They closed the Bella Center to all NGOs today, effectively cancelling my scheduled press conference. Before I arrived, at 1:30: the police were beating demonstrators. There were lines of police vans for miles before we reached the Center. we were let out a ten minute walk away from the Bella Center.
I walked upstream against a tide of unhappy NGOs to reach the police lines, a few hundred feet from the entrance. When I told them I had a press conference they directed me to the VIP entrance for advice. I tried to contact my organizer, Marilyn Averill, who was inside and had offered me her secondary badge. At first my new blackberry locked and no one around me could unstick it. Eventually I could call. Meanwhile, I stopped a couple people with a media badge & asked them if they'd be willing to bring my press releases inside. They thought about it, then said, "not my job," and walked on. After a moment of feeling stunned by their lack of generosity, I felt like yelling, "then what do you think you job IS?" But by then, tall & long-legged, they were far beyond earshot, long gone to whatever they considered their REAL job.
I got to the VIP gate and was able to connectw ith Marilyn, who ahd to run a gauntlet to be sure she could get back inside. I gave her the press release and she said she would put them on a shelf. Who knows if anyone will see them? On the other hand I made a nice friend in the line, working on coastal island issues and whose husband works on environmental funding.
I trudged back to Oleg's getting progressively more angry & hungry, where I emailed the U press office, one reporter and a couple others to see what I could do: not much. In a couple minutes I leave to show my films. Later, I'll post photos. Meantime, I'll post the text of the press release for the press conference that never happened.
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