When the first plane struck the building, someone on the bus got a call on his cell phone. He told us some small plane had struck the World Trade Center – an accident. Then later he received another call to say that there was an explosion at the Pentagon. At this point the driver got a call from his head office that he was to turn back and the guy with the cell phone simply fled. The sun that morning was suddenly blocked by dust like there was a solar eclipse. (Thank God it was not a mushroom cloud!).

For those familiar with NYC, underneath the bus terminal where my bus was heading is an underground train connection to Times Square from where you continued to the base of the World Trade Center – Building 1. I could have been trapped at the last stop at the base of the World Trade Center when the first plane struck! All these underground stops are within walking distance from each other. You don’t need to take the tube. But if you do that day you’d be oblivious to what was going on up on the ground.

Today when somebody asks me, “Where were you on 9/11?” I would pull out my bus ticket which tells its own story.

Not aware of a Malaysian Chinese woman among the casualties!

That is why much of what happens in our lives, whether for the good or bad, is beyond control (say about 70%) leaving the rest of 30% to our ingenuity and effort to shape destiny and outcome favourable to our selves.

I would imagine that had you not been 30 minute late, you might still have survived to tell the tale provided you weren’t heading towards inside the World Trade Towers and oblivious as to what’s happening. Passing by when the plane crashed into the first or second towers didn’t cause it to instantly collapse, did it? Unless one stayed on below the tower to look at the phenomenon with jaws agape for 56 minutes, one should be out of harm’s way. It is not as if it were a tsunami – instantaneous.

The bus over here unlike in Malaysia is always on time. It was me who was running late otherwise I would have turned to pulp like some 3,000 plus others out of which some 1,000 plus have yet to be identified. Some have their remains identified as recently as a few weeks ago through the advancement of technology – DNA.

Like you say “As destiny would have it…” I live to see another day. But I thought intitial reports indicate there was a Malaysian Chinese woman among the casualties?

I still have the bus ticket. The bus fare read $12 for a round trip. The date stamped on it 9/11 and the time 9.50am. Yes, otherwise my name would be on the plaque preserved for eternity and Malaysians will remember me – but of course it would not read “Undergrad2″!

Ya it is not nice la to tell chinese and Indians to balik their country of origin. They are legal citizens unlike the illegal Indonesians. The fanatism of forcing Islam into people throat is ridiculious. Like Osama threat to US, ‘convert or…..’

Where is merdeka? Where is freedom to choose what you believe from your heart not because you are forced to or given special benefits? Are we held bound? Are the chains of control imprisonating us?

Would oneday the liberty be granted? Who knows? What is the truth?

awesome – how can that be stirring trouble? I am just paraphrasing Farish’s words. Doesn’t what Farish said apply to the creeping Islamization of Malaysia, the Linda Joy & Moorthy cases? The massive influx of Illegal Indonesians? The “balik Cina dan India” if you don’t like it here?

Let me tell you what is stirring trouble and incurring the wrath of the people. It is the politicos stating that Malaysia is an Islamic State. It is the wet-behind-the-ears politicians waving the keris and wanting to bathe it in Chinese blood. It is the culling of pigs in pig farms without any compensation. It is instigating riots and shooting by policemen. Get the true picture? I know, I know, the truth hurts…….

I think you should come out of your shell and narrow frame of mind and read more – not on Islam and islamic books. Read and widen your prespective on other beliefs and understand our fellow citizens. Stop treating them like aliens.

Indians and Chinese had contributed so much to our economy. They have been discriminated a lot. Sure they are upset. We are pampered can’t you see.

You should have walked through their struggles and be compassionate towards them. We want peace right? Why spark off unnecessary strife and anger by your hurting remarks.

You know there are many malays living overseas and just imagine how terrible it would be for us if the same treatment is given. So be cool if you love your people and culture. Sow love not hatred.

UMNO can only function under half-past 6 govt. They cannot survive outside of it. Just like sperm. They can only live inside the body. Once outside, they will struggle, and eventually die.

2 million Muslim terrorists in Britain if….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=404525&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source

It is long overdue for moderate and progressive Muslims to come forward and express their views on Islam.

Minorities have been demonized and persecuted by all sides since time immemorial before the Industrial Revolution and advent of ‘unrestrained global capital’!

If anything on of the beneficent effects of ‘unrestrained global capital’ is that it bridges communities of diverse heritage by the common unity of capital and money : the liaison of Dodi al-Fayed and Princess Diana the acquisition and ownership of English upmarket retail group Harrods by rich muslim Mohamed al-Fayed!
Even today, the casinos of the world are enriched not just by inveterate Chinese gamblers by rich Arabs!

But seriously, are the Europeans excluding Muslims or the other way around the Muslims excluding themselves from mainstream anywhere in which they are minorities?

There is, however, a rationale for Muslims excluding themselves.

Europe like North America is in the grip of global capital.

And Global capital thrives in a cultural milieu and legal regime based an amalgam of the following seamless values : economic and political freedom based on freedom of expression and individual liberties, secular laws and governments playing neutral to all Gods including the Money God, the belief that man carves his own destiny and devises his own laws – something of an antithesis to Global Islam, and certainly its variant Political Islam which believes in an individual’s complete submission to the sovereignty of the Almighty’s laws and prescribed way of life tolerating no diversity or apostasy and uniting under global Muslim brotherhood of Ummah.

Increasingly, then, the battle is shaping not so much between Islamic and Judeo-Christian heritage/culture (ala Samuel Huntington’s version) but between global capitalism and global Islam. …

Maybe better to focus your energy on the country of your birth.

‘No we are not racist. It is just that we need to preserve and protect our Malay identity and culture, and our Islamic heritage. The more Chinese/Indians come here, the less we know who and what we are. We cannot allow our identity and culture to be confused like that…’

Now, isn’t that better? Isn’t that much closer to home and the truth?