Dresden preparing for Obama (2)
While the excitement about the visit of the US president mounts, I have to exercise an enormous amount of self control not to tweet and blog every little detail I notice. Apart from the fact that probably no one except me is excited about it (even though some colleagues have been seen lurking at the windows longer than usual), I also don’t want to write anything that might make the job of the people in charge more difficult.
Only a few weeks ago irresponsible use of Twitter caused a major uproar here in Germany when the result of the election of our Bundespresident (highest office in Germany, though more of a ceremonial role with limited powers) was twittered before the official announcement. So, whenever I see a secret service agent now or something interesting happens, I just look on and try to keep my fingers away from the iPod and the computer. Doesn’t work 100 percent, but we are getting there.
Still, while at work, I can’t help to look outside and notice the helicopters flying formation, the fences being erected around the security perimeters, and of course the secret service agents scouting the rooftops next to us. Which is kind of funny, because the roof they were on was on the same level as the floor I work on. And we have yet another floor above us and the roof itself. I guess we’ll host some of these gentlemen as well on Thursday and Friday. On the weekend, once President Obama has left for France, I’ll post a Google screenie showing where we are and where the hotel Taschenbergpalais relative to us 
In the meantime, it’s great to see how people – even tourists – become more and more aware of what’s going on. It helps that all our trams are sporting a large sticker on the front that reads “Welcome Mr. President”. I doubt, though, that he will even lay eyes on one, with his filled schedule. It doesn’t help that our chancellor, Angela Merkel, insists on meeting the President despite the White House’s attempts to keep this visit on the private side. Thanks to her and the time she takes up in his schedule, he might have to skip a trip to one or more of our historical sites. I know why I did not vote for her.
Tram: Welcome Mr President
(For the interested: US flag, German flag, flag of Saxony – Dresden is the capital of the state of Saxony)
Anyway, we haven’t heard anything definitive about access to our offices on Thursday and Friday. Right now, it looks like we’ll be allowed to come, but I guess that could still change. Keepin’ my fingers crossed (please, keep yours crossed for me as well *thx*).
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About that twitter “incident”: THEY had to know better than doing so – you’re not actively involved in it. So I dont think you have to execute self-censorship (which is actually the worst form of censoship – but I’m drifting off here).
And if you get in trouble, you will have another interessting story to tell :P
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Starstuff Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I know, I know. But I am trying to put myself into the situation of the people in charge. They are doing everything they can not to attract too much attention: running around in civvies, mixing with tourists … they do that for a reason. They have quite some responsibility to shoulder and I would hate to tweet where they are setting up their stations if they don’t want people to know. I mean, if you look closely, you’ll see it, but there’s no point drawing too much attention to them. Their job is hard enough, no point making it harder.
And sheesh, I do have interesting stories to tell about me and local Greenville police, me and the FBI (J. Egdar Hoover building in Wash., D.C.), me and the customs cops in Chicago, me and the security personnel at the UN building in New York … for some reason, I don’t think I need to add to that collection.
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