I saw a hundred or more bouquets of flowers laid on the sidewalks against the walls of the building — all brought by locals saddened by our misfortune.
I was living in Harare, Zimbabwe on Sept 11, 2001, near the end of my two-year tour as a Democracy Advisor posted to the country’s parliament. It was during Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship. We heard the live news late in the afternoon. I remember having to shield my ten-year-old daughter’s eyes from the constant TV footage of the airplanes that evening. The next day, as I drove to work in front of the American Embassy in Harare, I saw a hundred or more bouquets of flowers laid on the sidewalks against the walls of the building — all brought by locals saddened by our misfortune. And at work that day, I can’t remember how many Zimbabweans — our staff, parliamentary staff, friends — hugged me and expressed their sympathies, a touching reminder that “We Are the World.” President Bush invaded Iraq in March 2003, part of the retaliation “strategy” for 9/11. As an Arabist who worked in the Middle East at the time, I was worried my American citizenship would be a liability for entrance to other Arab countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt). So I took out Canadian citizenship (through my parents), and traveled on my Canadian passport from there on in. I had to try to explain our country’s policies and actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and of course Israel and the Palestinian Territories to locals for years afterward.
Peg Clement
