Monday, September 03, 2007

A City Divided

Wilkommen zu Berlin meine Dammen und Herren!

(Except with one major difference, when I was in Berlin in the late '80s at least you were allowed to take photos of The Wall.)

5 kms of chain link fencing has been erected in Sydney to block off entire sections of the city into 'no go zones'. Sydneysiders are being discouraged from entering the city at all this week. Retailers, restaurants, bars and all sorts of businesses stand to lose thousands in lost takings. People living and working in the area have to show ID and justify their reasons for entering. Other areas around the city are designated 'stop & search' zones, where you may be stopped and have yourself and your belongings searched. Iconic Bondi Beach will be closed for a day.

On the upside, many of us (myself included) get to have a public holiday on Friday as further encouragement to avoid the city and the public transport system.

Welcome to Sydney George W. and APEC leaders!

15 comments:

Thombeau said...

Wow. That's some crazy shit, dude.

Ur-spo said...

any chance of fencing him in and keeping him there?

Mikey (TLE) said...

Yes, bizarre. Still, I didn't notice anything at work this morning. Though Wednesday and Thursday are set to be the big days when Dubya arrives.

I hope the police officer who searches me is hot...

The Other Andrew said...

Thombeau, word. Ich bin ein Berliner.

Dr Spo, hell no! :) He's YOUR problem.

The Other Andrew said...

Mikey (tle), it always comes down to hot guys and uniforms, doesn't it?

Fran Carleton said...

I'm with Mikey(tle), they has to be some payoff for not being allowed in our city.

I got told off for taking pictures of the fence yesterday and was made to delete the images. So no piccies of it on my blog!

I'll be at the Australian Springtime Flora Festival manning an Alpaca display from Thursday, so I will miss all the drama. Might see you there ;-)

Fran Carleton said...

... that's in Gosford by the way

Destructomeg said...

I did admire the fence at Circular Quay this morning and the nice Water Police. makes for a lovely ambience!

K-A said...

I'm so sorry that you have to deal with all this nonsense. When the G8 came to Savannah it was a big mess too.

I remember how disconcerting it was seeing the missile launchers placed all around the historic district as well as the over-the-top soldiers in their bulletproof gear.

There were all these precautions only because of that moron G.W. Bush was in town.

The Other Andrew said...

Yah, I don't think we'd have anywhere near the precautions we do if Dubya wasn't here. But then I guess he's probably #1 target for a lot of people, right?...

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

well who wouldn't want to egg or pie him?

at the very least?

Thombeau said...

GW is without doubt the most hated man on the planet. And for good reason!

Unfortunately he seems to be everyone's problem...

jason said...

gee, he was just around
here last week.

there's really no need for all that fuss.

Kenyo said...

Look at it this way. Because of W you are getting a long weekend. He's never given me anything. Well, nothing nice.

Kenyo said...

Happy Birthday!!!

Take the day off.