The globalized city

Clive Doucet argues in Urban Meltdown that cities have become the real agents of global change, that it's on that level that we consider ourselves citizens of the world while nations are dinosaurs concerned mostly with raising taxes and supporting the military-industrial complex.

As proof, he points out the so-called wars on terror in the US, England and Spain, contrasted with the giant protests against the Iraq war in New York, London and Madrid, and the horrible terror attacks on those cities. He argues the countries were acting like dinosaurs while people in the cities were acting as global citizens, and it was the cityfolk who payed the price.

He's an unlikely politician -- a poet elected to Ottawa city council rather unexpectedly. His perspective about cities surprises me -- I think expect that if I were in his situation, I would feel overwhelmed and uncertain of how to bring about change, but he clearly feels empowered. I'm impressed that instead, he feels like he's working in the most important layer of government.