Friday 18 May 2012

Nato Chicago

The 25 Interesting (and Odd) Chicago Facts website advises us that Chicago takes it name from a native American word for onion field which covered the land where the Windy City would later be built.
All those onions must have been quite eye watering and there could be a few more tears this weekend as the city that 'Married with Children' was set in hosts the NATO summit.
The city has spent $65m to host the summit and have spent another $1m in riot-control equipment including long range acoustic weapons and upgrading police riot shields as they also welcome tens of thousands of demonstrators who are expected to flood the city.
The G8 summit which is also taking place this weekend was initially scheduled to be held in Chicago, but security concerns saw it was moved to the Presidential compound, Camp David, which is easier to defend against placard waving nurses.
These types of events always attract mass protests and regrettably they often escalate into violence so the heavy security is probably warranted because there are a lot of angry people around as NATO and the leaders of the G8 countries have both been acting pretty shoddy of late.
There will be people protesting about NATO's involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well as the 99% who have been diced and spliced by the West's leaders.
Local police have arrangements in place to shut down mobile phone services to prevent protesters from coordinating their movements through social networks and the Red Cross have a large number of shelters on standby in the event of riot related injuries.
All the ingredients are there for a stormy weekend in Chicago, angry protesters and hyped up police officers armed with sparkly new riot shields, but i never understand why these events are held in major cities.
America is a big place and there are many empty spaces in it so if it has to be held there, build a special place away from the heavily populated areas that is awkward for protesters to get to and harass the leaders.
Another alternative would be to host the meetings on a ship anchored in the middle of one of the great lakes or mid-Atlantic or an even better would be for NATO and the G8 countries to not go around bombing oil rich countries and generally hacking so many people off that they feel they need to protest against them in the first place.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

the ship idea is actually brilliant.

q

Nog said...

I agree, the ship is great.

An a special summit city would be a great idea, but then the leaders couldn't pretend that folks liked them.
And NATO could always use the NORAD base. I don't imagine that they'd let protesters in there.


Also, out of curiosity, does anyone know if some of the European cities like Brussels and Geneva have gotten so packed full of international organizations that they've become de facto summit cities?


-Nog

Cheezy said...

I've no experience of Geneva, but I've been to Brussels a couple of times, once on holiday and once on business. To me, it just felt like a normal biggish European city - just walking round you wouldn't necessarily know that so many civil servants live... (bit like Canberra, or Wellington)... but I believe that most of the EU office space is concentrated in the Leopold Quarter, which is somewhat cloistered away from the rest of 'real' Brussels. Having said all of that, it's possible that my perceptions were blunted by all of that delicious 9% beer...

Anonymous said...

hey cheezy,

isnt chelsea your club? congrats...

q

Cheezy said...

Erm... I'm sure you meant well, but... no, they're not.

I hate them with a passion actually. I was cheering for the Germs.

Lucy said...

Cheering for the Germs here also but not for the same reason you were Cheezy. As soon as the last penalty was taken i switched over to QI, didn't want to see Cole and Terry and that mob celebrating.

Cheezy said...

Snap. That's what I did too.

Actually I think we might have been cheering for Munich for much the same reason. For me, even if Arsenal rather than Tottenham had been in 4th spot, I still wouldn't have wanted Chelsea to win: that's how much I hate them.

More Daily Mash for you. It's funny cos it's true.

Lucy said...

Funny stuff Cheezy. I saw in one of the papers today Alan Shearer thinks England can now go on and win the Euro Cup. I hope that whatever he is suffering from clears up soon.

Cheezy said...

Ha! Rumour has it that Shearer actually gets paid for this incisive punditry.