N this day in 2001 I was in Docklands with 70 US colleagues at the DSEi trade show. It was all going well until a TV on a stand was flicked to news. I think of all my experiences that was the most shocking - even more so than the car B&B a week before in Tel Aviv. I spent much of the rest of that day comforting and in many cases bear-leading the shocked Yanks. It blew their minds on an international scale which terrorists like Unabomber or McVeigh had failed to do. At first our US bosses wanted to hunker down and withdraw. Then somebody suggested that was the exact reaction AQ had wanted. So the good side of the US, the fearless and confident one came through. As the days rolled by we discovered colleagues had died in the aircraft, two en route to a new married life. I discovered I had been on the same flight number only a week earlier as the Pentagon one...so when I visit DSEi tomorrow, forgive me if a bit of dust gets in my eye? We do live in interesting times...
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 07:22:26 +0000