Did the world change on September 11, 2001?

Today's date probably doesn't mean anything. It's September 10, 2006. In a few hours tomorrow will come and mark the anniversary of one of man kind's most tragic days. The day that the skies of New York were filled with smoke, ash and the smell of death in the air. The day that the world trade centre came crumbling down (for the second time), and with it the lives of thousands of people. The day that New York, America and the world was never the same again.

It's one of those moments in history, where we all remember where we were. Like how old folks recall when JFK was shot, when the Berlin wall came down, when DJ Kool Herc had his first block party, when Jordan hit that jumpshot in the 98 Finals.

Some of us were up late at night on September 11 watching the news before The Mother Of All Exclusive News break came on. Me? I was sound asleep! I woke up the next morning to the shock of the photograph on the front page of the morning newspaper. I still remember that image. The image that became synonmous with that date:

I come now to the crux of my post: Did the world change on September 11, 2001? Without a doubt it did. The loss of life and the destruction of one of New York's icons shook the Western world to its core. I mean it was New York that was being attacked! America's homeland became the new doorstep of terrorism activity. American lives would never be the same again.

The fact that it could and DID happen in the backyard of the world's most powerful nation. The image that was so symbolic of American capitalism and everything that it stood for had just been torn down into a pile of melted steel and ash. The land of the free lost their sense of security and their ability to move freely without intense scrutiny.

But it was more than that. It affected people in other nations. We came to the stark realisation that a terrorist attack could happen anywhere, anytime. Suddenly New York and major tourist destinations didn't become such "hot" destinations. In the back of our minds, plane travel became a lil different. We became suspicious of people of Middle Eastern appearance. Fear and hatred develped a heightened sense of racism towards anything associated with Arabic people.

September 11 created a butterfly effect. It set off a chain reaction of events. The war on terror. The attack on Afghanistan. The Madrid Bombings. Bali Bombings. London subway bombings. The invasion of Iraq. The countless bombing plots that were thwarted. And many more lives were lost along the way.

Although the world did change since that fateful day, I'm not sure if my own life really changed as a result. I didn't lose anyone due to any of the bombings. I still went to uni, work, in the same way I did pre-September 11. Maybe in Australia we were too remote from the situation, being halfway around the world from New York, New York. But I recognise that the world around me did change and it changed the lives of many people, for the worse.

I'm out like September 11,

DJ Ho.