A scary Tuesday.
The morning of September 11, 2001 was a special one for the students of the catholic school Notre Dame d’Afrique in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. All the students of my boarding school were excited because we had a soccer game against another school. That morning I went through the same routine like every week day: I was always among the last students to wake up, I took a quick shower and run to the refectory for my breakfast before it closed.I had a Math class that morning before the game. At 1pm local time (GMT) all the students were back for lunch. We had an hour before our nap time which also meant an hour of watching TV during lunch.
Suddenly Mr Leboeuf, our supervisor switched the TV to TV5 a French news channel. I was able to read “ Catastrophe aux Etats-Unis ” on our 42’’ screen. Something bad happened in U.S.A. Everybody started to moved closer to the TV to see what was going on. That day Mr Leboeuf did not stand against the disorderliness of the refectory as the students were moving from their seats with their meals in hand. We usually do not watch news but this was different. Students and staff members were all staring at the TV. One could tell that something bad was on TV by just looking at the faces. Some people were murmuring: “ les Etats-Unis sont en guerre”, “une explosion”, “c’est la troisieme guerre mondiale” etc...
Students were stepping out of the refectory as they hear their name from the school speaker. Parents were calling their kids through the school phone. We were not allow to use cellphone in school but some students were able to hide their cellphones and use them discretely. That day some of us were using their phone right in front of the teacher with no trouble. The school dispatcher was very busy calling names on the speaker. All the school phones were in use. Some parents came to school to see their kids and some even took their kids home. I started to think it was the third world war as many people were saying.
My uncle called me on my cellphone and said: “ did you hear the news?” “they bombed New York!” My heart started to beat faster. I was very scared now. My parents lived in New York at that time and they had not called me yet. I asked my uncle if he spoke to my parents and his answer was negative. He said he tried to reach them but the call did not go through as the phone lines were bad in Ivory Coast. I unsuccessfully tried to reach to my sister who lived in Pennsylvania. Some of my friends asked me if my parents were OK. It was until the next day that I got a call from my father saying that my family was fine and telling me how bad the situation was in New York City.
That Tuesday no one took the obligatory nap of 2pm (local time). We were all busy trying to find out what was happening. We still went back to class from 3pm to 5pm but no work was done because everybody was just talking about what happened in U.S.A. After class everybody went back to the refectory which was unusually opened at that time to watch the news. At that moment it became a little clear that it was not the third world war but commercial planes that crashed into buildings in New York City.
The September 11, 2001 event is an example of the effects of the media in our lives.The television, a very important medium was used to show the details of the tragedy with sounds and images and that makes us feel like we were present at the scene. Also because it was broadcasted worldwide, this allowed millions of people around the world to watch it live. This make people feel more or less the same sentiment as those who were physically present at the scene. Marshall McLuhan's statement "The medium is the message," supports this idea as he explained that the procedure used to transmit a message is the most important part of the message.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv4s3fn8jDc
Sources: Google images (september 11)
Hi Mady,
ReplyDeleteI think everyone has had an emotional experience during 9/11 and that's what we can read in most of the posts for this assignment. Not only people who were physically here in NY but also people who were overseas. I remember being in Peru and watching the news about the attacks. I was scared and wondered where my mom was. I remember I did not get a call from her until Thursday and it was so hard hearing the news and not know where your loved ones were.
In this case, I think media played a tremendous impact in drawing the catastrophic damage and how this this affected thousands of people. But also, media played a crucial role in informing people (through news) almost in real time. We were able to use the internet to our advantage, though most communication lines crashed, still we were able to know what the situation was.
Interesting post.
Hi, I would like to say this is an interesting post as well. From your post, I got to know how people reacted to 9/11, an unforgettable tragedy in the history of America and how this tragedy affected the mental state of a school student.Honestly, I don't have any emotions attached to 9/11 because I wasn't in America at that time yet and all my important family members were with me except my father who was a hard worker in America. However, I have to say media does play an vital role in spreading news and recurring a tragedy by exposing photos on TV. I had a glance at TV reporting the 9/11 tragedy scene and I went to school as usual. The next day my father phone called us to confirm he was not affected by this tragedy at all and then everybody in the family became relaxed. I feel lucky that this tragedy didn't affect all these people around me and I want to share all my happiness in life with them.
ReplyDeleteGod bless,
I remember 9/11 vividly. It is interesting to hear and read everyone's different experiences on that day. What I find interesting is the way 9/11 is portrayed and the messages given by the constant media attention to it. While it was a horrible day, and many people lost their lives, 9/11 happens everyday to other people around the world. It makes me wonder then, what message is given by the attention on 9/11? What does this attention say about the silence by the media on the plight of other people who experience by death, war and destruction everyday. Does this attention and silence place more value on American life as opposed to any other non-american human life, and is that right?
ReplyDelete