“Put People First” G20 Demonstration
March 28, 2009
Yesterday, a huge march took place in central London in response to the G20 Summit which is being held next week. By huge, it seemed a lot bigger than the Bush protests a few years ago, and those were massive. However, officials reckon around 40,000 people took part.
There’s been a lot of talk about the G20 Summit, mostly centering around possible riots that could take place. Of course, the media loves to sensationalise these things, and the protest was incredibly tame. So tame in fact, that I struggled to find many interesting things or people to take pictures of :P
Still, the protest was headline news which can only be a good thing. After all, the purpose is to raise awareness.
This man makes regular appearances at protests like here in 2007. He was out again with a lovely positive message for us all.
This man sat at the bus stop and fiddled with a radio for ages, tuning it until he got to a classical station. He then sat with a cigarette, listening to his music acting totally oblivious to the movement around him. Legend. I don’t know if he realised the road was closed to traffic and therefore no buses would be arriving any time soon. Oops.
People congregated around Embankment and Temple Stations where the demos began.
Two of the four “Horsemen of the Apocalypse” who are part of a coalition of anarchists, communists and green activists. Collectively, the operation is known as the G20 Meltdown and they will be out again next week to demonstrate in the financial district.
The protest had a heavy police presence. This is what the front of the protest was like, which I’ve never seen before.
Aww :D
So, next week in City (financial district) we’ve been told to dress down at work, cancel meetings and people have also been advised not to go into work. Major disruption is expected, but we shall have to see if all the media hype materialises into reality. All this talk of riots.. if we were in France I’d believe the hype!
For more information on the G20 Summit – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G20_industrial_nations
Information on the protests – http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/blog/2009/mar/23/online-guide-to-g20-protests
I decided to create a new page with all my India blogs on, since I have so many – http://www.tanya-n.com/?page_id=192. I still haven’t gone through all my pictures from my September 2008 Mumbai trip, sooo six months later, here are some left over images.
During Eid, there’s a big night market and the restaurant below is really popular. It might not look so appetising but the chicken there was some of the best I have ever had!
I’ve mentioned these ‘hijra‘ before, also known as eunuchs.
They aren’t an uncommon sight around Mumbai. They saw me taking pictures of them, and they came and sat next to me.
There are superstitions linked to such hijra. For example, if you manage to piss them off, they will pass bad vibes your way, and you could end up being cursed. So it’s wise not to get on their bad side, apparently. I don’t really believe in such things but when you’re in India, it seems like anything is possible, and as irrational as it sounds, I would really rather not have someone wish bad things on me!
So, traditionally, you can appease them by giving them some (surprise surprise) money. Every time I have come across them they will say nice things about my appearance, and perform blessings on me. It’s basically their way of saying ‘give me some money or else you get cursed, not blessed’. Anyway, there’s obviously a lot of debate over hijra and whether they affect society to a great deal or not, is a different story.
Some protest was happening to do with religion, specifically dealing with an issue between Hindus and Christians. Let’s face it, most of today’s problems are down to religion, but I digress.
Unfortunately I wish I had more information about it. I remember seeing stuff about this in the news at the time, but I didn’t do much research. A quick Google search gave me this.
I don’t know what this temple’s called, but it’s literally adourned entirely in bells, of every size. Amazing, really.
A view of Mumbai, taken from Farah Khan‘s appartment:
It’s not a very attractive picture, but believe it or not, these flats are inhabited by the richer citizens of Mumbai, many of them in the Bollywood industry. They might not look particularly great from the outside, but then, residential buildings in Mumbai aren’t the prettiest of sights. Inside they’ll be a completely different story.
If only we all had maids to keep our houses clean : )
I’ll end with the first picture I took on this trip..
I’ll be back in Mumbai very soon : ) Yay.
