Does anyone here with a more well developed social conscience than myself know how going up to Edinburgh and hitting a few coppers is going to help the state of Africa? I'm a bit confused, but I guess I've had one too many baths.
I'm expecting something along the lines of "Yeah, the MAN has infiltrated the protests and the violence is all staged", but TBH it's just the same lot who turn up at any protest and make dicks of themselves for publicity, isn't it?
G8 protests....fucking hippies
Oh you, rebel from Ozglossy wrote:imo, too many of these "good cause" things have been currupted by corporatism... it's less about helping people and more about promotion and advertising and everything, which is ridiculous.
blegh, ignore me, i'm idealistic and teenager, so it's in my nature to rebel against, well, everything.
Yeah, but the protestors are all jumping on the bandwagon with no intention of actually helping anyone. They're just on a global capitalism tip; which is funny, because they were all having a pop at their own governments before the new boogeyman came along. Now it's all "the world is being run by corporations and our sovereignty is being eroded"......
Africa has in large part fucked itself, and throwing a tantrum isn't the way to unfuck it.
Africa has in large part fucked itself, and throwing a tantrum isn't the way to unfuck it.
Re: G8 protests....fucking hippies
speaking on behalf of dirty hippies, i agree completely.Geebs wrote:Does anyone here with a more well developed social conscience than myself know how going up to Edinburgh and hitting a few coppers is going to help the state of Africa? I'm a bit confused, but I guess I've had one too many baths.
I'm expecting something along the lines of "Yeah, the MAN has infiltrated the protests and the violence is all staged", but TBH it's just the same lot who turn up at any protest and make dicks of themselves for publicity, isn't it?
been at enough protests where some pack of anarchist* arseholes have decided to kick off. i'm not saying the police are blameless, it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other - but a lot of the stuff about police brutality is overblown.
police tactics leave a lot to be desired, but we live in a world where you have to take a lot of shit that should be irrelevant into account during planning, so sometimes the end result just looks surreal from the outside - and they're still miles better than a lot of other countries.
* from kent, secure future, good teeth and/or special brew dependent ketamin abuser.
It's pretty fucking scary being in a situation where you just know that someone's liable to assault you and you can't just walk away, because it's your responsibility to make sure as few people get hurt as possible. I get that the whole time while I'm walking into the headshrinking room in A&E. Of course it's not going to look good on the evening news, because in this situation the shit is always going to hit the fan. Restraining a violent person and keeping your dignity are pretty much mutually exclusive 
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Pooinyourmouth_needmerge
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HM-PuFFNSTuFF
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You base this opinion on what? The above is a very ignorant post. People started opposing gloabalism when they realized what it was truly about. (the rich exploiting the poor) Many people have been working on this issue for over a decade.Geebs wrote:Yeah, but the protestors are all jumping on the bandwagon with no intention of actually helping anyone. They're just on a global capitalism tip; which is funny, because they were all having a pop at their own governments before the new boogeyman came along. Now it's all "the world is being run by corporations and our sovereignty is being eroded"......
Africa has in large part fucked itself, and throwing a tantrum isn't the way to unfuck it.
As well blaming Africa itself isn't really fair because it's been the West which has enabled all these corrupt tyrants by backing them. What the West has done to Africa is disgraceful. We've been forcing liberalized trade policies on them which has amounted to negative growth for Africa which is obscene for a continent so rich in resources.
Do you really think the G8 leaders would have cancelled the debt of 18 African nations if Geldof hadn't started the Live8 movement? Do you know how many people contacted their government to tell them to do so?
Should we forget all the change which has been achieved through grass roots protesting? Do you need a list?
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HM-PuFFNSTuFF
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eepberries
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The way in which the west has been backing these governments is through using them to distribute aid. They're damned if they do give, and they're damned if they don't . Look at Zimbabwe - Mugabe's only political acheivement is to not be English, yet England gives, what, 8 million a year to Zimbabwe, most of which is syphoned off. He's destroyed his own commercial farming operation and his own economy..... and no-one can say a damn thing about it because it's the West interfering.HM-PuFFNSTuFF wrote:You base this opinion on what? The above is a very ignorant post. People started opposing gloabalism when they realized what it was truly about. (the rich exploiting the poor) Many people have been working on this issue for over a decade.Geebs wrote:Yeah, but the protestors are all jumping on the bandwagon with no intention of actually helping anyone. They're just on a global capitalism tip; which is funny, because they were all having a pop at their own governments before the new boogeyman came along. Now it's all "the world is being run by corporations and our sovereignty is being eroded"......
Africa has in large part fucked itself, and throwing a tantrum isn't the way to unfuck it.
As well blaming Africa itself isn't really fair because it's been the West which has enabled all these corrupt tyrants by backing them. What the West has done to Africa is disgraceful. We've been forcing liberalized trade policies on them which has amounted to negative growth for Africa which is obscene for a continent so rich in resources.
Do you really think the G8 leaders would have cancelled the debt of 18 African nations if Geldof hadn't started the Live8 movement? Do you know how many people contacted their government to tell them to do so?
Should we forget all the change which has been achieved through grass roots protesting? Do you need a list?
Most of the debts which were written off were bad debts. They'd have been given up on anyway. As for globalisation being "the rich exploiting the poor" - that's the worst oversimplification I've ever heard. Most of the opposition is just good old fashioned Luddism.
As for Bono and Bob.... if one of them walked into my department and started trying to tell me how to pull a shoulder, I'd tell them to fuck right off. They're distracting from any of the real problems, as a politician can pretend to listen to their gabble for 5 minutes and then carry on with whatever they were doing, all the while seeming more caring by association.
Actually, what has been acheived through grass roots protesting, apart from black eyes for a large number of policemen?
i think you overstepped the line between considered comment and idiocy hereGeebs wrote:Actually, what has been acheived through grass roots protesting, apart from black eyes for a large number of policemen?
um, let's see: democracy and individual liberties for starters. all the stuff that rulers don't usually hand out benevolently but has to forced from them