Sept 11
Oh yeah... I almost forgot today is September 11th... the 5th anniversary of the day the president of the usa pissed away the most pro-american wave of concern and caring since d-day.
I was returning home (to Budapest) via Amsterdam, from several weeks doing business in South Africa for a technology startup in Cape Town. I was with my business partners, returning from a business meeting outside of Amsterdam, when the news hit us. It was a tad garbled: "a small-plane has just hit the Empire State Building".
We got back to our accomodations just in time to see the second plane hit.
The next day, on the way to Schiopol Airport (Amsterdam) on the train, many Dutch people came up to me and expressed their condolences. Words, handshakes and hugs were given freely to Americans that day. I know. I received the outpouring of concern - on behalf of America - from countless nationalities that day.
At the airport I had a quiet conversation with a Sikh patriarch, who was just trying to get his family of 9 home to safety... wherever his home was. This proud and powerful man, with all these people looking to him for leadership, sat - silently accused by those who saw his turban as a badge of guilt - trapped in a foreign airport with no recourse to get his family to safety.
Within days, every bit of goodwill and caring was spat back into the face of the givers by my elected representatives, who made me a pariah in my adopted home.
Now, five years later, I am a virtual prisoner in my own country. Under constant surveillance that I know of (cellphones, email, video cameras), and probably several forms of surveillance I am not aware of. I am also unwelcome in every other country of the world, since my passport is directly linked the the moronic tits that run this police state.
Pathetic. I look forward to reading what the history books say about both George Bush morons in 50 years.
I was returning home (to Budapest) via Amsterdam, from several weeks doing business in South Africa for a technology startup in Cape Town. I was with my business partners, returning from a business meeting outside of Amsterdam, when the news hit us. It was a tad garbled: "a small-plane has just hit the Empire State Building".
We got back to our accomodations just in time to see the second plane hit.
The next day, on the way to Schiopol Airport (Amsterdam) on the train, many Dutch people came up to me and expressed their condolences. Words, handshakes and hugs were given freely to Americans that day. I know. I received the outpouring of concern - on behalf of America - from countless nationalities that day.
At the airport I had a quiet conversation with a Sikh patriarch, who was just trying to get his family of 9 home to safety... wherever his home was. This proud and powerful man, with all these people looking to him for leadership, sat - silently accused by those who saw his turban as a badge of guilt - trapped in a foreign airport with no recourse to get his family to safety.
Within days, every bit of goodwill and caring was spat back into the face of the givers by my elected representatives, who made me a pariah in my adopted home.
Now, five years later, I am a virtual prisoner in my own country. Under constant surveillance that I know of (cellphones, email, video cameras), and probably several forms of surveillance I am not aware of. I am also unwelcome in every other country of the world, since my passport is directly linked the the moronic tits that run this police state.
Pathetic. I look forward to reading what the history books say about both George Bush morons in 50 years.