September 11 marks a dark anniversary: the day, 14 years ago, when terrorists brought down the World Trade Center towers, crashed into the Pentagon, and – but for a few brave passengers – would have flown yet another plane into yet another innocent target. The world still reels with the aftershocks of those attacks, from the seismic realignment of geopolitical energies to the quiet misery of families bearing the wounds of loss.
Those attacks were also the reason why, when we announced in 2011 that we were moving to Abu Dhabi, in “the Middle East”, even our most progressive-minded friends were taken aback. In the aftermath of 9/11, it had become commonplace for many in the West to conflate “Arab” with “terrorist”, although, as we pointed out to people, after Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people at the Murrah building in Oklahoma City with a lorry bomb, no one made a similar link between “terrorist” and “Christian”.
My friends’ warnings came rushing back about a month after we moved to Abu Dhabi, when a strange loud noise woke us up in the middle of the night. Staggering about in the darkness of our still unfamiliar apartment, we realised a garbled recording was playing in the corridor: “A fire has been reported in the building. Please stand by for further instructions.” So we waited. And waited. And waited, trying all the while not to think “what if …”
Then someone started banging on doors: smoke on lower floors, time to evacuate, don’t use the elevators. We scooped up phones, wallets and our sleeping children to begin the hike down from the 37th floor.
Somewhere around floor 24, I looked at my phone: 12:01. September 11, 2011.
Until that point, I hadn’t been afraid. Sweaty, tired, wishing we lived on 9th floor rather than 37th, but not afraid. But when I saw the date, “what if …” echoed more loudly in my tired brain: what if someone had decided to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11 by attacking NYU Abu Dhabi, in some twisted attempt to blow up an “American” symbol (despite the fact that many of NYUAD’s students are not US citizens)? My fearful “what if” illustrates another hateful legacy of 9/11: before the attacks, such a thought would never have occurred to me.
As we spiralled down the dim stairwells, I had sudden flash of how terrifying it must have been to stumble down 100 floors with the stairwells filling with smoke and the building beginning to shake.
We got to the bottom floor and tumbled outside. Building residents, many of them students, gathered across the car park in front of a mosque, whose green lamp gleamed through night air as thick and damp as tapioca. Students wearing everything from abayas to sweatpants larked about singing (someone had brought down a guitar), while others crouched over laptops, cramming for class. Maybe that’s what it means to be young: no fear (other than threats of a spot test).
Ultimately, we learnt that the emergency had been caused by a generator that malfunctioned, sparking and smoking enough to set off the alarms. Our forced march down 37 flights resulted only in sore muscles. It was an inconvenience, not a tragedy (and for the students whose classes were cancelled; a holiday).
There was no terrible finish to the “what if …” of our evacuation. But the anniversary of 9/11, coming not long after the end of the mourning period for the 45 UAE servicemen who died in Yemen, offers a stark reminder that “what if …” may have become “when…”, like a thin whisper of dread hovering at the edge of our lives.
To challenge that dread, I think about the scene in the aftermath of our evacuation, when we gathered in the plaza in the front of the mosque, and people from all over the city came to make sure everything was all right. It’s a different “what if” than we usually ask: what if we all found common ground? What would happen?
Deborah Lindsay Williams is programme head of literature and creative writing at NYU Abu Dhabi
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One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers