Think before you act

Today was a pretty normal day. At least...it started that way:

I studied for my Information Architecture class in the morning, washed dishes, cleaned up in my room and wrote some e-mails.

In the early afternoon I decided to go straighten things out regarding my cellphone. I had planned to take Mariahilferstrasse. Didn't happen. The whole street towards the city centre was blocked off with police cars and police tape. There were probably about 60 people standing around watching the ongoings. Exactly what was going I wasn't sure, but I really did have to go get the my cellphone issues straightened out.

An hour later I was strolling through the Naschmarkt with a new cellphone tucked away in my purse. After doing some research I had decided to go with a loadable (no contract) no-frills phone. Originally I'd planned to buy one of the new models and then use it in Canada too...unfortunately our networks aren't the same though and wouldn't be able to support a European cell phone.

The cell phone technology here is far ahead of North American cell phone technology: we're talking flip phones, phones thinner than the Razor, phones with three megapixel cameras, phones with tops that spin instead of slide or flip open and features like you would find if you meshed a blackberry with a laptop with an mp3 player with a GPS navigator with a camera with who knows what else. A guy from church is currently working in London and was telling us about the latest cellphone Porsche is designing: it sounds so useful I'm wondering whether it could act as a third arm.

Anyways, I was strolling through the Naschmarkt looking for a large salmon. Tomorrow I'm doing a trial run Canadian dinner and am hoping to serve baked stuffed salmon. I have five or six girls coming over and so far have only been able to find little rainbow trouts in the grocery store. Now, I had selection...just not quite the selection I was hoping for. I could choose between whole octopus, frozen mini cocktail shrimp, catfish swimming in a barrel, a whole list of different fish and my personal favourite - sting ray. Perfect. (How do you serve sting ray anyway?) I did see one salmon, but it was huge...as in what I would serve if I was having 20+ people over.

Some of the other intersting sights at the Naschmarkt included a wide variety of exotic fruit (I didn't even know half this stuff existed):
- Rambutan (from Malaysia - red with hairy spikes...supposedly has a sweet mildly acidic flavour)
- Dragonfruit (Central/South America and parts of Asia - pink with green spiky things growing out of it...supposedly tastes kind of like a melon with little black seeds)
- Rollinia (from the Amazon - kinda like an artichoke but yellow with brown spine things...supposedly tastes like lemon sherbet)
- Soursop (South America - green with little spikes...supposedly very juicy and refreshing)
- Durian (Asia - browny green with spikes...famous for it's great taste but horrible smell...apparently Anthony Burgess said that eating durian is like eating vanilla custard in the washroom...think I'll stay clear of this fruit)

There you have a brief description of some of the more interesting fruits that were available. I didn't end up buying any, but I did end up buying some goat cheese and Persian bread for dinner that evening.

On the way back home I wanted to take Mariahilferstrasse but it was still blocked off. From what I could see they had closed down almost four blocks. There were still police men standing about and no one was allowed access. TV crews were swarming about but I couldn't find out exactly what was going on.

I found out later what had happened: apparently there was a hostage taking. An armed (with a toy pistol) man held up the Bawag bank on Mariahilferstrasse and took seven hostages including bank employees and bank customers. This sparked an hours long stand off including negotiators, snipers, members of Vienna's version of the SWAT team, members of some Russian security force (they were in Vienna to see how security personnel is trained) and of course members of the media.

Somehow a reporter managed to get a hold of a phone number leading into the bank and somehow made contact with the hostage taker. Exactly what was said I don't know, but the police are furious. A few hours later, a camera crew somehow managed to get into the closed off area and started reporting just down the street but in plain view of the bank. This was shut down pretty quickly too, with the police citing that reporting in plain view of the hostage location could give the hostage taker a tactical advantage ("I know what's going on outside, I know I have an audience, I can play my cards accordingly", or something like that). Despite the hours long hostage and all the theatrics going on outside, the hostage taker ended up releasing his hostages and surrendering to police. No one was shot.

Most recent media reports say the hostage taker had recently broken up with his girlfriend, was unemployed and had spent the previous night drinking with friends. While in the bank he apparently wasn't asking for money, but rather cigarettes and alcohol.

What can be learned from this?

Let's start with the obvious (but apparently not so obvious to the hostage taker): think before you act. If you're looking for cigarettes and alcohol, chances are you'll have more luck if you hold up the local liquor or tobacco shop...the bank is more if you're looking for money.

Second, think before you act. How is holding up a bank going to help you: get your girl back, find employment and recover from last night's hangover? I don't see the connection. From the sounds of things, this little escapade is going to get you 20 years in prison which is not only not appealing (no girl), but also looks horrible to potential employers (no job). I guess the one plus is, you'll probably get over your hang over pretty quick. But still, that's really not a good situation.

Final piece of advice: think before you act.