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Ignore Protests at Your Peril
By Nick Radovanovic
The year was 2002. I was en route to the Balkans from the Philippines, and had a half a day to kill in London. I hopped in a taxi and told the cabby to head for a large and well-established bookstore. Very few Filipinos read anything except text messages, and books are almost impossible to get back home. Before long we were stuck in a small lane, and the cabby informed me that I'd walk have to walk the rest of the way because of "some protest" on the very street I was destined for. Outside the bookstore, I found a dreary bedraggled mass walking slowly and holding placards. There were several hundred of them. I say bedraggled, but upen looking closely I realized that they weren't wearing lumpen rags, but the loose clothing native to South Asia. There was no chanting, no fighting, and it all looked rather boring compared to the infamous poll tax riots I'd heard about, so I shoved the protestors out of my mind and went in the bookstore. I happily occupied myself with the delicate art of judging weight, price, and readworthiness. But what happened next was truly astonishing. Looking out the second-floor window after about an hour, I could see that the protestors had continued to flow. Within sight there were about several hundred, but they just kept on coming, and coming, and coming. One batch would trudge past, and then another, and then another. There was no end. For a brief moment I wondered if this was all an elaborate prank aimed at me and, once past the next street corner, they all sprinted around the back to walk by the bookstore again and again. It went on for HOURS and HOURS. I was flabbergasted, because this meant that (a) the entire population of Britain had descended on the very street I happened to be at during my stopover, and (b) the entire population of Britain consisted of be-turbaned Asian people swaddled in their native garments, as opposed to the tweed-clad fellows and fellowettes you might expect to see in England. When I left the bookstore, the massive, slow-flowing river of people - a Mississippi of protestors - showed no signs of letting up. They just kept on trudging by the bookstore, morosely holding their signs. I later discovered that the protest had been one of the largest demonstrations in the history of England. It was, of course, a protest against the planned invasion of Iraq. President Saddam Hussein was still in power, and, for reasons still not entirely clear, the President of the US and the Prime Minister of the UK had made up their minds to invade Iraq come hell or high water. Incredibly, it wasn't even the largest anti-war protest - an even bigger one followed in 2003. Prime Minister Blair ignored both protests and pushed ahead relentless, throwing his weight in behind Dubya, and you all remember the shock and awe that soon followed. If I'm not mistaken British and American troops are still in Iraq today. Fast forward a few years to 2005. I was watching a report on the BBC about genetically modified foods when suddenly they cut short their regular programming to report some "electric malfunction" in the tube system. The malfunction turned out to be a bomb, and over the next few days I wasn't at all surprised to learn that "home-grown" terrorists of South Asian origin had blown up buses and subway cars in London, killing about 50 people. What did surprise me was that the public of Britain seemed to be shocked by the attack. What shocked me was a statement by Prime Minister Blair, who conclusively proved that he is a monumental idiot when he self-righteously proclaimed: "We are in a democracy and people should use democratic means to express themselves instead of resorting to terrible and senseless violent tactics like this," or something along those lines. I fully agree, Prime Minister, but hello? Where were you back in 2002? The biggest ever protest that left me stranded at a high street bookstore, about 30 million Pakistanis and Arabs and assorted Muslims trudging by, holding up traffic all across London? They were using democratic means to democratically express themselves. They got a permit and drew placards and showed up en masse, and I mean MASSE. Wasn't that democratic enough? They didn't even burn effigies or anything. But you and Her Majesty's government completely - utterly, totally - ignored them, pushing ahead with one of the most senseless wars in history (and there have been quite a few). You can't pretend a huge protest like that didn't happen, forge ahead due to some intense, burning personal conviction, and then get all huffy when the people you ignored turn violent. There is only person to blame for the 7/7 attacks, and that's Tony Blair. He should have seen - and perhaps even did see - those coming. If he himself had been more democratically minded back in 2002, Britain wouldn't have gotten itself into the Iraq mess, and the lunatics who perpetrated the 7/7 attacks wouldn't have come crawling out of the woodwork. They'd still be driving vans or waiting on tables, or whatever. A message to all government leaders: if you look out the window and see a zillion plebians peacefully protesting against something, do yourself a favor. Let them have whatever it is that they want.
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Contributor's Note
The author does not condone terrorism in any form or fashion. The author is merely saying that you should expect terrorism if you ignore big-ass protests like the one he saw.
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What an experience. Those were frightening times, for sure. Great intel.
An outstanding intel made more powerful by your inadvertent involvement. As with most things in Life there is Cause & Effect and terrorism is no different. Perhaps the fact that the protesters were Asian / Arab made it less "important" to Blair & co. Finally, I still don't understand how Bush & Blair lasted another day after no WMDs were found in Iraq!
Amazing intel. Made my flesh creep reading it.
It's incredible how some of the most stupid and/or self-interested people on earth are in positions of power. Makes you rethink our judgement in electing them. Or do we?
Thank you for sharing this well written and informative intel, Nick.
It's great to see you back again.
Best to you.
Frederick
Great Intel! Whenever I am in any international airport, I always feel that bin laden and other terrorists have already won this war against terrorism stupidly ran by bush/blair, simply because we all have to go through so many endless checks, taking off shoes, waiting in long lines, etc. just to travel somewhere even inside the country. It is so clear they don't do it right without even trying to understand why this all happens and how to make it stop instead of starting senseless wars to find non-existing weapons of mass-destruction in Iraq, no-no not oil. The key isn't in living in fear. The key is in educating new generations in those so called anti-american places of the Planet that people are different but equal, that we all have rights and need to respect rights of all, turning hatrid into friendship and learning from each others' cultures. I hope one day we all will live in peace on our common land called Earth.
I am a little like Kandinsky in that I saw the revolution from my window (but there the similarity ends!) because I lived in Berkeley, CA in the late 60's and early 70's and that was radicalizing because I saw people in the "establishment" indiscriminately terrorizing people who were not only non-violent, but had nothing to do with the demonstrations...people just coming home from work or going off to scheduled classes. This rather encouraged people to side with the dissidents who otherwise might not have.
It must have been an experience being in the middle of history in the making. If mothers ran countries, would the world be more peaceful?
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This intel was contributed by nick
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