9/11 in Malaysia

In July 2001, I played host to a group of 15 young Americans visiting Malaysia. I put them in the students' dorm of a secondary school for one week. Food and shelter and sightseeing bus were provided. That was a part of our program to improve the standard of English of our students by making them talk to real people about real thing. It was a success. In no time students started talking - sometime with an exegerated American accent!. People in the community heard about the Americans. They invited the Americans for an overnight stay in their homes. I got many calls and I ran out of Americans to give away. There was a lot of good will.generated from this The American should have brought in their camera crew along to records all the activities such as the cultural show where American sang Th Yellow Roses of Taxes in the school hall. I had talks with the local education authority and they agreed to continue accepting Americans in the years to come.

Then came 9/11 a few months later. Scenes of carnage were shown nightly on TV. Students asked me why, in disbelief. I too couldn't stand the sight of bleeding Afghan amidst the ruins of their bombed out shelter. Anti American feeling set in and spread out engulfing the whole of Malaysia.

Another request for visit came again from America. I was too upset to reply

I hope Obama gets the White House job and stop attacking Muslim countries, Then I would welcome the American again