The city of Brisbane is battening down the hatches as it prepares for an invasion.
What invasion?
The Group of Twenty (also known as the G-20 or G20) is coming to town !
Representatives of the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies will soon be arriving in Brisbane creating a huge security nightmare .
The members include 19 individual countries—Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and the European Union ( which is represented by the European Commission and by the European Central Bank.
A huge security presence is tightening its hold on car parks in the CBD, most of which will be shut down.
Every night the sound of low flying helicopters beats down on our rooftop as the Black Hawks and other smaller helicopters fly low over our house towards the night's practice exercise in the city where all sorts of terrible scenarios are rehearsed in preparation.
Soldiers fine tune their G20 preparations in Brisbane's CBD on Sunday night. Photo: Nine News
Obama and Putin will be here, their accommodation carefully planned to minimise the danger of attack from terrorists. They'll be staying on opposite sides of the city.
Whole hotels have been taken over, spruced up and every cranny checked out for the safety of these important people.
A public holiday has been declared as most businesses will be closed, their employees unable to catch public transport to get to their workplaces.
The spectre of riots caused by fly-in professional protestors is a very scary thought with memories of the last G20 meeting in Canada fresh in everyone's minds and most citizens of Brisbane are planning a weekend away and certainly not planning a trip into the city.
Now the Mayor and Premier are worried that the possible boost to tourism (which they anticipated from world-wide exposure of the beauties of Brisbane) may not happen if the streets, cafes and parks are devoid of happy citizens enjoying the outdoors which is the image of Brisbane which they want to promote to the world.
I for one will be staying away.
Cheers.
Your pics of BrizVegas always make me home sick Helen. The G20 sideshow we had up here was fairly low key to what you will be getting ~ but then we didn't have Obama and Putin.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope all goes well Carol. Glad you liked the photos, Brisbane looks lovely at Jacaranda time.
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ReplyDelete(I made a typo in my previous comment...hence the deletion).
ReplyDeleteIf I were in Brisbane...I'd be staying well away, too. I do so hope nothing stupid or despicable happens. I'll be glad when it's all over and things have settled down again.
I love jacarandas....I was admiring the trees in bloom up here when I went out yesterday...they're magnificent. I always look forward to jacaranda time.
Sounds like a real annoyance, so I hope all the fuss is worth it and it stops any nonsense before it begins. Wishing it to be over quickly so life can get back to normal.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of sad that with the world media attention on Brisbane that people wont get to see what a lovely vibrant city it really is.
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely be staying home myself too. Too hard to get around !
I'm embarrassed when I think about the last G20 in Canada. Ridiculous. I'd stay away, too. Wonderful jacaranda tree!
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