i’m not too big on politics. the odd news story
might spark my interest, but in general, political campaigns and the such seem to play out more like a media circus than
anything else. but nevertheless, when i
heard that the protestors outside of st. paul’s were
going to be evicted soon, i thought it’d be
interesting to walk down there and have a first-hand look at the scene before
the protestors got kicked out.
like many other places around the world, london has
been plagued with unrest over the past year. a year ago, i inadvertantly let a
whole bunch of student protestors into the university london campus. they
occupied the building for a week and proceeded to completely trash the place;
posters were torn down, doors blocked and chained, bathrooms wrecked, garbage
thrown around, etc. so, the london campus was subsequently closed and classes
cancelled. how this was supposed to help decrease student fees is beyond me. ultimately, police stormed the building, raiding from the roof like something
out of a hollywood blockbuster, and the students were forced out. personally,
all this seems like a farce, especially since the increase in UK student fees to
a maximum of £10,000 per year still looks like a bargain to me, a
hapless american graduate currently paying off loans at about $10k per year, for
the next - decade or so. *weep* converted into dollars, the new UK student
fees is "only" $15k per year (for three years, since their degrees don't take as
long), which is cheaper than some of the cheapest schools in the states. so,
needless to say, i had very little sympathy for the student protestors,
especially when taking into consideration their haphazard and nonsensical
approaches to protesting, which seem more like childish tantrums than anything
reasonable and potentially effective.
i was also living in central london when the riots broke out
last year. however, as awful as it all was, i think the media somewhat blew it
out of proportion - made it seem as though all of london was burning down. i
live in the waterloo area, so quite central, and aside from a few closed shops,
i didn't see anything out of the ordinary - wouldn't even have noticed that
riots were going on if it weren't for the news.
anyways, as for the st. paul's protestors, my feelings were
pretty much the same as for the student protestors. yes, they've camped out and
turned the surrounding area into squalor, but what does that actually Do? the
economy is still struggling and people are still unemployed. and can't
protestors get their message across without littering and wrecking things?
at any rate, i wound up just walking around st. paul's and
taking some photos of the protestors. i might not really agree with them, but
it was still nice to personally photographically document this little piece of
history. =)
see my photos here.
. rese
