Today I am off to the World Customs organisation, near the Gare du Nord. In the bowels of this big, grey type building there is to be a conference on the dangers of counterfeit ink.
Will it be as intriguing as the last visit?
Last time I came here was on a rainswept February morning for an East West security conference featuring a lot of high level Russians, Chinese, including Gao Jian (pictured) Director-General for Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Peoples Republic of China, Anatoly Safonov, Russia’s special terrorism representative - but also the US ambassador to the EU, Boyden Gray. Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the commission, was there too.
I spent the lunch hour interviewing the rep for firm called SAP firm which sponsored the event who demonstrated a computer program that could link cars to people to events (such as criminal incidents) and to CCTV camera sightings. For example: type in a registration number and you could find out it was last spotted at ta CCTV camera in London, or crossing the Luxembourg border and that it was bought in 1985 by this and this credit card. All this vast hive of interconnected information on Europe’s citizens and everything they do seemed to be the ultimate instance of big brother. The problem, as always, is the vast amount of information. But the program flag up odd events, such as a person paying for his ticket five minutes before departure on several successive occasions
I looked at him as he spoke. Who was it who said that liberty dies to the sound of thunderous applause? Not necessarily. Perhaps it comes in the monotone of a man selling a vacuum cleaner.
