September to December 2001: September 11, 2001 and Its Aftermath Immediate Effects
It has been a stressful, tumultuous, somber, long fall semester. Pace University, where the writer of these monthly updates teaches, is located in downtown Manhattan, directly across the street from New York's City Hall and next to the Brooklyn Bridge. Wall Street is a few blocks south. Pace University is one-quarter mile from the site of the former World Trade Center. At least four Pace students died in the World Trade Center disaster--many students work in internship programs--and at least thirty-one Alumni perished. It will take another year to remove the wreckage. Thousands of bodies remain unrecovered.
The Impact of Terror on Daily Life
Although it is trivial when compared with the massive loss of life, the World Trade Center disaster significantly altered the rhythm and feel of the daily routine of downtown Manhattan. The ubiquity of National Guard troops, police, firefighters, and rescue workers prevents forgetting the magnitude of the disaster. City Hall is now a sealed fortress. Sightseers wander the brick and glass canyons and furtively glance toward the site--"ground zero"--and look stunned and dazed by what they see. Wall Street veterans seem to have adjusted to the new surroundings and go about their business as almost usual. On beautiful autumn days, when the presence of disaster related personnel start to seem routine and go almost unnoticed, the smell from the burning rubble becomes more intense and removes the possibility of routine settling in. As if to punctuate the occasion, the wind carries fine particles of debris. From Penn Station in Newark, New Jersey--only a few miles away as the crow flies--as well as from mid-town Manhattan, the gapping hole in the skyline that the World Trade Center once dominated is an eerie presence.
Disrupted Personal Routines
Television commentators continuously intone: "September 11, 2001 has changed everything." For me--and many others who work in lower Manhattan--it has changed the daily commute (I used to take a train from New Jersey to the World Trade Center) and increased security precautions at city landmarks (the trunk of my car was searched on entry into the Lincoln Center garage and my wife's pocketbook was searched in the Metropolitan Opera).
Generally, it has increased awareness and disrupted the taken-for-granted nature of everyday life. (A clerk at the recently re-opened J&R music store--it was closed for six weeks because of heavy smoke and dust damage--talked with a customer about the possible next attack--he worries about the tunnels and bridges as the next targets--and upset the customer who uncomfortably laughed, "I was having a good day until now." A short time ago the clerk would not have been able to talk the way he did without appearing delusional--now he upsets a customer because of the reality of his unreality). What constitutes a good day is now more problematic than before.
Re-Examining Values
In almost the same breath as they express their and the country's anxieties, television commentators point out that the tragedy has produced positive results. They observe that the United States is more united than before, less self absorbed, no longer focused exclusively on the material aspects of life, and as a result, America's true values again emerged: charitableness, belief in the future, belief in progress, a sense of community, a dedication to the sanctity of life.
President Bush has stated the issue in the starkest terms: "We wage a war to save civilization itself."
Enduring Effects
Will these changes endure? Will these events change behavior in organizations within the United States? Will these events change the interaction of American citizens with people in organizations in other cultures?
In the weeks following the terrorist attacks the routines and surface behaviors of many American organizations have changed dramatically. For example, many organizations have curtailed employee travel and now use teleconferencing. In what ways does teleconferencing change organizational communication and behavior?
But some commentators see a relatively quick return to pre-September 11, 2001 routines. In an October 29, 2001 New York Times op-ed column Gary Becker, a Nobel laureate in economics, and Kevin Murphy argue that "Prosperity Will Rise Out of the Ashes" because the economic consequences of September 11, 2001 even though costing between $25 - $60 billion is a small fraction of the $100 trillion total physical assets of the United States. After a period of rational changes in behavior--not flying and delaying major expenditures--the American people will resume their pre-September 11, 2001 behavior. They argue that the knowledge and skills of American workers remains intact and will contribute to a stronger economy in a relatively short time.
Web Exercise
A number of Web Sites contain information useful for exploring the events of September 11, 2001 and the ways they may affect cultures and behavior across cultures.
An introduction to Islam can be found at http://www.islam-guide.com. The origins and teachings of Islamic law can be found at The Center for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law of the University of London http://www.soas.ac.uk/Centres/IslamicLaw/Home.html. General information on Central and Southwest Asia is available at EurasiaNet.org. A Web site devoted to Islam and the events of September 11, 2001 is the American Academy of Religion Study of Islam Section http://groups.colgate.edu/aarislam/default.htm.
In addition to understanding the viewpoints of the various cultures involved, including issues such as whether the war is fundamentally about religion, there are the issues concerning the potential scale of the threats to civilization. The bioterrorism section of the Federation of American Scientists' site is http://www.fas.org/terrorism/wmd/index.html. Princeton University's web site has a section on "Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction" http://www.wws.princeton.edu/~ota/disk1/1993/9344_n.html.
Aside from the Web Sites above try to locate additional sites that provide information on the response of multinational organizations and how they may have changed as a response to terrorism and its continued threat. For example, have international firms increased security? Have they recalled employees from other countries? Are they increasing training in foreign languages? Have they curtailed travel? Have they made attempts to increase their understanding of other cultures?
Or, it may be that where you are very little has or will change. I witness the disaster's aftermath several times each week. The talk at social gatherings inevitably turns to it (two months later many people find it difficult to believe that it actually happened). Because I am close to it I may overestimate its effects.
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