The earth moved

Today the earth moved. Not in the Hemingway sense, but literally, a small earthquake, 5.5 on the Richter scale, with the epicentre about 50 Km north-east of Ottawa. Our building shook itself and shuddered a little bit, there was a lot of loud noise like heavy earth-moving equipment, my revolving bookshelves revolved a few degrees and most of the pictures on our walls looked more awry than usual when it was all over. It lasted about 35 seconds according to the CBC radio news. At the epicentre, a road was closed because a bridge had collapsed, a church was severely damaged, and doubtless we will hear of other consequences as the news filters in. The president of China arrives in Ottawa today for a 3-day state visit, so the route in from the airport just across the Canal, and other downtown streets are bedecked with the red flag and its yellow stars, but I don't know whether he was here in time to feel the earth shudder and rumble. He's the first of a great procession of world leaders who will be coming to Canada in the next few days. There's a G8 meeting at a resort community north-west of Toronto, followed by a G20 meeting in Toronto. Much though these world leaders think of themselves as movers and shakers I doubt if the earth will move for these meetings but a great deal of movement and fuss and bother has been going on to prepare for them. When I was in Toronto last week, the city was already being carved up by 3-4 meter high chain-link fences to keep the visitors and dissenting agitators apart. By now Toronto is quite severely segmented so it's difficult for people to get around or to go about their daily business. I don't think many national leaders are coming to Ottawa, for which we can be thankful. Many, perhaps most of us are outraged at the cost of all this, about $1.2 billion for "security" and associated frills to impress the leaders and their retinues of acolytes. For instance, an artificial lake has been constructed in the Toronto convention centre to the scorn and derision of just about everybody who knows about it. Its purpose is to simulate the lakes near the resort community where the G8 meetings will be held. All but a handful of carefully selected reporters will transmit their televised reports with this little artificial lake as a backdrop. pretending that they are speaking from the setting of the G8 meeting. Only this handful - the likes of the BBC and CNN top-rank commentators - will be allowed inside the security barriers around the resort where the G8 meeting takes place. I don't know whether similar arrangements will be applied for the G20 meetings in Toronto but as it would be impossible to simulate the megalopolis of Toronto inside the Toronto convention centre these reporters will presumably be able to go anywhere they choose - so long as it is on the outside of the chain-link security fences that have carved Toronto up into segments. It all seems to me as pointless as these gatherings usually are (and much more costly!). Our world would be a much better place if adequate effort and expense were directed at problems obviously needing effort and expense - like providing homes for all the homeless people in the world - rather than at worthless, pointless and futile activities such as superficial beautification and heavy-handed security for these meetings of national leaders. If they were held on military bases, the security needs of timid world leaders could be met without the disruption and enormous costs of turning a bustling large city into a dysfunctional ghost town as Toronto is for the next few days. But we live in a real world, not an ideal world, so such a sensible solution isn't likely any time soon.