PITTSBURGH — This city is not London, Berlin, Beijing or Sao Paolo. But Pittsburgh is a quintessential American city that has come back stunningly from the ashes of steel mills and heavy industry.

So, it is an apt place for President Obama to have picked for the meeting of the G20, an assemblage of some of the world’s most sophisticated leaders who bunked in the above-mentioned cities for previous G20 gatherings, taking in the international style and flavor of those places.

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One interesting point about the G-20 is that, although the 19 countries concerned are billed as the 19 biggest economies, four of them -- Argentina, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa -- are not.  If one was being strict about it, based on Gross Domestic Products, in the place of these four would be Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.  The reason is probably is not like that is because if one stuck strictly to the biggest GDPs, there would be no African countries, no Arab countries and only one South American country included.

Another observation I would make is that we Pittsburghers should stop complaining about all the security and the inconvenience it represents for us.  All it would take to add the word "tragic" to the words Pittsburgh G-20 Summit would be one incident -- an assassination, an assassination attempt, a car bomb, or a protestor or a security person killed or badly injured.  So we just need to live with the security measures for a few days, according to me.

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First, by way of introduction, I'm a Pittsburgh native who's been blogging about all things political at http://www.2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com for the last five years.

On May 28th when the White House announced that Pittsburgh would host the G-20 Summit my first thought was what a great opportunity to showcase our city immediately followed by one word: Seattle.

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Hello, Pittsburgh. My name is Thomas Mucha, and I'm the managing editor and global commerce columnist  for the international news web site GlobalPost. 

It's an honor to be sharing my thoughts and observations with you this week as the world comes to Pittsburgh (though in the spirit of full disclosure I'm writing this morning from Chicago, just a few miles from Soldier Field and few hours before I expect my Bears to crush your Steelers).

But setting those tribal affiliations aside for the moment, we at GlobalPost are thrilled to be partnering with the Post-Gazette. Our columnists and correspondents in the G-20 nations are eager to share with you their on-the-ground insights about the economies, issues, and political goals of the leaders now snaking their way to your great city.

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Pittsburgh photographer Beth Kukucka did a slideshow of a recent meditative gathering for the G20 summit. 

In preparation for the Summit, various groups, churches and individuals are holding Pittsburgh in prayer and meditation, from September 11 through September 25. Beth created this video slideshow from one of the recent meditative circles. To find out more about these gatherings, please visit www.Peaceburgh.com. For more about Beth Kukucka Photography, please visit her website at www.BethKPhoto.com

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Ever wonder how your views on international policy compare with those of world leaders? Here's your chance to find out!  It's the CivicScience.com G20 Heads of State spectrum. 

We took all of the leaders and researched their stances on Energy, Environmental, and Economic issues. This research was wrapped in a scoring system that outputs a score for each head of state on a left ----> right political spectrum, with each leader being represented by their country's flag.  Users can answer a survey of about 20 questions that cover the topic areas the leaders are scored on.  Upon completion of the survey, a score is created, and they are placed on the spectrum alongside the leaders of the member counties.  Additionally, all flags are linked back to the Wikipedia entry for the heads of state in question.     

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