London, April 2, 2010 (ANI): It is huge, dull and drab. The venue for the G20 summit looks more like an aircraft hanger than a venue for a prestigious event like the G20 summit meet. There are so many historical and beautiful buildings in the city and yet this venue was chosen which is located in the isolated Docklands site. The conference centre is at one of Britain's poorest areas where educational levels are lowest and shanties exist beside tall gleaming skyscrapers of the Canary Wharf area which house the now rogue banks, bankrupt media houses and financial institutions which risk closure.

 

22 heads of government have collected here to hammer out a way forward from the financial crisis they have brought upon the world. But couldn't their host Gordon Brown have found a better location than this for a prestigious international political event? The ExCel centre was built at a cost of 250 million pounds in November 2000. It's elephant glass pyramid entrance doesn't seem warm and friendly, but gives the impression of being the entrance to a Las Vegas style casino. The Centre has played host to various sporting events like WWE wrestling and Boat Show. The conference room where the leaders are seated has blue black walls, blue black tables, blue black drapes and red chairs which look like they were pulled out of a kindergarten classroom.

 

The media room is huge with over three thousand work stations with hi speed Internet access. There are over two hundred video edit suites and radio edit rooms. But getting here was nothing short of a nightmare. The accreditation process was long and cumbersome. The security drill was stringent, reflection of the times to come. The Olympics of 2010 will not be a cakewalk. The protesters are being kept miles away from the Excel Centre. After the chaos of yesterday in the financial district, which has taken the serious turn with the death of one protester, authorities are not leaving anything to chance.