Offline: The day Bill Gates crossed the road

摘要

It began on April 26, 2007, the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. 5 days a week for the past 7 years, from 8am until 6pm, a person stands silently outside WHO. On the corner of Route des Morillons and Avenue Appia, he or she holds a sign around their neck. One reads: "Chernobyl. WHO: 52 deaths. New York Academy of Sciences: 985 000 deaths." It is a vigil that protests WHO's alleged indifference to the truth of what its critics consider nothing less than a crime. For visitors to WHO, the demonstration is often their first sight as they walk up the hill from Geneva's city centre. One might judge the protesters eccentrics. A "here today, gone tomorrow" picket that is the product of some mad, grand conspiracy theory about the industrial-military complex and WHO's complicity and collusion.