Re: [Leica] Anarchist riots in Gothenburg

["Alan Hull" <hull@telia.com>]

From Hans Pahlen 
... Had I only known what would happen, I would have been there
anyway...
> We have never seen anything like this in Sweden, and the whole
country was in a chock.
- ------------------------
After Seattle and London and elsewhere, it must have been obvious that
riots would take place.  The City was prepared for them.

I was in Gothenburg for the whole three days of the riots.  At first as
a photographer, not a protester, I used my M2 with a 135 mm hector.

The whole event was a pre-planned circus to divert the media from
scrutinising the summit talks. Politicians have discovered a way to
hold top level meetings and decide the worlds future without the press
breathing down their necks.  Think on this, the President of the USA
and and the Presidents and Prime Ministers of all Europe gathered for a
meeting and nobody I know has a clue as to what they talked about.  By
the time the riots were over, the meeting was yesterdays news.

I sincerely believe that Gothenburg was cynically chosen in Sweden
because it has excellent ferry and air connection with Europe, not to
mention disposable architecture (sorry Hans).  The meeting place, in
the heart of Gothenburg, surrounded by chain link fences was
intrinsically ridiculous.  If the polititions wanted to avoid a riot
they could have held the meeting in one of the many large hotels that
dot the countyside.

BTW.  The riots were not political, they were an ugly excuse to
vandalize.  They were an uncontrolled yet strangely organised and
brutal mob on an outing for trouble and for the first time in my life I
got an inkling of what it must have felt like to be a Jew in Germany in
1935.  My opinion only.

Alan