Frankfurt Book Fair on a Dull Note....

Seems the Frankfurt Book Fair where India is the partner country has been subdued according to this report by Herbert R. Lottman. Reason? Terrorist threat, still persistent, after security has, well, I will use the cliche after all, been beefed up.

"Security was reinforced--"massively," as fair management informed visitors," reads the article, though what threats terrorists can pose to a book fair, foxes me. But, wait a minute, books are about ideologies and, yes, in that case. Wasn't Rushdie given a fatwa because of a book?

One wonders why Frankfurt is such a big draw for exhibitions and fairs? The reason is that after the Second World War, Germany was devastated and they needed something to rebuild their economy. So they positioned themselves as the exhibition capital of the world, a position that Singapore occupies as the exhibition capital of Asia.

Sad to say, a similar effort was made by an exhibition company to project Bombay as the trade fair center of Asia, which failed due to various apathies that need not be mentioned here.

Technorati tags: Frankfurt Book Fair, India, Security, exhibitions