore.

Suddenly there was another blast, as the second plane crashed.

He then began to worry about me, wanting me to get out of the 48^th floor of our office. As soon as the explosion ended he ran out of our building to phone me.

But he then heard an almighty crash as the first tower fell. Everyone was screaming and they simply said “RUN”. He looked over his shoulder and just saw whiteness moving toward him. He ran, and hid under a car as the worst of the debris flooded the street.

Then he saw a shop closing its door, and he run inside where he was with a security guard and a journalist.

We had no where to go. Pandemonium was everywhere. Rumours were that it was hijacked. Again we found ourselves running like hell. It proved to be a false alarm-but that continued to happen throughout the day.

We have lived through an extraordinary time. Jason has literally run for his life. Our apartment is most likely devastated, with all our stuff inside. There are no hotels available as many people are in the same situation.

We all know people who are still missing,and nothing can alleviate the pain that causes. There is real anger here. People want action, and that is what is frightening me most.

 

(by Deborah Arden – Jonews, a British consultant,
who watched the disaster unfold in front of her.)

 

III. Read the article. Discuss its headline and account for the stylistic device used in it. What makes the article so emotional and dynamic? Why are words becoming so drastic and dangerous in times of terror? Has the language of terror come to its existence?

IN TIMES OF TERROR, TEENS TALK THE TALK

Washington – Their bedrooms are “ground zero”. Translation? A total mess. A mean teacher? He’s “such a terrorist”. A student is disciplined? “It was total jihad”. Petty concerns? “That’s so Sept. 10”. And out-of-style clothes? “Is that a burqa?”

It’s just a year since Sept. 11, but that’s enough time for the vocabulary of one of the country’s most frightening days to become slang for teenagers of all backgrounds, comic relief in school hallways and hangouts.

“It’s like ‘Osama Yo Mama’ as an insult”, offered Morgan Hubbard, 17, a senior at Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where students have picked up on the phrase from an Internet game.

“If you’re weird, people might call you ‘Taliban’ or ask if you have anthrax”, said Najwa Awad, a Palestinian American student at J.E.B. Stuart High School in Fairfax County, Maryland.

Language has always been as malleable and erratic as the day’s headlines, and young people have always been some of the most innovative and playful in linking world events to their daily vernacular. But it’s more than what it seems on the surface.

“When you have adolescent bravado and nothing can hurt you, underneath that is really a tremendous fear that everything can hurt you”, said Alan Lipman, executive director of the Center at Georgetown for the Study of Violence. “What better way than humor to take these horrific ideas and make them go away?”

The center is doing an in-depth study of college-age and teenage students and how they got through the first such attack of their lives.

“My friends call me ‘terrorist’ or ‘fundamentalist’, sometimes as a nickname”, said Nabeel Babaa, 17, who came to the United States from Kuwait when he was 3 years old and is now a senior at Sherwood High School in Olney, Maryland. “It’s not hurtful in the way we say it … we are kidding around with each other”.

When Muslim students call themselves “Osama”, Lipman said, they are trying to take back the power of being called such things, just like members of other minority groups who take negative words and use them on one another.

Only popular comics on televisions, radio and the Internet have as much influence on the national parlance as do brazen adolescents with their energy and uninhibited desire to craft their own language, linguistic and sociology experts said.

Teenagers breeze through such expressions as “He’s as hard to find as bin Laden”, or “emo” to describe people who are very emotional about Sept. 11. Girls might say a boy is “firelighter cute” instead of the more common “hottie”.

And using Sept. 11 words to crack that well-turned one-liner or pithy witticism has calmed some frazzled nerves. Teachers worry that such slang could cross the line between funny and offensive.

“There was some concern about this sort of thing, and teachers are conscious of this, ”said Jon Virden, an English teacher at Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Maryland. “It does bring up the issue of what is the lag time to laugh … but students were considerate of this.”

“Terror humor,” as it’s called by those studying the phenomenon, is even going to be the subject of a special panel organized by Paul Lewis, an English professor at Boston College, for a conference of the International Society for Humor Studies this summer in Forli, Italy.

“Teenagers may be quicker to be more irreverent or raw and less likely to have their emotions repressed,” he said.

(By Emily Wax, From The Washington Post)

* * *

TERRORISM IN RUSSIA

Terrorism in Russia is linked to the rebel republic’s unrealistic desire to succeed. In fact, it had already succeded as a result of the 1994 –96 war with the retreat of Russian troops from Chechnya.

Террор в России не насчитывает и 10 лет. Но организованные за это время теракты задумывались так, чтобы никто в нашей стране не чувствовал себя в безопасности.