Re: <nettime> Tourists and Terrorists: Guiliani 2000

[McKenzie Wark <mw35@is6.nyu.edu>]

Having just arrived back in New York from Sydney, i have to say i find
this post depressingly familiar. Terrorism is the 90s excuse for the
the panoptic behaviour, not only of natinal governments, but also of
local government. 

It also touches on someting else i've been thinking about -- the new years
eve industry. According to the New York Times, a crowd of 2 million are
expected to come to Times Square to watch the ball drop (whoops, i first
tyed 'watch the bomb drop' -- what a slip!) As it happens, 2 million is
also the crowd estimated to throng to Sydney Harbour to watch the new year
fireworks. Of course, there will have the benefit of warm weather and a 
hell of a lot of vantae points. IN New York, with that many people,
the crowd must stetch down to Union Square.

Anyway, both cities, on different scales, in different ways, have turned
New Year into a industry. Sydney is the opportunistic and provincial
version, but its much the same thing. Channel 9 television, owned by the
number 2 Australian media magnate Kerry Packer, even tried to buy News
Eve. He paid the city council a reputed sum of 400,000 Australian dollars
for exclusive Tv rights to the New Year. Then he sued the national
broadcaster, the ABC, over the latter's plans to photograph the same
fireworks spectacular and broadcast it -- without advertising.

But besides the broadcast rights, think of the tourist angle. All those
out of towners piling in to Sydney and New York -- not just this year
but every year -- buying booze and hotel rooms and bus tickets. Such a
strange kind of tourism -- one where particular locations sell *time*
as a tourist attraction. A kind of time, moreover, available sooner or
later on every point on the planet. 

k

______________________________________
McKenzie Wark  http://www.mcs.mq.edu.au/~mwark
Visiting Professor, American Studies Program, New York University
"We no longer have origins we have terminals"

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