Netnet Camomot LAST Friday was the 14th anniversary of September 11. We, the Pinoys in Pinas, would not know how it was in Manhattan on that day in 2001 when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers and left TriBeCa with no landmark to look up to. But we--well, at least the Pinoys in Metro Manila--do know how it is to be stuck in traffic for, hmmm, a day. That’s how bad the jams have become. The only jam the Pinoy probably likes is the ube jam. But not if you’re a Cagayanon who’s loyal to the yellow party. Mango jam! 9/11 changed the way we see the world. And the way airport personnel see us. Each airline passenger has since been suspected as a terrorist. There was a time when the balikbayan box of a friend had what the airport’s Xay machine thought was a weapon of mass destruction. It was a long object. And my friend somehow forgot what it was. The box had to be opened and--voila--there was the tripod. Umbrellas are not allowed in the handcarried baggage so they have to be checked in. And since I can’t go out without an umbrella in my tote bag, I always have to remember that rule otherwise I would always be stopped by airport personnel for carrying a WMD, the acronym for you know what. Airports now have too many rules, but one rule they can’t seem to implement is this: an airplane’s estimated time of departure and arrival. Delayed flights are as bad as the traffic jams in Manila, and if you’re late for a flight while in Manila, it could be traced back to the traffic jam. See how things are always connected with each other? That’s why when 9/11 happened, airport security panicked and thought, There’s a connection here somewhere. And everyone has become a suspect who’s ready to fly a plane and crash it into another tower. If any terrorist can still pass through what may now be the obstacle course of security checks at the airport, then that can only be blamed on conspiracy theories. Discrimination against “suspected” terrorists has reached the point of no return and if you have that kind of look, airport people automatically pick you out of the line so they can thoroughly investigate where you’ve been, where you’re now and where you’re going--the past, present and future of a biography which the “suspect” thought was the most lame ever, until that day. It’s called profiling and it takes an expert to know who’s who. The expert hides in the shadows, never to be seen by your untrained eye to ensure there’s an element of surprise once he does decide to show up and drag you to some place where they grill suspects, complete with strip-searches and queries on the tripod in your balikbayan box. 9/11 has changed the way we travel. But that’s not the only crisis that threatens to cripple the world. 49 percent of the Syrian population have opted to flee their country and the photo of the dead body of three-year-old Alan Kurdi has become the symbol of its sad and painful fate. Or could we call that as fate? It all started with the Arab Spring that began on December 17, 2010 to topple down corrupt leaders, and it simmered down in 2012 for most of the affected countries. But then, armed conflicts continued in some, and these became known as the Arab Winter, with Syria’s situation as the worst. Writing about this while we’re far from the conflict must be like watching “Heneral Luna” with no knowledge of Philippine history, which happens to be my case--I must have been asleep during all of my History classes. We worry about, what, ingrown nails on a Saturday morning while Syrians are squeezing into boats to flee their country. It’s a sad and cruel world we live in, making us ask what kind of people would dare harm their fellowmen. But, as some people would say with an indifferent shrug of their shoulders, that’s life. Sh*t happens all the time. We have to wish we’re safe from that sh*t wherever we are.