I watched William Langewiesche on Book TV yesterday. I find him an interesting, smart, informative guy.
Maybe a little on the cold side... but it's hard to say.
He was talking about a book he did on sea piracy (not
that kind but actual ship hijacks... happens from time to time. The entire crew is killed, the wares sold off, the ship repainted and used by the thieves, virtually impossible to trace even today... yes, bin Laden has one. Apparently that's how explosives were delivered to Africa for some embassy bombings a few years back.) but his reading was mostly about a Norweigan ferry that sunk. Almost 1000 people died, and his description of how the cargo door came off, causing the ship to rock, list, and roll was pretty intense.
He seemed to give credit to the heroes of that disaster (there were opportunist thieves trying to rob people, even as the ship sank), but I use the word "cold" because of this- he's working in Baghdad, and eventually the answer period for the audience, after his reading, became all about the current war, and he eventually said that he was working on a book on the courts/ law in Iraq, and that the US was hurting itself by being in Iraq and that he "didn't care about Iraq." I'm pretty sure that's a verbatim quote. Just seemed a bit cold of a way to put it. He said most everyone there is unhappy with the actions of the US, but that it wasn't violent opposition for the most part.
Okay, so I knew he had a book out about the clean-up work at the WTC, post 9/11.... so I read about 1/4 of it at work today. And he describes visiting the Bankers Trust building next to the towers. It was gouged by pieces thrown at it in the towers' collapses, and since pieces a story or two (or more) tall were thrown through the building, and major supports were severed and walls gashed, he observed the way the building was left, the way belongings were left by employees, as it had been that morning.... well, with some slight differences.
A Boston Fire Department team had gone through the building marking areas that they had searched for bodies/ fire with orange paint. At one point, one of them felt compelled to leave the following on one wall: "Kill all muslims, 9-11-01, BFD." Many of the dining areas on the upper floor were exactly preserved, breakfasts (coffee, tea, rolls, fruit, etc) in place, for months, under layers of WTC debris-dust. (Langewiesche saw them rot in place on visits over the next three seasons). He observed many tables had been left orderly, with one meeting room that had obviously been evacuated in a panic.
He noted, from the condition of the bags and purses, and dust-free spots on the table where laptops had obviously been, that the only other people who had been in the building were looters.
Which could only have been policemen, firemen, or construction workers, as nobody else was allowed on site (the perimeter was guarded by the military).
He follows up this paragraph by stating, "But to me none of that seemed important anyway. Whether they had been violated or remained pure, the Deutsche Bank dining rooms were artifacts from an event that, within the inner world of the World Trade Center, seemed already to exist in distant memory."
I dunno... I just find it weird that he notes looting, then says it doesn't matter, just as I found it weird that he said the US was doing the wrong things in Iraq, but he "didn't care" about Iraq. I tend to disbelieve him, and I think writers oughta say what they mean, especially about moral or political issues.
Anyway, it's an interesting book. 's called American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center. You learn a lot about how the clean up went, who were the major players, and I'm only 1/4 through it.
Maybe a little on the cold side... but it's hard to say.
He was talking about a book he did on sea piracy (not
that kind but actual ship hijacks... happens from time to time. The entire crew is killed, the wares sold off, the ship repainted and used by the thieves, virtually impossible to trace even today... yes, bin Laden has one. Apparently that's how explosives were delivered to Africa for some embassy bombings a few years back.) but his reading was mostly about a Norweigan ferry that sunk. Almost 1000 people died, and his description of how the cargo door came off, causing the ship to rock, list, and roll was pretty intense.
He seemed to give credit to the heroes of that disaster (there were opportunist thieves trying to rob people, even as the ship sank), but I use the word "cold" because of this- he's working in Baghdad, and eventually the answer period for the audience, after his reading, became all about the current war, and he eventually said that he was working on a book on the courts/ law in Iraq, and that the US was hurting itself by being in Iraq and that he "didn't care about Iraq." I'm pretty sure that's a verbatim quote. Just seemed a bit cold of a way to put it. He said most everyone there is unhappy with the actions of the US, but that it wasn't violent opposition for the most part.
Okay, so I knew he had a book out about the clean-up work at the WTC, post 9/11.... so I read about 1/4 of it at work today. And he describes visiting the Bankers Trust building next to the towers. It was gouged by pieces thrown at it in the towers' collapses, and since pieces a story or two (or more) tall were thrown through the building, and major supports were severed and walls gashed, he observed the way the building was left, the way belongings were left by employees, as it had been that morning.... well, with some slight differences.
A Boston Fire Department team had gone through the building marking areas that they had searched for bodies/ fire with orange paint. At one point, one of them felt compelled to leave the following on one wall: "Kill all muslims, 9-11-01, BFD." Many of the dining areas on the upper floor were exactly preserved, breakfasts (coffee, tea, rolls, fruit, etc) in place, for months, under layers of WTC debris-dust. (Langewiesche saw them rot in place on visits over the next three seasons). He observed many tables had been left orderly, with one meeting room that had obviously been evacuated in a panic.
He noted, from the condition of the bags and purses, and dust-free spots on the table where laptops had obviously been, that the only other people who had been in the building were looters.
Which could only have been policemen, firemen, or construction workers, as nobody else was allowed on site (the perimeter was guarded by the military).
He follows up this paragraph by stating, "But to me none of that seemed important anyway. Whether they had been violated or remained pure, the Deutsche Bank dining rooms were artifacts from an event that, within the inner world of the World Trade Center, seemed already to exist in distant memory."
I dunno... I just find it weird that he notes looting, then says it doesn't matter, just as I found it weird that he said the US was doing the wrong things in Iraq, but he "didn't care" about Iraq. I tend to disbelieve him, and I think writers oughta say what they mean, especially about moral or political issues.
Anyway, it's an interesting book. 's called American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center. You learn a lot about how the clean up went, who were the major players, and I'm only 1/4 through it.
VIEW 18 of 18 COMMENTS
I wish more people in every part of society would just say what they feel instead of what they think others need to hear or want to hear.. Sigh...