A Writer’s Life

Images from Wikimedia Commons

The next day of life:
Sorrow rising with the sun
A broken heart mourns

Memories of you:
A kiss under candlelight
Our daughter’s first smile

Clothes in the closet
Sleeping in an empty bed:
An intense longing

Faces on billboards
Flags unmoving in the breeze:
Two towers falling

One among thousands
Lying in a smoky grave:
Irreplaceable

A river of dreams:
Thoughts of a different life
I shall not forget

Our children playing:
Moments of laughter and joy
Love lasts forever

Rain striking windows
Sunset on the horizon:
Life begins again

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Photo from Wikipedia

October 12 (Bali Bombings)
CJ Levinson

I wonder what you saw
When you looked at the world?
Did you see how far we’d come?
I wish I’d known how to open your eyes
So that you could really see

You asked me why I don’t believe in God
And I still don’t know if I can explain
All I know is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen
Took all my faith away

On October 12
October 12

I looked for you amongst the ashes
Of that terrible, broken place
But the smoke caught in my eyes and lungs
And pain was all I could see

I stayed up for days, trying to find an answer
But you were gone forever
And the last time I saw you
Is the last thing I’ll remember
Lying broken beneath bags of ice
Gone forever

On October 12
October 12

We were so young
Thinking we could live forever
We could never really see

But I’ll wait for you
And I’ll remember you
Forever

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Greg Bear has written some of my favourite SF novels in the past but for the last few years has been moving more into the mainstream with his fiction. That’s fine with me as I’ll read anything I can get my hands on and Bear’s thrillers are different to most, but I admit I’m looking forward to his return to science fiction as well with his next novel; that’s where he really excels.

In the meantime Bear’s latest is Quantico, a novel based heavily on the fear of extremism. His story is set in a near-future where the Terror War is in its second decade and not progressing well. The Dome of the Rock has been destroyed by terrorists and a second attack of the scale of 9/11 has rocked the US; the threat of terrorists obtaining chemical and biological weapons has never been higher. In this atmosphere, three young FBI agents have recently graduated from Quantico; it is believed they could be among the last to graduate as critics seek to shut down the FBI for good. But when rumours of an immense planned terrorist attack begin to emerge, the agents find themselves in a race against time to stop it.

The first thing which struck me about Quantico was its tone; it’s dark and pervasive. There’s little optimism in the novel and not much humour, something which is unusual for one of Bear’s novels. Quantico represents the fears we all have in a post 9/11 world and at times is very confronting. Some people might find it too confronting but that tone is necessary for the novel to convey its message. Bio-terror, extremism and global politics form the backdrop for the world we live in and I found Bear’s depiction of a believable direction for the War on Terror both troubling and resonant.

Quantico works primarily on a suspense level as the FBI agents try to unravel who is behind the threat of passing a deadly strain of anthrax to religious fanatics; we’ve all thought about the idea of a chemical or biological weapon being used but here Bear takes it a step further - what if that weapon could be keyed to target a specific race? Suddenly the Holocaust doesn’t seem so distant and Bear’s science makes the premise scarily plausible. The characterisations in Quantico are also strong. The characters come across as flawed and believable, reacting realistically to the situation they find themselves in; Rebecca Rose, for instance, shows the impact of living with terror for 20 years, obsessed with cleanliness and her job, so much so that she has no other life.

The focus on Fouad Al-Husam (one of the agents) also gives the novel an interesting dynamic, contrasting modern Islam with fundamentalism and allowing Bear to explore the extent of profiling within the FBI. Another interesting aspect is that Islamic extremism is not the larger enemy in Bear’s work; rather much of it focuses on a domestic form of terrorism instead which makes the threat even more immediate, showing how fanaticism can arise anywhere, and the circumstances which might lead someone to committing such an act.

That said, a few things didn’t work as well as I might have liked. The main problem is that the ending, though bringing about a resolution, feels slightly abrupt; after a lengthy lead-in I would have liked to have seen the consequences followed though a bit more, to see the full impact on the characters. Also the internal politics of the FBI play a large and necessary role in the novel, but in certain scenes seem to weigh the story down more than in others, and more than any of the science. Likewise you could say that some of the government infighting seems slightly forced after a second 9/11 (although it might be accurate given the current partisanship).

But those are fairly minor points and the unnerving story arc is more than enough to pull the reader through from beginning to end. The pace is sharp and Quantico presents a compelling and intelligent examination of the War on Terror and our world as it might become. If you’re interested in a science-thriller based on current world events, I’d highly recommend it.

I’ve been wanting to write a poem to mark the 6th anniversary of September 11 but I wasn’t able to finish it in time to post it today. I couldn’t get it to sound the way I wanted it to… to say everything… and then today I came across this video and I think I understand why. I remember 9/11 as such a visual moment; the images are burned into my mind and I don’t think words can capture the tragedy of that day the way images can. This video is one of the most moving memorials I’ve seen… I pass it on, in the hope that you will too.

It seems incredible that it’s been 6 years. I still remember it so clearly. I’d just come out of the shower and the TV was on; it was the first time I can remember our stations crossing live to join a US network’s coverage. I remember seeing the smoke… and a minute later saw the second plane crash into the South Tower. It felt surreal, like I was watching it happen but was somewhere else. When the towers collapsed I remember trying to speak, to shout… but couldn’t. It was the first time I’d cried in a long time.

You often hear about moments that changed the world and in many ways it’s something of a misnomer. No one moment really changes the world because there’s much more which goes into making it; it’s our reaction that gives a “moment” its power. And yet 9/11 is really an example where it’s true. On a beautiful day, concrete buildings were brought crashing to the ground and a country was brought to its knees. And thousands of families experienced a hurt that will never go away.

I remember being angry, but with time’s passing it’s more a sadness now. One thing I remember clearly is the next day, September 12, my mother coming back from the doctor and telling me about a conversation she had overhead in the waiting room. 6 people had been talking about the attacks and saying how America had brought them on itself. I still don’t understand that. 3,000 innocents died that day, people who woke up that morning not knowing they would never see another day. Disagree with foreign policy, but please don’t diminish their memory.

I’ll be lighting a candle tonight in memory and I offer my thoughts to every American, one friend to another. May we never forget. And to everyone who lost someone that day, and to everyone that survived, I hope you find peace.

This hasn’t been a good period for John Howard. Howard forgot a Tasmanian Liberal candidate’s name on air, and then the ridiculous upgrades to the government’s VIP aircraft were revealed: $100,000 worth of upgrades, including $9000 in silk wall panelling and $6200 in almond-coloured leather added to the ceiling (refits that were later dropped). The problem for Howard is that in a lead-up to a Federal election, with the government lagging behind in the polls, he can’t afford to seem weak. And that’s exactly what’s happening; these slips create doubt in people’s minds about Howard’s ability to do his job, not to mention his ability to relate to the Australian people.

So it didn’t surprise me in the slightest when the government decided to revoke Muhammad Haneef’s visa and detain him, despite his being granted bail by a magistrate. What’s the one issue that Howard has always perceived as his strength with voters? National security, particularly regarding terrorism. It won the Liberals the 2001 election after 9/11. And I’m sure this seemed like a simple decision; Haneef was granted bail, so detain him for his visa - they’ll stop an accused supporter of terrorism from getting back out on the streets, doing the public a service, and making Howard look strong again.

All very good in theory. Except in reality it’s an abysmal abuse of due process and the criminal justice system. What is the point of going through the process of charging Haneef and having him appear before the court if, when the government is given an outcome it doesn’t approve of, it simply detains Haneef in a different way? Supposedly we’re not happy with the treatment of David Hicks while he was at Guantánamo Bay, but in doing this, how is it not the same? It’s hypocritical for anyone who has criticised Guantánamo Bay in the past not to say that.

For me the issue is not whether Haneef is a terrorist. He has been charged with giving support to a terrorist organisation, yes, but he has not been convicted yet, and we won’t know until we’ve seen all the evidence. The issue rather is that the government has created a scenario where if Haneef is innocent, he will be deported and if he is guilty, he’ll be sent to prison. How is that democratic? How is that Australian?

All this is, of course, in the name of protecting Australians. Kevin Andrews says he’s in possession of information that warrants Haneef being placed in the Villawood detention centre. If that’s true, then Haneef should be charged with a higher offence. You can’t just say that because someone is dangerous, you’ll do whatever it takes to lock them away; you have to prove it. That’s what democracy is. And isn’t democracy why Howard keeps telling us we’re in Iraq?

It makes me wonder, when does the time come when you realise you have given away too many of your civil liberties, too much of what makes your society an open democracy, to be protected? Do you even realise it at all, or do you just look back with the distance of time and wonder what might have been? I don’t know. I don’t think we’re there yet. I hope not.

Perhaps the government really does have evidence on Haneef we’re not privy too. But it’s still walking a very fine line, and treading political mileage with it. The memories of 9/11, Bali and London have faded, replaced with fear; fear of attack, fear of the unknown, fear that’s being exploited. That’s our world now, a world where, as Hedley Thomas says, you can buy coffee for a Muslim and “have unwittingly supported a terrorist organisation”. But at least we know one thing: we know what the terms of the 2007 election will be now. And it’s up to us to decide if we’ll accept them.