Shock, sadness, disbelief, and talks of war were some of the experiences on first hearing about 9/11. This is what Epoch Times reporters from Dubai to Australia found when they asked locals,
  Sofia, Bulgaria
Mihail Markovski, 35, Account ManagerIt was during the afternoon when the plane crashes were briefly announced in Bulgarian news. There was not much information on what exactly was happening—websites of world agencies were inaccessible due to the high load. There was some talk and guesses that a war started against the U.S.—criminal acts, and finally it was revealed that it was a terrorist attack. I recall the initial uncertainty of people and fear of a war starting that nobody wanted to discuss openly. |
  Dubai, UAE
Iwona, 31, Polish Cabin Crew Well, it was unbelievable and it was hard to believe what we were seeing because the two towers were standing there almost forever. And, well, the aircraft was crashing into the buildings so the first thoughts were about the people who were there, because most probably they were not going to make it. And later on why, and who was doing it? |
  Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.
Liz Vigil, 59, Retail Food Service I was living over on 22nd Street. [I thought] “It’s too loud and it’s too low” when I heard the airplanes go over. I wondered if there would be impact. I was a flight attendant at the time. That was my immediate reaction. |
  Sao Paulo, Brazil
Bruna Santos, 24, Student I remember the date of September 11 in a different way to most people because it’s the day of my birthday, 9/11. After the initial shock of seeing all that destruction on television and feeling sad for the wickedness of men, and the complete disregard for human life, I still had to cope with all the bad jokes my friends made about “choosing” such a bad day to be born. But I believe that none of us, that only watched that awful moment from a distance, those of us that do not have any relatives or friends killed in that tragedy, can imagine how bad that day really was or the kinds of feelings those people there must have felt. |
  Syria (Tourist in Dubai)
Som, 40, Fitness Trainer I said, “What is this? Is it an accident?” Then after one to two hours, they said it’s a terrorist attack. Then I said, “Why, what for?” I didn’t believe it at first! Then I started to think maybe this is connected to political things in the world. Most probably it’s going to be about Islam and stuff like that, because there was a big focus in this direction. |
  Aneby, Sweden
Maria von Malmborg, 30, Social Worker I was in school at that time, and even if our country is very far away, I remember that we broke all lessons and just talked about and discussed what had happened. Instead of acting lessons, we were looking at the news and had no regular lessons, thinking about if maybe it was a world war that was going on or something. |
  Buderim, Australia
Kelly Marsh, 36, Cafe Worker Complete shock at how cruel humans can be. Disbelief that this could have happened in the first place. |
  Wellington, New Zealand
Karen Pohatu, 50, Finance Clark Where was I? At work, and then everyone was going to the TV room—lunch room—and seeing the whole thing on TV. And that was that—so sad, so sad? Yeah. The people, the bodies coming down, the people in the streets, and all that. [The planes] hitting the buildings. |
| Look for the Global Q&A column every week. Epoch Times correspondents interview people around the world to learn about their lives and perspectives on local and global realities. Next week’s global question: “Do you feel well-represented by the party you voted for?” |
