9/11... again

I always commemorate the anniversary of 9/11. I am doing it this year again with this post, although I don't write long posts about it. From my thoughts and memories about it, read this post from 2008 and that post from 2009. However, I will say one of thing of what happened in the USA since. On the 11th of September 2001, democracy in the West and in the USA in particular was attacked. Islamic fundamentalism showed its ugly nihilistic head. Sadly, nowadays democracy in the US is falling apart, not because of an alien force of Islamifascists, like almost a quarter of of a century ago, but because of the Xian fascists who took power. So yeah, I am feeling a tad cynical and gloomy today, thinking about it.

Fragments of 9/11

 Today is the anniversary of 9/11. I always commemorate it on the blog.I once used to blog about deeper stuff, when I started blogging in fact, and I gave this date a lot of thoughts back in the days, As you can read in this post from 2008 and that post from 2009. In the latter, I said that I remembered the most trivial thing about it. What I ate that evening for instance: shepherd's pie, or pâté chinois as we call it, with beetroots on the side, and a chocolate cake for dessert, which my mum made as a goodbye treat because I was going back to England a week or two later. I remember reading the morning newspapers and just stopping, because it felt absurd to read old news. I went to the bar that night, but did not get drunk. I discussed this with my wife a few days ago: she was then living at her parents' house, she had walked the family dog and in the park where she walked, she saw people doing tai chi, which she thought was a strange activity to do in a park. Then she walked home and she learned the news. That night, she thought that if the terrorist attack had not happened, she would have thought the 11th of September 2001 to be a day like just any other. Now she remembers these people doing tai chi. And I find it strange and a little bit eerie that for so many people this date in history has been crystallised like this, with every single trivial detail of their day forever in their memory.

9/11 and now

Today is the 22nd anniversary of 9/11. I have not forgotten. I will try to remain short, as I often blogged about it and I don't know if I can add all that much to what I have already said in the past. For my observations about this fateful day, please read this post from 2008 and this one from 2009. They are still the posts I am most proud of in all my years of blogging. Otherwise, there might be one thing that is worth adding: I find it tragic and often infuriating that nowadays, the United States is struggling with another sort of religious fundamentalism, not islamist this time, bu Christian, and that it brought its own homegrown domestic terrorism. Because I challenge anyone to tell me what is the intrinsic difference between a a MAGA supporter and/or a Christian fundie and an Islamist. No, cosmetic differences don't count.

9/11

I almost forgot that today is the 21th anniversary of 9/11.  I will be brief this year, or at least I hope to be. Read this post from 2008 and this one from 2009. They are from a long time ago, when I was much younger, nevertheless I am still very proud of them and I consider them my best posts. Youcan also read my posts from 2011, 2012 and 2013. As for my current state of mind, you can read my post from 2021. Sometimes I wished we still lived in the nineties.

9/11, 20 years after

Today is the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The terrorist act that truly kickstarted the century and the millenium. Our share of Apocalypse, so to speak. For my own experience and my reflection on 9/11, I recommend that you read this post from 2008 and this one from 2009. In my years of blogging, they are the posts I am most proud about. I am thinking about twenty years ago and I am worried about how things might turn out in the future, because I feel like little has been done. I'm glad Bin Laden got killed, but Islamofascism is still very storng indeed. Maybe worse, in the US they are stuck with their own brand of talibans in the guise of Christian fundamentalism. Now these fundies existed before 9/11, but they grew stronger due to the attacks of twenty yers ago. So yes, I'm worried and disappointed about the human race.

About Afghanistan

I found this meme online and I thought it was very funny. I was wondering what to say about the Talibans taking over Afghanistan again, or indeed if I should say anything at all. And I thought this meme truly said it all. It was the most eloquent one. So this is all I'm going to say about Afghanistan. There are so many specialists about it, all of a sudden, I might as well not add into it.

Another year of 9/11

It is a sad anniversary, but every year I commemorate it on Vraie Fiction. So it is the 19th anniversary of 9/11. I have very little to say apart from mentioning it, and as usual poiting you to my post of the previous years: from 2008 and from 2009 especially as I am very proud of them. My posts from 2011, 2012 and 2013 you may also find appropriate to read today. In a year of pandemic, a few (some who were too young then perhaps?) may find the actions of the terrorists almost trivial in scope, but let's not forget that the vicious murder of so many innocent lives to religious fanaticism is also the symptom of a disease that is still sadly a threat to us all.

18 years of 9/11

Today is the 18th anniversary of 9/11. When the new century in which we live in truly started, in blood, fire and death and history was made and more importantly lived. I will not say that I remember it like it was yesterday, that would be a cliché, but I do remember it vividly. I guess it is difficult to avoid commonplaces when one talks of such event. For my own experience and my reflection on 9/11, please read this post from 2008 and this one from 2009. They are the posts I am most proud of of all my years as a blogger. Talking of years, 18 is, in man's age, the one when he reaches maturity. I know at least one child the daughter of my friends (the big sister of my godson), who was born late in August and was actually on the 11th of September. Strange to think of her as an adult, stranger to think of her as having spent the first weeks of her life among the chaos and horror of that time. Thankfully and of course, she was oblivious to it. And on a sadder note, I don't think we matured much as a species, if at all, since the 11th of September 2011.

9/11

I hope I am not the only one who remembered the date today, although I must confess, after seventeen years, while the memory is very vivid, I have little to say apart from the fact that I remember it like it was yesterday. In the end, talking of your memories of that day end up like spouting clichés. I always commemorate the date on Vraie Fiction. Please read my posts from 2008 and 2009, which I consider among the best blog posts I ever published. I have nothing more to say about this.

Les années terribles

Non, non je ne parle pas du 11 septembre. Ce sera bientôt la fête de notre petit loup, sa deuxième. Et non, non, il n'est pas né le 11 septembre. Mais on dit en anglais que quand un enfant a deux ans, ce sont les "terrible twos." Les années terribles, en quelque sorte et en d'autres mots. Pour nous, elles ont déjà commencé, parce que Wolfie est assez tornade merci, en plus d'être extrêmement difficile à coucher le soir. Il est à bien des égards un enfant terrible, déjà anarchiste. Mais on l'aime comme ça. Je m'nennuierais beaucoup, sans les années terribles qu'il nous fait vivre.

Who else remembers?

It seems that everybody forgot, from what I can tell from my news feed. Well, I did not, even though I did not think all that much about it. Maybe now that we live in constant fear of Islamist terrorism, 9/11 seems rather tame, maybe grief softens when crime becomes history. This year again, I will invite my readers to read what I wrote in 2008 and 2009. I am quite proud of these posts.

The date today...

I don't know why, but I feel like it's only me today who remembered it was the anniversary of 9/11. Among my friends, colleagues and acquaintances that is. There has been no mention of it at work, on my Facebook page, or barely anything. As if it was a distant memory. I will not blog about it for long, but I invite my readers to check my post from 2008 and 2009. These were two of the blog posts I was most proud of, since I have started blogging. So here it is for this year's anniversary. I am sure there must be report of commemoration on the news. I know have not forgotten.

9, 11, 13

Today was and is the 13th anniversary of 9/11. I do not have much to say I didn't say before on this blog. I have blogged some of the posts I am most proud of about 9/11. This one in 2008. In 2009 too. This year, I will only mention it. No song commemorating it, no smart title, no musing about murder, blood and madness. Just these numbers. It is the true 13th year of the millennium, the true moment when it started, on September 11, 2001.

La morale de l'histoire

"Nous pouvons conclure de là
Qu'il faut faire aux méchants guerre continuelle.
La paix est fort bonne de soi,
J'en conviens ; mais de quoi sert-elle
Avec des ennemis sans foi ?"

Je cite encore une fois cette année Les Loups et les Brebis de La Fontaine. C'est la seconde fois que je cite sa conclusion et la morale de la fable. J'avais cité aussi le début l'année dernière. C'est de loin ma fable préférée. Je la cite parce que c'est l'anniversaire du 11 septembre 2001. Et que si cette date a un sens, c'est malheureusement celui-ci. Bien sûr, toutes les guerres ne sont pas faites avec des armes. Il y a des guerres d'idées aussi. Celle contre le fondamentalisme religieux, pas seulement le fondamentalisme islamiste, est d'abord et avant tout une guerre d'idées. Enfin, c'est la morale de l'histoire.

Tasteless tea?

Well, I love David's Tea, as you know. I discovered today on their Facebook page that they have a blend called Organic Cold 911, for the treatment of cold. Like, emergency treatment of cold. It is the tea of the day... today. Knowing that tomorrow is the anniversary of 9/11, I wondered if it was not a bit tactless. I don't think there is anything malicious in their intention, I think have seen 911 on display in their shop after all. In any case, I love David's Tea too much to have any grudge. Heck, I'd drink some if I had a cold! Maybe gallons of it. But in September, especially this week, I wonder if it was a smart marketing move.

Mafalda et une allégorie

D'habitude, lorsque je mets sur Vraie Fiction des gags de Mafalda, ils passent inaperçu, mais comme ce sera le 11 septembre demain, j'ai pensé à ce gag. Plus qu'un simple gag, c'est une allégorie de ce qui s'est passé il y a treize ans et sur ce qu'est la liberté à notre époque. Ca aurait pu être écrit hier. Mafalda n'a pas pris une ride.

Les Loups et les Brebis

"Après mille ans et plus de guerre déclarée,
Les Loups firent la paix avecque les Brebis.
C'était apparemment le bien des deux partis ;
Car si les Loups mangeaient mainte bête égarée,
Les Bergers de leur peau se faisaient maints habits.
Jamais de liberté, ni pour les pâturages,
Ni d'autre part pour les carnages :
Ils ne pouvaient jouir qu'en tremblant de leurs biens."

Même sans le titre, vous aurez reconnu Les Loups et les Brebis. C'est sans doute ma fable préférée de Jean de La Fontaine. J'ai déjà cité la fin de la fable. Je me répète donc un peu. Mais j'y ai pensé depuis l'anniversaire du 11 septembre hier. J'y pense souvent dans pareilles circonstances: lorsqu'il y a une guerre de gangs à Montréal, par exemple, ou que ça saute quelque part dans le monde.

Twelve years of 9/11

It is the 11th of September again. This year, I barely noticed it. Ironic, as the day was fittingly commemorative: cold and gloomy. I wrote my most important posts about it in 2008 and in 2009 already. I will commemorate it briefly tonight, by uploading first this drawing from webcomic Atheist Eve by Tracie Harris. I hope she doesn't mind. I deeply admire her work, this specific strip especially, how intelligent and compassionate it is. How eloquent too. Then I have decided to upload The End by The Doors. It was not meant to be a song about the end of times, but one cannot help feeling this association, especially with its use in Apocalypse Now, fittingly re-released back in 2001. Of course, 9/11 was not the end of times. There is no such thing, not by human standards anyway. Nevertheless, this reminds me of that day, of a certain state of mind that the world is in since that day. So here it is.

Chile: the other 9/11

Today is 11 of September, which means of course the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks I will blog later about it). But it is also another tragic anniversary: the one of the coup d'état in Chile by Augusto Pinochet. I hate all tyrants, but I have a special disgust for Pinochet, because I think this filthy scumbag got away with murder. Literally. At least, small consolation, he lost power following a humiliating defeat in a plebiscite. I watched a few weeks ago No, a fictionalization of the publicity campaign that turned the tides. Since I have seen the movie, I have been been fascinated by the main advert and the song in it. It is barely more than a jingle, but there you go. I have decided to upload it here on Vraie Fiction, to remind us that we do get justice... Sometimes.

Question existentielle (203)

Je pose une question existentielle sérieuse parce que nous sommes le 11 septembre, Je vous invite aussi à répondre à la 70, sur le même sujet. Mais voici la nouvelle:

-Comment commémorer le 11 septembre?