Refugees (30 page)

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fghanistan is now a country with more freedoms but many continuing struggles. These struggles are compounded by the fact that Afghanistan was, even at the onset of the American war to oust the Taliban in autumn of 2001, a country that had already been fighting—civil war and a war against the Soviets—for approximately twenty years.

Post-Taliban reconstruction is well under way. Hundreds of new schools were built, and girls have flocked back to class. The University of Kabul has had an unprecedented number of women applicants with heavy enrollment in its new computer curriculum, and women continue to gain a voice in media, journalism, academia and medicine. A new currency was introduced in 2002. Afghanistan's reconstruction has been and continues to be a truly global endeavor, with nations from around the world donating millions for reconstruction. The 242-mile Kabul-Kandahar Highway was rebuilt in 2004, while others are in progress, such as the Kandahar-Herat Highway. Hotels and restaurants are opening, and large industrial parks are being constructed in Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-I Sharif. Many countries have stepped in to create job programs, train a national army and police force, develop agricultural alternatives to poppy cultivation, and
train lawyers and judges in a push for law reform. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) took over the peacekeeping force in the summer of 2003, and the United Nations continues to provide an enormous array of services, including inoculations across the country.

On the political front, the Bonn agreement, a road map for the future, was created in Bonn, Germany, by members of a new provisional government. A new constitution was completed and adopted in January 2004, and national elections were held in October 2004, confirming the interim president, Hamid Karzai, as the first democratically elected president. In September 2005 a parliament was elected.

Security issues remain a serious hindrance to peace and reconstruction. Pro-Taliban Pashtun and extremist Arab factions undermine the peace process by sporadic acts of violence, particularly in southeast Afghanistan and along the Pakistani border. In Kabul, unsuccessful assassination attempts were made on President Hamid Karzai, and his vice president was fatally shot. Afghan civilians demonstrated in Kabul against what was declared as “Pakistan's continued undermining of the new government.” Many in Pakistan continue to support the Taliban and other radical Islamic elements. Local warlords still engage in illegal taxation and forced recruitment, and it will take many years to clear buried land mines leftover from decades of conflict.

During the American-led war to oust the Taliban, over 3,000 Afghans were killed by U.S. bombs. Over 2 million refugees have returned to their homes, although there are still many displaced persons inside Afghanistan, most of them in the south. Most Pakistani camps have closed, although refugees still remain in both Pakistan and Iran.

For the peace process and the instigation of a new
constitution to be successful, there will need to be more relief in the daily struggle of the average citizen. Areas outside of Kabul must receive protection from a national police force. Afghanistan will continue to require both financial and practical help for a number of years to come. It is essential that poppy cultivation and drug trafficking be replaced with lucrative agricultural alternatives. In 2005, Afghanistan is still one of the largest opium producers in the world. The Pashtun majority must have their concerns met, for part of what fuels pro-Taliban uprisings is a feeling among Pashtuns that they are politically underrepresented, treated with prejudice in the north, and not receiving their fair share of benefits under the new government.

Many U.S. troops are still stationed in Afghanistan.

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t any one time up to 50,000 people in 430 businesses from 26 countries worked at the Trade Center complex until September 11, 2001. In addition to One and Two World Trade Center, the twin towers, seven other buildings were destroyed: Four World Trade Center, the southeast plaza building; Five World Trade Center, the northeast plaza building; Six World Trade Center, the U.S. Custom House; and Seven World Trade Center. The Deutsche Bank Building sustained major damage and will be removed. In Washington, the Pentagon also sustained major damage, but has since been repaired. The exact number remains elusive, but approximately 2,800 people lost their lives in the attacks that day.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Red Cross, the National Guard, and many volunteer services devoted months of invaluable aid after the disaster. Thousands of civilians gave blood and contributed food and bedding to makeshift shelters. Construction workers and retired firefighters volunteered to help clean the site. The fire at ground zero was finally extinguished on December 19, 2001. It took another few months to clear the site. Schools offered to host closed high schools in the affected area. For example, Brooklyn Technical High School hosted students from Stuyvesant High.

In response to the disaster, the Department of Homeland Security was created and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was remodeled. Major grants were awarded to study health effects, ranging from air filter samples to pregnancy outcomes of exposed women (Columbia University noted a significant increase of smaller babies). Most of the damaged subway tunnels have been repaired. The South Ferry and Rector Street subway stops were reopened in September 2002. Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) engineers used the original 1915 blueprints as the basis for the tunnel's structural design. The Cortlandt Street station, directly under the site of the towers, will not open until the area is redeveloped. On November 23, 2003, the World Trade Center Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) stationed reopened.

The September 2002 anniversary of the attacks was commemorated with concerts and speeches throughout the five boroughs, including a bagpipers' march into Manhattan at dawn. In the following years there has been a ceremony at the site for the families of the victims, where relatives read the list of deceased, and a display of the Towers of Light, two beams of light directed upward to represent the towers and the victims. Families of the victims were consulted at every step of the program's design.

In the years following the tragedy, some New Yorkers chose to relocate. There were lawsuits over the amounts of victim compensation, controversy over air quality safety, insurance frauds and accusations over misappropriation of emergency funds. The area around ground zero has become a huge tourist draw, where vendors sell everything from 9/11 T-shirts to refrigerator magnets. The transcripts of the 9/11 tapes were made public in August of 2003, after the
New York Times
sued for their release. In August of 2005
more than 12,000 pages of oral histories—from firefighters at the scene, rescue workers, people who worked in the towers—were finally released after another lawsuit was brought on by the
Times
.

Architect David M. Childs updated the Freedom Tower design in June of 2005 that will stand on the site's northwest corner. Childs, in remaining true to the vision of his original co-architect, Daniel Libeskind, will reference the Trade Towers as well as the Statue of Liberty. The Freedom Tower will have an observation deck at 1,362 feet and a glass parapet at 1,368 feet, which were the heights of the Twin Towers. A spire containing a television antenna will rise to a height of 1,776 feet, and will emit light as a beacon to freedom.

Santiago Calatrava, the “world's greatest living poet of transportation architecture,” was chosen to redesign the PATH station complex. Calatrava, best known as a designer of bridges, airports, and train stations, is a native of Spain. There was a global invitation to design a memorial at ground zero. Michael Arad, a young architect for the New York City Housing Authority, was the winner with his design “Reflecting Absence,” which features two huge reflecting pools on the towers' footprints. Peter Walker of Berkeley, California, an experienced landscape architect, was chosen to “green” the surrounding plaza. The two men share the design credit. Davis Brody Bond, LLP, the firm that designed Lincoln Center, will work with the design team. Plans also call for office space, a performance center, a memorial, and a memorial museum.

The museum will track the days before and after the attacks.

These facts are correct as of August 2006.

Published by Laurel-Leaf
an imprint of Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are
the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2005 by Catherine Stine

Rumi translations copyright © 2005 by Coleman Barks

All rights reserved.

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RL: 6.0

eISBN: 978-0-307-49009-4

October 2006

v3.0