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from India Insight:
Is the outraged Indian over-sensitive or culturally prudent?
Protests are as common in India as the 'Singh' surname in the national hockey team.
On the face of it, it's one indicator of a free society where every citizen can get his voice heard. But agitations like the recent one against a film crew for recreating parts of Chandigarh to look like a Pakistani city seem to create an impression of misplaced priorities (and some would say too much free time for the protesters).
Hindu radicals decried the Pakistan link; and not to be left out, a Muslim umbrella body said the movie about the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden showed their religion in a bad light.
Apart from Pakistan and religion, one also has to be careful in making public comments on topics which touch on caste, class, ethnicity, geography and gender.
The straight-talking and self-professed forward-looking chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Mamta Sharma, discovered the gender minefield when she said at a seminar that girls should not be offended if someone calls them 'sexy'.
Rights activists and politicians slammed her, saying the sexually suggestive word "promotes violence".
But there are many liberals who defend the right to free speech and artistic freedom. Local artists in Chandigarh defended Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow's film crew on their right to make a realistic movie set (even if it meant temporarily creating a mini-Pakistan), while the protests against author Salman Rushdie’s scheduled presence at the Jaipur Literary Festival in January was slammed by the media and many literary figures.
from Photographers Blog:
Occupying Starbucks
By Paul Hackett
I left the Occupy protest camp at St Paul's cathedral in London to go to Starbucks to file the pictures that I had taken. As I walked through the door I saw this man sitting there; of course it made me smile. I took a few images of him and then a member of staff put their hand over my lens. I knew that I had something, so it was fine. I sat close to him, got his name (Adam Murray) and sent the picture in. It was with the office a few minutes after I took it - I wish they were all that easy!
Up till a couple of years back, I frequented Starbucks for coffee and enjoyed surfing the web almost everywhere in their chains.
I have since stopped, not because of the many homeless people I have met there. Rather, what made me shocked was an experience in Los Angeles. I witnessed several Hispanic Starbucks employees served a tall, well dressed Caucasian American male first, before a petite Asian casually dressed Asian girl. When the Asian girl complained, the manager and a few Hispanic Starbucks staff, rather than apologizing practically harassed her, constantly coming up to disturb her in a patently annoying way. She was just using her laptop like this guy, without the facial gear of course. What’s more shocking was that when a routine police patrol officer came in for coffee, the Hispanic manager and staff’s behavior reminded me of Mexican drug lords, acted in pretense that they wielded special connection with the police, giving hounding looks to the petite customer several times during the conversation with the police. The Asian girl was smart enough to call it a bluff.
The next morning, the Asian girl came back for coffee again. And I heard the Hispanic manager and the staff comment blatantly and outrageously, that this customer “dared to come back”, as if they were rolling up their sleeves to harass her more by making excuses to disturb her while she used her laptop. Right then, the same patrol policeman came in again for coffee, only this time, he sat down at the nearby table to the Asian girl, instead of taking the coffee to go. The policeman was very affable, and started chatting with various customers all around him. Some of the customers seem to know the policeman just from frequenting that Starbucks store. I heard the policeman say that they like to get to know the local, because it helps them fight crime more effectively, but the Starbucks manager was not standing close enough to hear that.
It was very obvious that this police officer had not noticed that the Starbucks manager had misused the police’s presence and general friendliness to puff up a harassment attempt.
The Asian girl joined the conversation with several others with the policeman. And it was obvious that the policeman almost became interested in her and took a liking to her, asking her what she does for a living. And she was a scientist. It was one of the most amusing experience I’ve ever experienced at Starbucks, when I saw the Hispanic manager looked at the sight with almost horror(yes, more than embarrassment). After the policeman left, the same employees that harassed the girl the day before, suddenly started acting obsequiously. It served them well, for behaving like hooligans as Starbucks employees.
Somehow though, that experience, though amusing, seemed to quench my thirst for Starbucks experiences forever after. Somehow, I rarely went back to Starbucks any more. It might have something to do with the bragging of that Starbucks manager that he was a hiring manager for the greater area of Los Angeles in that vicinity, and not just for that particular Starbucks. I had seen him bring in a Hispanic youngster, who appeared to be looking for a job, and interviewed him in the center of the Starbucks store, so that many of the customers cannot avoid hearing the interview to sense his “power” level at Starbucks. No telling if he was acting. Didn’t look like it.
No matter what, my “addiction” to Starbucks coffee evaporated just like that, without “rehabilitation” ever after. Curious why. It’s quite a different “OCCUPY STARBUCKS” story, but perhaps no less curious and interesting. This picture just brought all that back to mind.
from Edward Hadas:
Occupy Wall Street and the shallowness of discontent
By Edward Hadas The views expressed are his own.
Occupy Wall Street can claim a tremendous heritage. In almost every generation – from the French Revolution of 1789 to the student revolts of the 1960s – popular movements have rejected a society which, they say, denies some sort of basic freedom. But for a protest to leave a lasting impression, it has to start or mark a significant cultural change. What could OWS signify?
The Occupy movement certainly expresses popular fury at high finance. But that sentiment is far from revolutionary. President Obama and many business dignitaries have expressed sympathy. There also seems to be anger at inequality created by unjust practices. In the words of an October 14 blog entry on Occupywallst.org, the “99 percent” of the population will “no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the one percent.” Such righteous indignation could perhaps spawn a revolution, but only if it came with a more positive agenda. As it stands, though, the manifestos and soundbites coming out of the leaderless groups are long on complaints and short on both intellectual coherence and suggestions for new arrangements.
Still, this movement must have something going for it. It has spread around the world and attracts much friendly attention from the mainstream media. I see three forces at work.
First, economic confusion. Occupiers see the economy as a disaster. They blame the triumph of “neoliberals” who put their trust in small government and big companies. Many of the hand-lettered signs at Occupy protests go further; they suggest the enemy is not an erroneous ideology but a huge economic conspiracy of the elite against the people.
Such claims are not justified. The global economy is certainly not in bad shape. The big news these days is the increasing prosperity and influence of China, India and other countries which used to be too poor to matter. The U.S. economy does have problems, especially in the job market, but the country remains prosperous. Occupy is certainly right that the elite are still powerful; that is what elites do. New laws and regulations would be enough to temper corporate power; a brand new economic order is not required.
As for the dangers of neoliberalism, faulty ideology did indeed lead to inept deregulation of the financial sector, but the political tide is already flowing in the opposite direction. In other parts of the economy, there is no need for reversal. During the years leading up to the crisis, the U.S. government increased its sway over healthcare, education and mortgage finance – three of the four domains citied in the Occupy Wall Street blog as under neoliberal control.
@Stemcollege_ you’re funny! You believe the hype about math and science skills.
I’ve had my share of college math and science and found they were never needed at most employment. But the schools have to put something in your heads for 12 plus years. And they have to have some sales pitch to induce you to go into a school of higher mis-education for another four or more. Otherwise there would be too many young people looking for too few jobs.
In fact so many jobs require reading skills more than anything else and especially the ability to write coherently.
Even computer training classes online at Harvard that claim to deal with programming, are more about manipulating packages of programs and understanding their concepts.
The world is full of stories about people who were overeducated in the very demanding so-called hard fields, and if the economy doesn’t need them, it’s the unemployment lines or any job they can get.
I am convinced that the most difficult subject is music and learning to play a musical instrument. And public schools seem to be cutting back on all their arts programs. Another one is drawing and painting, especially lifelike portraiture and sculpture. Whole periods of art history actually forgot how to do it or never learned.
BTW – it was either everyone in a mortgage or a lot more public housing. Apartments have not been built as frequently as condo’s since the 80s. Come on Mr. Wizard -haven’t you noticed? Being a landlord is a very risky business and no town or city’s taxpayers have ever liked public housing. In my self-employment in the architectural field since the early 80s, I never saw a single client building a new apartment building. Everything was an office park, planned unit development, office building or condominium building. Nobody wanted to rent, except office space.
from Anthony De Rosa:
Don’t dismiss the Wall Street occupation
It would seem that a populist uprising against corporate greed would find a widely approving audience, yet the current occupation of Wall Street has mostly been received with a mix of muted support and mockery. The now week old protest, which has been reported to have attracted several hundred activists this past weekend, is struggling to be understood.
There is no leader, by design, and the demands are still being formed by General Assemblies, a loose group of protesters who gather to discuss their grievances with what they see as a system that takes from the middle class and poor and protects the rich. They represent what they call "the 99%," the population outside of top 1% of income earners.
Protesters complained early on that they were not receiving attention from mainstream media, so they took to social media, using the hashtag #occupywallst (and apparently spreading to #occupyboston #occupyLA #occupydenver #occupytexas #occupynola #occupychi #occupyphoenix as well,) sharing minute by minute accounts on Twitter, posting photos and video, and live streaming nearly the entire time.
The claims that there is a lack of mainstream coverage doesn't seem to hold water, and could simply be a ploy to encourage even more coverage. The protests have been covered by Reuters, The New York Times, and major networks. Anonymous and Ad Busters are major promoters and loose organizers of the protests but the movement doesn't appear to be born directly from the groups.
Are they a mob of over-privileged, unemployed trustafarians? Many of them likely are. Does it matter? Dismiss them if you will, they're motivated and mobilized. An apathetic population asked to foot the bill for the fallout from credit default swaps is exactly what the 1% ordered. The last few years the country has been told to fear an economic collapse if the masses fail to fork over what amounts to corporate welfare, and more recently, that more jobs will be lost if we close tax loopholes. Many claim that these protesters are anti-capitalist, but most are simply disillusioned by a form of capitalism they suggest is so far out of whack that the opportunity for bootstrap pulling is nearly non-existent. They propose that the current environment unapologetically favors the richest of the rich.
There is concern, by people like Ginia Bellafonte the New York Times, that these protesters are simply flakes. These are a "noble but fractured and airy movement of rightly frustrated young people." She refers to the gathering as a "carnival" and uses quotes of ridiculous demands, to "get rid of the combustion engine" and their muddled unfocused kaleidoscope of "liberal" causes: "concerns about the death penalty, the drug war, the environment."
Bellafonte paints the picture so it can be easy for the comfortable Times readers to dismiss these seemingly misguided youth. Where have I heard this before? If you're someone of my age, a thirty-something, ask your parents. Chances are they were once young and "misguided" and maybe even motivated by the likes of merry pranksters like Abbie Hoffman. Many of them likely would easily have identified with these so-called court jesters. Every movements starts somewhere and often it begins with very lofty ideas and few well-defined tactics. A week in, their goal was simply to do exactly what their namesake describes: occupy and control the public space in or near Wall Street, to have their presence felt and voices heard, even while they haven't yet found the words.
“There are very real ways to work to change the system, legislatively. And most of us who care deeply about the country, the workforce, and the economy are hard at works where it matters — with our Senators and Representatives and lobbying efforts.”
Really?
Our current dysfunctional Legislative Branch and Impotent Executive Branch, both which seem to be captured by crony capitalist lobbying interests, are some of the major reasons why people are taking it to the streets.
Lack of credible representation is precisely what leads to this sort of thing.
Not that there aren’t a lot of credible and competent people within the system trying to hammer out something workable. But a minority of extremists within government have managed to deadlock and corrupt the process.
from Full Focus:
Israel’s tent city
Photographer Nir Elias has been covering the ongoing demonstrations against the high cost of living in Israel. In this series Nir documents Tel Aviv's tent city by combining portraits of protesters with images of their street dwelling.
from Photographers Blog:
Chile’s dog days
By Ivan Alvarado
Today it seems the dictatorship ended only recently….
A newspaper front page shows a dog participating in the demonstrations in Chile. It seems that anything can happen these troubled days around the world, so between slogans and statements it makes sense to write a blog about street dogs and demonstrations.
“Free quality education.” - Student movement “Nothing is free in life.” - President Sebastian Pinera “Education should not be for profit.” - Student movement “Gang of useless subversives.” - Carlos Larrain, president of the ruling party “We don’t need mediators, and especially not from the Catholic Church.” - Camila Vallejo, student leader. “It’s going to fall, it’s going to fall….the education of Pinochet.” – Demonstrators. “Education is a commodity.” – President Pinera. “The government exaggerates the students’ claims to demonize them.” - Mario Waissbluth, expert on education. “The only thing they [the demonstrators] want to do is destroy the country and us.” – Chile’s National Police. “I’m a gardener and I want my son to be an engineer.” – Street graffiti.
With the camera on manual mode, shutter speed 1/1000, and my view limited by a gas mask, my 70-200mm lens changes focus with agility and it seems most often to lock on a dog running in and out of its view trying to capture a water jet aimed by riot police at hundreds of student protesters of diverse origin, all of them united under the conviction that a better education in Chile is possible.
from George Chen:
China’s toxic leaks and social unrest
By George Chen The opinions expressed are the author’s own.
What does PX mean? That's the keyword for China from the past 24 hours.
State media reported that residents of Dalian were recently forced to flee when a storm battering the northeast Chinese coast, whipping up waves that burst through a dyke protecting a local chemical plant. The plant produces paraxylene (PX), a toxic petrochemical used in polyester.
On Sunday, some angry residents finally decided that instead of being forced to flee, the chemical plant should be relocated.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demonstrate and Dalian, known as one of the most beautiful coastal cities in China, made headlines all over the world.
Dalian is not alone.
Blame bad luck or natural disasters, perhaps. Four days ago, an accident at a factory in Shandong province resulted in a deadly chemical gas leak and 125 people, mostly workers and nearby residents, were sent to the hospital, local media reported. About three months ago, poisonous chemical waste was dumped illegally, polluting water sources in Yunnan province. The case was only recently revealed to the public. You can imagine how angry local people must feel.
Back in the day US suppliers were told that to maintain their business with US customers they must meet the “China price”. Most couldn’t and their customers began sourcing out of China.
The Chinese people have been paying the “China price” for years.
Soon those sourcing from China will be paying their “China price”.
Hopefully one day the ruling elites will pay the price for despoiling China.
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Decorating with a brain and a crane…
Blog Guy, several months ago you analyzed the Libyan conflict by comparing the furniture styles of the Gaddafi supporters and the rebels. I believe you called it "Divan intervention in Libya?" What else can we learn by looking at protesters and their furniture?
Good question. Check these demonstrators in Israel in the top photo. They've done a fine job of turning their protest site into a cozy living room.
They've combined a contemporary sofa with traditional rugs to create a relaxed mood. I admire their use of a push broom as what we decorators call an "objet..."
Judging from the fact that one of those guys looks like he's picking his nose, they've succeeded in creating a very homey feel.
Ewwww! So who else does a good job of outdoor protest decorating?
These protesters in Madrid. See the elegant look they've achieved here with a leather Chesterfield sofa.
from Photographers Blog:
Seven months atop a crane
With almost seven months atop a crane, a 51-year old woman trade unionist is staging a solo protest to end layoffs at a shipyard in South Korea.
Kim Jin-Suk, 51, climbed the 35-meter tall crane in the Yeongdo shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC) in Busan, the hub of South Korea's shipbuilding industry on January 6 this year and has been there ever since to protest against what she says are "mass layoffs" at the country's former biggest shipbuilder.
Her sit-in protest is helping to revive trade unionism in a country that was once a byword for violent clashes between workers and police, but which under conservative President Lee Myung-bak has seen the unions adopt a back seat.
The labor activist is a member of the direction committee for the office of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and she was laid off by the shipbuilder in Busan, a city on the southeast end of the Korean peninsula, about 420 km (262 miles) from the capital Seoul.
Kim Jin-suk entered the yard in 1981 as a welder and was laid off in 1986 by the company for distributing pamphlets denouncing a company-sponsored union at a time when South Korea was still a military dictatorship.
from FaithWorld:
Catholic area riots after Protestant marches in Northern Ireland
(Nationalist youths and police in riot gear clash in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast July 12, 2011/Cathal McNaughton)
Police fired plastic bullets and water cannon at Catholic youths in Northern Ireland's provincial capital Belfast on Tuesday after rioting erupted when a Protestant parade passed their estate. Sporadic violence erupted across the British-ruled province on the culmination of a season of parades by pro-British Protestants to mark a 17th-century military victory, a tradition many Catholics say is provocative.
Around 200 people threw bottles, slates and petrol bombs in the mainly Catholic Ardoyne area of Belfast after police moved in to prevent them confronting the passing Orange Order parade. Two cars were set on fire and dozens of rounds of plastic bullets were fired. Police said a number of officers were injured.
Most of the 500 or so parades across the province passed peacefully, but police reported rioting in Londonderry, Newry and Armagh as well as the Markets area in central Belfast.
Three decades of fighting between mostly Protestant loyalists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom and Irish nationalists, mainly Catholics, who want it to be part of a united Ireland tore the province apart during a three-decade period known as the "Troubles."
A 1998 peace agreement paved the way for a power-sharing government of loyalists and nationalists. Violence has subsided, but police say the threat from dissident groups opposed to the peace deal is higher than it has ever been since it was signed.
