A guide on how to close down Washington DC
The ingredients for a succesful plan to close down Washington DC are less sophisticated than one might think. They do not consist of anything illegal. Nor does it require any skill that are usually attributed to terrorists. It however requires some good connections to the top authorities, if you want to be able to time the deployment of your plan. The only thing you need is water in the proper physical state and the right temperature. Welcome to the snow season in Washington DC.
The storms are usually announced days in advance, and usually quite acurately, thus making the weather a major topic in news and everday conversations. One would think that the city has enough time to get prepared. However, every Washingtonian knows quite well what will hapen, if more than a few snowflakes hit the ground: chaos will take over. Schools will be closed, offices will announce a late start of work and streets will be a mess, filled with snow and ill-equped cares driven by snow-inexperienced drivers. The normal reaction before such an event: people run to the stores and stock up on milk, bread and water, leaving the shelves bare in grocery stores. Who knows how long the chaos will last. Listening to people, it is the same scenario every single time. The city authorities always seem to be unable to deal with snow. It seems odd. I am living in the capital of the richest country in the world, yet the authorities of Washington do not seem to be able to afford the necessary equipment to clear the streets and sidewalks during winter, even though the city gets an average of 40 cm of snow per winter.
Mid Februray, the capital of the free world* was hit by an ice storm. Within a few hours, the city was covered with a 3 cm layer of ice. The city was one big mess. Since Seba and I rely on the metro, we decided to go to work, assuming that the world underground would be ok (our office was closed for the day, since most of our co-workers rely on cars). Unfortunately, metro was also suffering from the weather. A blocked train on the way caused a huge delay. Our trip on the redline from Union Station to Friendship Heights usually takes about 20 minutes. During rush hour, trains run every three minutes. Not on that day, though. It took us an hour for four stations. Six more to go. At that point, the typical, inapprehensible voice of the driver informed us passengers that we had to change to a shuttle bus. Following this announcement, we had to do some thinking. The streets are a mess. How long will the shuttle bus have to get us where we wanted to go? Well, we decided to have a coffee at Union station on the way back and opted to stay home, after all. The next day I learnt in the Post that the city, accordiing to its mayor Adrian Fenty, "did a pretty good job" in cleaning the streets. Really? I do not know how big the uproar would have been in Bern, if the city would have done the same job... But, and that is truly amazing, people stayed calm and accepted the situation without grumbling and complaining. Maybe it is the patience of people here that allows the city to create an inevitable chaos, while in many other cities, in this country and elsewhere, such a behavior could jeopardize the political future of a major.
*Interestingly, this term is still used today by some US citizens to refer to their country. This seems strange. The repeated intrusion of the US government into the privacy and freedom of its citizens seems to me a major infringement of the freedom. Yet, it has done little harm (except that it might have contributed to the incredible low support for W). In many European countries early elections would have been called for, if the government would have taped phones and reading e-mails of law abiding citizens. Here it is different. Apparently, the war on terror justifies any means and the usually highly defended bill of rights seem to have lost its importance..
The storms are usually announced days in advance, and usually quite acurately, thus making the weather a major topic in news and everday conversations. One would think that the city has enough time to get prepared. However, every Washingtonian knows quite well what will hapen, if more than a few snowflakes hit the ground: chaos will take over. Schools will be closed, offices will announce a late start of work and streets will be a mess, filled with snow and ill-equped cares driven by snow-inexperienced drivers. The normal reaction before such an event: people run to the stores and stock up on milk, bread and water, leaving the shelves bare in grocery stores. Who knows how long the chaos will last. Listening to people, it is the same scenario every single time. The city authorities always seem to be unable to deal with snow. It seems odd. I am living in the capital of the richest country in the world, yet the authorities of Washington do not seem to be able to afford the necessary equipment to clear the streets and sidewalks during winter, even though the city gets an average of 40 cm of snow per winter.
Mid Februray, the capital of the free world* was hit by an ice storm. Within a few hours, the city was covered with a 3 cm layer of ice. The city was one big mess. Since Seba and I rely on the metro, we decided to go to work, assuming that the world underground would be ok (our office was closed for the day, since most of our co-workers rely on cars). Unfortunately, metro was also suffering from the weather. A blocked train on the way caused a huge delay. Our trip on the redline from Union Station to Friendship Heights usually takes about 20 minutes. During rush hour, trains run every three minutes. Not on that day, though. It took us an hour for four stations. Six more to go. At that point, the typical, inapprehensible voice of the driver informed us passengers that we had to change to a shuttle bus. Following this announcement, we had to do some thinking. The streets are a mess. How long will the shuttle bus have to get us where we wanted to go? Well, we decided to have a coffee at Union station on the way back and opted to stay home, after all. The next day I learnt in the Post that the city, accordiing to its mayor Adrian Fenty, "did a pretty good job" in cleaning the streets. Really? I do not know how big the uproar would have been in Bern, if the city would have done the same job... But, and that is truly amazing, people stayed calm and accepted the situation without grumbling and complaining. Maybe it is the patience of people here that allows the city to create an inevitable chaos, while in many other cities, in this country and elsewhere, such a behavior could jeopardize the political future of a major.
*Interestingly, this term is still used today by some US citizens to refer to their country. This seems strange. The repeated intrusion of the US government into the privacy and freedom of its citizens seems to me a major infringement of the freedom. Yet, it has done little harm (except that it might have contributed to the incredible low support for W). In many European countries early elections would have been called for, if the government would have taped phones and reading e-mails of law abiding citizens. Here it is different. Apparently, the war on terror justifies any means and the usually highly defended bill of rights seem to have lost its importance..
Klodynis - 2007-03-01 11:35
