Letters

From: Kevin Boyer

The tragedy in New York on September 11, 2001 was felt by many, whether it be by Americans or citizens of other countries. It's estimated that 60 Canadians and 250 UK citizens are still missing in the trade center. An independent web site has been created to commemorate the Canadians lost in the September 11th tragedy. If interested, you can visit this site at http://www.canadiansremember.ca Kevin Boyer web-mapper.com

From: Jack and Laura Dangermond

Letter to the GIS Community from ESRI We are all now painfully aware of the horrific tragedies in New York City and Washington, D.C. First, we want you to know that while several of our staff (especially those in New York City) were exposed to the disastrous events of Tuesday and are badly shaken, we are relieved that all of our staff are alive and well. Over the last several days we have been asked by a number of our users in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a number of Federal agencies to assist on a voluntary basis with GIS support. ESRI and many of its business partners are now actively engaged in supporting, and in some cases supplementing the GIS resources of our user agencies. Our Technical Support group in Redlands is now staffing a special 7X24 hotline supporting the affected agencies. Our Customer Services group is providing keycodes as needed. We will keep you updated on the status of our support activities and opportunities for participation as they evolve over the next days and weeks. Although we are forced to deal with something that is unprecedented and tragic beyond our comprehension, we do have an opportunity to continue to make a difference by helping our users in applying the technologies and methodologies that we have worked so hard to create. We are committed to doing whatever we can to help. Jack and Laura Dangermond Reprinted with permission from ESRI

From: Juanse Barros

I do not agree with the disposition of having a map pointing to Kabul under the international link. Before deciding where to point one should understand the complete geography of this very old and conflicting Central Asia territory. I have found a very interesting link to a chronology of the area. It goes though to 1991, time when we felt secure and miss the ability to point. http://www.wlc.com/oxus/cahist1.htm http://www.wlc.com/oxus/cahist2.htm For a panorama of the silk route http://www.ksalpine.com/silkroad.htm and people behind the border... We have to reconstruct rapidly the whole panorama before acting. There is an old saying in chile "cacha mal paga doble" ... If you are going to do something it must be done globally because of the revenge. To the whole terrorist net world-wide. But yes, that means forgetting to use this discomfort groups for achieving the USA goals and constructing a more egalitarian world. We as Chileans can not forget the CIA intervention for the coup the etat and what happens with those militar trained by US in Panama. More than two decade of dictators in Latinamerica thanks to the Cold War and the communist party in chile is stronger than ever?. I go more with the first paragraph of the gis response link We are connected. We share a global economy. Through the Internet and other modern means of communication and travel, we converse, share ideas with--and become friends with--people everywhere, of all cultures. We should activate this civilian world wide "geographic" community to track the events, terrorist events, groups and people. I would love to see a community around the world saying the "bad people ain't here", so as to point correctly to the bad ones. But with the true, with facts and figures. There are people from all over the world connected through the net. People that knows how to manage gis and remote sensors, but before than that people connected to local people. Teachers at universities, workers, etc, that have a feeling of the local situation... lets hear each other ... Juanse Barros Temuko Chile Ed. note: The map highlighting the location of Kabul has been removed and replaced with a link to a recent article in the Economist.

From: Krishan Sharma, Ph.D. USA

Hello !! Dear sir, Eye v/s Eye will make the whole world blind. Usama Bin Laden a billionaire working for terrorist and living an uneasy dangerous life, means what, why, for whom? Thousands of followers, the entire Islamic population considers him godly saint a messiah, we have witnessed how many of his followers have turned to suicide’s, what do we learn from all this? USA the mightiest, the most powerful nation of the world, got hit what no one could have imagined, killing thousands of innocent civilians. Is it a justice? The killers must be booked for the horrendous crime and must be punished for. Now the big question come in front of us, is US suppose to act the same barbaric way and give a fight back to show the mighty power to kill millions in retaliation, spend billions of dollar for destruction of the poor human who are already deprived of basic amenities of food and shelter, living in worst kind of circumstances, while the whole world watches in silence the cruelties of mankind against each other. USA said they want to go to the root cause of it? Well what it is? Poverty, lack of education, infrastructure, if USA wants to spend money for retaliation as per President Bush words he will spend what it take’s? Mean any amount, in return what USA will get, more hatred, more and more turning into terrorist? If USA really wants to spend money to teach a lesson to the Afghanistan. USA should spend in rehabilitating the poor refugees provide the food and shelter, provide them facilities and create an atmosphere so they don’t become enemy, USA can win over the enemy and turn them into best friend and create an example that what in retaliation one human can do for other, the whole world will change at this point when USA is full of obvious anger to take the revenge. We witness USA is friend of rich Islamic countries Saudi Arabia, Kuwait turned enemy of Afghanistan a very poor country. Mahatma Gandhi will be remembered and honored at this crucial juncture to celebrate the victory of humankind against each other. Truly yours Krishan Sharma, Ph.D. USA GisEX* Technologies

From: Alexey Tselykh, Russia

We have live translations on national TV channels since the very tragic beginning. I quoted them to people in Finland and Italy over the net. Everyone is shocked here. I got lots of calls from university mates asking to send inquiring, worrying e-mails to friends in the US -- phone lines were busy!! I had to calm a girl showing her the MapPoint map to prove that her friend's office is 10 miles away from WTC close streets. That is really shocking, and frighting. After "Pearl-Harbor" showing in all Russian cinemas that is the first comparison that comes to head. People bring flowers, candles and icons to the American embassy in Moscow. Really, it is a world tragedy. And that sadness is in millions of hearts. Wish that nightmare is over and never repeat. Alexey Tselykh Editor Technews.ru

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