I was walking by the white house and a young man approaches me asking if I knew about the derivatives. Of course i didn't. And he was pleased to hear that in order to be able to explain me this theory about this huge amount of cash which supposedly is kept in the banks from all over the world and that will probably create the real financial crash, the final crash of all the monetary and economic system as we know it. Is that true or false, does not really matter. What it does matter is the fact that he was believing in it, and sometimes in the financial world what you believe it is going to happen is more important than what it is really happening. This kind of virtual reality which materialise on the sidewalks and the offices of the Federal Capital of the United States of America. It is impressive that just few square kilometers contain the main economic and political institutions of the USA and of the entire world. And is impressive to see how this machine works as a daily routine, in a very calm and almost relaxed atmosphere, where people uses one of the few efficient metro systems of the urban north america, enter anonymous buildings which are normal office spaces which no one would pay attention to their architecture if there would not be signs at the entrance indicating that that is actually the "World Bank Group" or the "International Monetary Fund" Headquarters.
Capitol_city #1
The presidential mall. Apotheosis of the nation-building of the United States of America. The National Memory here is not only represented (mise-en-scene), but it is basically created
through a series of monuments recalling the greatness of past Presidents. Washington is at the centre of the (American) Universe. The father of the Nation has been translated into an Obelisk. Someone from a feminist background would add that this add a phallic representation and a men ruled approach to history, and it might actually be true. Two sides of the mall are like the wings of a big bird that sustain the nation. On one side the Lincoln Memorial is particularly touching to see, especially because it gives the breadth of the whole nation building exercise after a civil war which was almost destroying the whole concept of the United States. It is both the celebration of a great man, and celebration of the contradictions of the USA themselves. Which I found extremely high in its intent to display that the strength of the State is to overcome the differences. This become just a huge metaphor of the history of the States in a warm evening of mid-october, when the first potential black president of the Union is completing a successful campaign. On the other side of the mall there is the Congress, on the Capitol Hill. That's where in a laid back sunny afternoon i managed to crash into a Jesus Band and a Christian Preacher. A handful crowd of followers where listening to the preacher, and dancing at the music. If I wouldn't hear that the speech was about life and against abortion I could have easily taken the scene directly from the sixities. The young people around, being in trance just like hippies smoking pots and having LSD. Are them the new hippies (conservative version)? I don't have an answer for that. But surely the mall is the big stage where not only the institutional discourse of the nation has been celebrated and displayed but also where the people have been contesting it... think about the protests against the war in Vietnam... another way of looking at the lobby_city. Lobby_city #2
In Brussels there is a peculiar place called "place luxembourg" where you can find all the assistants and the interns of the European Parliament having their "happy hour" after work. Big place for encounters and networking, and again lobbying. Washington D.C. is a big "Place Luxembourg", and Du Pont Roundabout is the centre that emanates this big bang of relatively cheap beers and drinks after working hours. That's where most of the young diplomats and burocrats get their time off after having climbed the "stairway to heaven", which is the escalator of one of the deepest metro station of the city. The other side of the lobby_city is there.
Capitol_city #2
Adams-Morgan is now a place for going out. A bit like Du Pont but more racially mixed. the name comes from the one of the first racially mixed schools in the USA which resulted from the merging of a white school and a black school. I like to think that today the historical meaning of this merging is celebrated through the melting pot of the bars there.
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