A week ago at around 4pm here in Copenhagen, Denmark, I got news of what had happened to the World Trade Center in New York City. I was in the process of doing something very banal - preparing dinner for my family.

A lot of people were probably doing banal things when it happened, including those who died involuntarily. Out of the blue, violence exploded into lives- leaving many dead and others to try to find someway to go on.

Many were shocked, saddened and disgusted. Others cheered, although it was hard to see if there was anything to cheer about at all. Now, one week later, we are all trying to get on with our lives. Here in Europe, there is a growing unease as anti-immigration feelings, which had been in abeyance, began to grow again.

This is exactly what the people who planned this terrorist act wanted. To drive a wedge between people so that no one trusts anyone anymore. These terrorists lived among people, made use of the civil liberties that were available and then, without any warning, trampled on them in their own special way of saying thank you.

Some letters to malaysiakini has used a lot of space to promote their own private war against the US. What can we use this for? Nothing much. These are viewpoints that are looking backwards. Now what we need to look for are constructive ways to get out of this horror and dedicate them to the victims - maybe then we can say, sometime in the very distant future, that they did not die in vain.