G20

The G20 meeting will be held in Pittsburgh next week. This group is made up of the largest economies, generally, in the world and can be loosely defined as an organization devoted to building and sustaining individual economies while encouraging world financial stability. They bravely hold these meetings despite showing no evidence that they either understand or can control the financial factors involved. Nor are they deterred by the complex and inherently contradictory economic philosophies that the make up organization membership.
These meetings are routinely attacked, rhetorically and physically, by various and sundry groups with a similar contradictory makeup including groups favoring one world government, groups opposed to one world government, fascists, communists, anarchists and groups with single interests like animal rights. The tactics are mainly disruptive and seem to emphasize excrement. The net effect is that the meeting designed to foster economic growth usually results in the disruption of all economic activity in its meeting place. Indeed, Pittsburgh has closed off its downtown, its hospitals have gone on short staff and most of the businesses within rifle shot have closed for the week.
Apparently eighteen cities declined the honor of hosting this event. In that light one wonders who benefits from such a focused tsunami. If they met more often would the current disaster been averted? As Obama raises imports taxes on China tires, will the two countries sit beside each other cordially? With the world roiled by the U.S. hellbent on debasing its currency, will the G20 help? Will the economic benefits of the group's stay at Nemocolin filter up through the depressed areas of the Monongahela Valley to the businesses of Pittsburgh, shuttered and vandalized?
It's more likely that this event is a junket for both the politicians and the protesters and that both groups should be properly seen as participants in a social event, like Mardi Gras. Both groups follow historically honored behavior and tradition, both are properly costumed, the event shuts down all commerce and takes weeks to recover from. If this event is such a pageant, a bit of planning could protect innocent bystanders from their self indulgence. It could be held periodically in a desert --like Burning Man--and the political connoisseurs could be bused or flown in from nearby luxury ranches and hotels. Or shipboard. A little effort could make this a safe event for all without depriving the participants of their true aims of good food and drink, luxury hotels and the apparent pathological need to see themselves on television.