Katie's Easter Sunday with the CIA in Faslane

by Renate Zauner

Katie is four and Scottish.

She arrived at the nuclear submarine base in Faslane by car with her mum, little brother Billie, her soft toy "Blue Cow" and a yummy Easter egg. When we walked towards the gate to join the CIA(*1), she wanted to know what we are doing there, so I explained that there was something really dangerous inside the fence and that we wanted them to take it away because it can hurt people.

We then had a nice picnic inside the barriers that the police had put up at the entrance "for our own safety" and went to see the Older Lesbians at the other side of the gate, to play hide and seek with our various soft toy cows behind the rocks that the police had put up to prevent people from camping. Then Katie had to pee so we went on the hill opposite, where we found a lot of nice flowers that somebody had trampled down in protest against the peace demonstrations. "If I give them to the police, they will be happy", Katie said, so we picked up a bunch and started distributing them. "I want to give more flowers, I want more police", Katie said and fortunately enough that proved not to be a problem - the protesters were hugely outnumbered by police and all the flowers found an owner (though not for long,...).

When crossing the road to join the CIA, Katie spotted a huge police dog inside the gate. "I want a puppy like this.", she stated and added: "Why do the police have dogs?". I was at a loss for an answer and was told by a police man near us that they are very good for finding people, so I explained to Katie that they used the dogs in case people got lost. "But the dog can get lost, too", she said. Which of course, is very true.

Katie then spotted a police officer standing before the barrier with a serious face. "Why she so sad?". The CIA decided it was time for a bit of laughter so we started our "Easter egg missile decommissioning", which basically involved banging eggs disguised as missiles against one another and having loads of fun. Unfortunately the police did not join in so the serious police officer that Katie spotted is probably still sad.

When the evening came it was time to go home. So I walked the little girl, whose international guardian angel I am, along the fence with the barbed wire, to her mummy's car. "We will have to take down all of this", she said. " I asked why. "So that we can take out the dangerous things", she said.

That was Katie`s first day in Faslane.