Pots and Pans

cosmicmechanic
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Sat May 26, 2012 10:05 pm

A series of civil-disobedience protests has been going on recently in my area.

One tactic that has caught on is to do as in Chile, where protesters bang on pots and pans to express themselves since certain rights were curtailed.

Not to alarm you, this is nowhere near like Chile, and my intention here is not to be political.

I just thought you might appreciate this well-produced video of a protest that occurred a couple of days ago.



haoli25
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Sun May 27, 2012 12:00 am

Very cool, Pierre. Although, its still 'Wok n Woll' to me. :) :silly: :)


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neverfoundthetime
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Sun May 27, 2012 6:03 am

Pierre, are you telling me that Canadians are revolting?! :laugh:

Great video, what was it all about?


dennisg
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Sun May 27, 2012 6:35 am

Just as I would expect from Canadians -- very peaceful and orderly.


tovo
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Sun May 27, 2012 1:20 pm

What's this all aboot eh??

Apart from taking any opportunity to take the mickey out of my Canadian friends, I really would like to know what they are protesting. I can understand Pierre that you are not wanting to get into politics and appreciate that, but I'm interested now.


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neverfoundthetime
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Sun May 27, 2012 1:36 pm

....yeah, when it comes to civil and human and constitutional rights... that's way more important than politics!

We live in times when it is more important than ever to push back on governments thinking they can tell us what's what... they need constant reminding that they are there to serve and listen to the people! Never drop your guard!


sbutler
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Sun May 27, 2012 11:37 pm

So Pierre, did they get what they wanted?

Scott


cosmicmechanic
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Mon May 28, 2012 10:02 am

Well, I guess it's not right to leave you hanging, I should fill in the blanks.
I'll remain neutral, no political intention, as I said :side:

Since you asked: What is this "aboot" ? More than one thing, probably.

In a nutshell:
The basic grievance is the government's decision to raise university tuition fees. A student strike began in the middle of February, with no resolution thus far, and there have been many protest demonstrations in the 105 days since the beginning of the conflict.

As this has dragged on, people concerned with other issues have also joined the protests. So, what this is about kinda depends on who you ask. This could be about the tuition fees issue, but also social or political issues. That being said, an agreement on tuition fees would probably (?) end the protests.

Apart from the daytime demonstrations, it's worth noting that there have been 34 consecutive late-evening/night-time demonstrations as of yesterday (May 27th). This has caused some hardship for businesses, since clients want to avoid being importuned by meeting up with a protest. Regrettably, there was also some bad behavior on all sides of the conflict (protesters, police, government).

This is where the pots and pans come in:

Then, hoping for a quick fix to this messy situation, 10 days ago (May 18th) the provincial government (comparable to U.S. state level) created a new law limiting public demonstration rights with the following main components:
- permission must be granted for a demonstration of 50 or more people
- the route of the demonstration must be provided to the police beforehand
- participants are not allowed to wear masks or hide their faces

Since this came into effect, citizens in general have also joined in the mix of protesters, in defiance of the "special" new law, on the basis that it sets a bad precedent by attacking their inviolable rights.

As I mentioned at first, the pots and pans idea was inspired by protests in Chile.
Add to this the fact that these protests are not pre-approved by authorities (now illegal), have no predefined route (illegal), and that some participants wear masks (also illegal), and you get civil disobedience.

So a part of the daily late protests has evolved into this kind of "happening", the general idea being at least 15 min. of participation starting at 8:00 pm.
The main slogan being chanted may be roughly translated into "We don't give a #@!% about your 'special' law".

All of the pots and pans demonstrations have been peaceful (noisy peaceful !).

I found that the production qualities of the first video in this thread were charming, but the soundtrack music does put a very mellow spin on the event.

Finally:
This video shows something more realistic (no musical soundtrack) from a week ago ... the saga continues daily, 'nuff said !



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