Since September 11, I think it’s mandatory that each building in Manhattan conducts a trial evacuation at least once a year. The idea is to test how quickly the building can be evacuated in an emergency scenario, hence there is no advance warning. Lucky for us, our evacuation was held today. Had I have known that I’d be walking down 16 flights of un-air-conditioned stairs today, I probably wouldn’t have bothered running after gym this morning.
Anyway, our meeting point is Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (check out that link, it’s a great photo!), only a couple of blocks from work, and the very same one I run down after gym. It’s also a popular place for people to stage demonstrations/rallys/protests etc, since it’s a large space, and it’s close to the UN (who many people seem to have a beef with). Like today.
So, we all start streaming out of UN Plaza 2 to the sounds of some woman screaming into a microphone. Turns out the rally was to raise awareness of the Nanking Massacre during World War II. There was also a link to the UN somehow, though I couldn’t entirely work it out (something to do with the Japanese delegate to the Security Council).
Of course, the girl on stage was totally stoaked to see so many people in the crowd… “It’s great to see how many people have turned up to support our cause!”, etc. I’m fairly certain she had no idea why we were there; more-so, I’m certain she had no idea where we all worked.
4 comments
Dag Hammars is also the place to get yummy but over-priced coffee, and fruit and veg, with a farmers market there every Wednesday. It’s got it all!
Good to see that you still have your Aussie Accent G. ("Stoaked")
Cheers mate, ay!
he he that’s so funny, to think how excited that professional protester was – it was probably her biggest crowd ever… hee hee hee!!