“You planned your trip perfectly!” one of my Aussie friends told me as soon as he heard when I’d landed in Sydney. And no, it wasn’t just because I’d get to watch all of the excitement of the footy finals; I’d also missed the “drama” that was the Leaders’ Week meeting of APEC on Sept. 8 and 9 (my flight landed on the morning of the 11th).
Most news stories I read flying into Sydney and on my first few days here, said it seemed Sydney-iders (is that what they’re called here?) weren’t too pleased with the lockdown of the city. And they all blamed, of course, attendee George W. Bush saying he’s the reason the local government went over the top in its security (including declaring Friday the 7th a public holiday to prepare for the street closures).
OK, I have to admit reading about some of the measures, even I thought they were a bit extreme. Still, though, I wasn’t baffled by them. I mean, I’ve been living in LA for the last four years. My roommates and I all taught in schools that at some point over our two-year time were on complete lock down — with students inside of them — for hours (and as classrooms have no toilets, I’ll let you think of how pleasant that is for the students and teachers). This past year I’d had my commute nicely lengthened when I’d been diverted on an hour-long detour around the airport so another action movie could be shot nearby. And for the past few years I’d been prohibited from driving near Hollywood and Highland for every week (yes, the entire week) leading up to the Academy Awards. And these are all just measures taken for run-of-the-mill people and the Hollywood crowd.
So was I surprised Sydney went a little crazy having many of the world’s leaders all in one place? No. But as I recently watched a small private aircraft fly freely right over the Aussie Prime Minister’s Sydney home recently, I realized that even though Sydney looks and acts a lot like SoCal, “I’m not in L.A. anymore.” So, yeah, it seems APEC gave the Aussies just one more thing to dislike about G-Dub.
