September 11 revisited

Exactly seven years ago today a series of coordinated attacks by Al Qaida against the United States marked the beginning of an era where "security" and "war on terror" became the bane of our existence.

The world lost its innocence. I realise that there have been two major wars before I was born and the world had then lost its innocence too; but in the new millennium, I feel nothing quite prepared us for the everyday agony normal people have had to go through for the past seven years.

Taking a plane ride to go on holiday used to be a joy. Now however the nightmare begins even before you get aboard.

Bankers used to be friendly people who coaxed you to trust them with your money. Now, the first step is to prove that your hard- earned money is not dirty.

The list of how our lives have changed since September 11, 2001, is endless. What used to be a relatively happy-go-lucky life for us and our own has turned into a burdensome time when we have to constantly look over our shoulder not just in fear that "terror strikes anywhere, anytime" but also in the fear that overzealous protectors of our freedom will hold us guilty before we are proven innocent, instead of the other way around.

And yet, as we look back at that day when 19 Arab men hijacked four commercial airliners and created a horror spectacle most of us will never forget, the one question on everyone's lips is: "Where were you on September 11?"

It was late afternoon on the tiny island of Malta when my children greeted me with high-pitched excitement in the driveway of our home about an accident in New York. "A plane crashed accidentally into one of the towers of the World Trade Centre," they shouted. Then another plane crashed into the second tower and we all knew it was deliberate. In two hours the twin towers had collapsed and more reports of a plane crashing the Pentagon and another crashing somewhere in rural Pennsylvania kept us glued to the TV all night long, worrying for the dead and injured in the mayhem in New York and for the plight of the rest of the world in its aftermath.

What followed later continues still. I'd like to forget and move on. However, I cannot resist asking you "Where were you on September 11, 2001?" Write in and let us know.