For those of you who have been regular readers you will have noticed a dearth of contributions from me for some time. This is because of an event which occurred on September 11th 2001. At first I couldn't make sense of it, then it raised ghosts of my own and finally left me without anything to say. But you can't hide from these things for ever...so ..........here goes.(If I seem to ramble a bit please forgive me.)

The first I heard of this was when my boss phoned, telling some fantastical tale about planes, bombs, the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. I was sceptic but put the TV on and caught CNN just as the repeated the film the had of a plane flying into the World Trade Center. I sat there stunned waching with really taking it in. (Last time I had felt like that was when I watched a live broadcast of a shuttle launch only to see it blow up just after take of.) I watched till I was sure that CNN were going round in circles with nothing new to say. I logged onto the internet and after several tries got the BBC site with no new News. I still couldn't believe it. Eventually I did the only thing an Englishman could, I made a cup of tea. I was teaching that evening and got myself organised. It made for interesting lessons with lots of useful grammar and vocabulary but a morbid haunted feel to the classes.

Over the next few days I became aware of the Swiss reactions to these horrific events. These could crudely be put into three categories, How can we remain neutral through this?, How can we justify remaining neutral through this? and How can we make a profit out of this? At the time this last one seemed particularly callous but considering what some of the British political community were saying about burying (politically) bad at the time this was small beer.

I have no doubt that there were cries of "Nuke 'em" both within and outside of the American political system at the time. I feel I must therefore congratulate President Bush for his considered restraint and careful application of policy.

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