opinion

It is not possible to assess damage in the period immediately following an unforseen event unique in its physical and intellectual dimension. The most that can be done is to attempt an overview of what is obvious, and to raise appropriate questions which may be addressed over the next few months.

The loss of life is serious, not just to the fabric of New York City, but to the intricate interweaving of talent and experience that makes a society function. The loss of such resources is significant, and is magnified by the fact that it comes from mature and productive age groups.

The real loss to the families, the widows and orphans created, is beyond any reasonable calculation. The emotional loss represents a wound to the nation that will not heal for generations to come.

Four commercial airliners, with crew and passengers are destroyed. In New York City, two of the world's tallest and most important buildings are totally demolished, as is a third large building in the same complex. A large and successful shopping complex associated with the World Trade Centre Twin Towers is obliterated.

In Washington, the loss of life is again enormous, taking talented and experienced civil servants in the prime of life. Aside from the societal losses must be added the human resources now removed from the national defense system of the US, and from areas dedicated to a free and democratic pattern of government.

The loss of emergency crews, police personnel and fire and rescue equipment to the City of New York City is serious, and the ability to respond to new demands is impaired. It will be years before new emergency response teams can be as well-trained and organised.

New physical equipment can be replaced in a matter of weeks or months, but replacing the human resource may take decades. It is a sad note, but people can be replaced in time. New firms eventually arrive to take the place of those which are destroyed.

The magnificent buildings can be rebuilt, once the rubble has been cleared away. The experience of WWII has taught us that often the replacement is an improvement on the old. Yet the old can be restored, as the recreation of venerated structures in Europe attests.

Financial records

Most of the losses which are irrecoverable are still unknown, and can only be the subject of speculation. One foremost is the loss of information. Amid the ruins and wreckage are thousands of computers, most with their hard drives destroyed, their precious information lost forever.

It is a vast library of current information suddenly gone forever. Many were linked to networks in other locations, and the primary database thus survives. Others were linked only to computers also inside the destroyed buildings, and thus all history is erased.

The lost financial records present an enormous problem. Those whose assets and accounts were only in electronic form are now forced to find secondary records of trades and accounts. The number of contracts, both completed and still open, presents a task that will take years to unravel.

Many will require arbitration, absorbing the time and talents of whole armies of legal soldiers. Many ships are at sea, full of commodities and containers, and the records which underwrite these movements are now in question.

There is thus a new challenge, a real challenge to the information age. Will it be possible to replace paper records? Can the new electronic age survive this test of its vulnerabilities? That is perhaps the question which gnaws at the subconscious.

Utter disregard

Is it possible to place absolute trust in the technology of the new age? Certainly public consciousness has been aroused by this event, and it is possible that is the real target of the attackers.

The World Trade Center was an earlier target. Now it appears the building had a known weakness, and the major effort was to expose this weakness. Now that it is exposed, one wonders how many other buildings have this same free span concrete floor design, that allows the building to collapse in falling pancake fashion?

Are any more of these buildings to be built? One wonders if the concept of the large steel building itself, a product of the 20th century, can survive into the 21st. What effect will the collapse have on occupancy rates for other large structures?

What can be said to excuse the utter disregard for passenger safety - the unprotected cockpits of commercial airliners? The controls are all in that cockpit, and the incident of hijacking was certainly known. Yet no airline protected its pilots from a determined man or group intent on taking command of the airplane.

A great effect was made to restore passenger confidence after previous incidents, and all passengers and luggage was checked for weapons and bombs. Yet the glaring weakness remained - the door to the cockpit was not secure. It is to this lack of foresight that the present disaster owes its success. Will the commercial airlines now take steps to protect the cockpit and controls of their aircraft?

HARUN RASHID is a scientist avidly interested in the application of Islamic principles in international affairs. The promotion of goodwill through civilisational dialogue motivates his writing. His Worldview column is a personal analysis of Malaysian affairs from a global perspective.