Dear reader, just when you though the census couldn’t get any sillier, and whilst we prepare our mandarin edition for those members of the communist party who are still digesting the input, we bring you this piece from Cecil. Who incidentally, is in the US of A , and aint been shot yet. 

I’ve been in the USA for 5 days now and I still have not been shot.

A better system than Mykey? Is this possible?

I’ve been in Chicago 3 nights and not been shot.  I’ve ridden the subway and not been shot. Twice I’ve been to O’Hare International airport, Chicago’s major gateway to the wider world, firstly after flying from Melbourne via Sydney and Dallas Fort Worth, where possibly the worst part was landing at Chicago and thinking the journey over, only to find that the plane then taxied through what seemed like three suburbs, and an inestimable 20 minutes to finally dock at Terminal Three.  From there it was a seamless passage through baggage collection and onto the nearby subway and an easy journey on the Blue Line to the CBD Munroe Station, just two small block from my hotel.  No complex, gouging, ticket system here, but a simple choice between single ride, 1 day ticket (US$10), or 3 day ticket (US$20), each timed from first use.

The bean.

I was back at O’Hare next evening to meet a friend who’d flown in from Sydney via San Francisco.  She texted me on landing so I eagerly awaited her appearance.  An age later she emerged from the terminal, having taxied for what must be the mandatory twenty minutes.  Again we took the subway, however were the carriage we boarded was found to have an expired passenger.  (It was not his train ticket that was expired, at least I don’t think that was uppermost on anyone’s mind.)   I looked carefully at the expired passenger who was neatly dressed in white shirt and fawn slacks.  The blood stains from the presumed bullets were totally absent.  Guards and other passengers commented on the likely cause of death being heart attack.  Total anti-climax.  Still I warned my friend (of whom I am very fond, and who I would like to keep alive), to be on the lookout for violin cases being carried by men in suits.  We saw none and arrived safely in downtown Chicago.

When in Chicago, Cecil stays at the Tribune. As the flyer states, ” It has no superior’.

On my first morning I’d walked the streets, and strolled through the wonderful Millennium Park, with its brilliant sculptures, Cloud Gate (commonly known as ‘The Bean’) and the pair of fountains with hologram faces changing expressions on one face of each.  Both sculptures are interactive. People of all ages crowding and engaging with both in attitudes of wonder and bliss.  This park is, I think, design of the highest order.  Between this park and the lake (Lake Michigan) is the Frank Geary designed Pavilion and the Maggie Daley Park.  From there I walked the waterfront, then down the river/canal into the centre of the city.  I was not shot.

Cecil’s hotel room.

In fact for the whole walk I saw not a single policeman, and wondered whether that was the reason why I was not shot.  The headline in today’s Chicago Tribune proclaims ‘702 Police shootings and still no charges’.  It seems that over the past 15 years police had shot  people at the rate of almost one a week, and during that time no police had been charged over any shooting.  Some people are concerned about that.  It has been put to me that there is a higher correlation between socio-economic factors and being shot by police than between race and police shootings.  That is it is poor people who commit visible, blatant crimes and most of the poor are First Nation, Hispanic or African American.  The privileged argue that most who are shot have done something to deserve it.

I have still not been shot, obviously not poor enough, obviously too privileged.