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Mar
Scenes from a Rally
Ayala Avenue, Makati City. 29 February 2008.
People perched atop the statue of Ninoy on the corner of Ayala and Paseo had one of the best views of the whole event (not counting the offices that were directly facing the intersection, of course). I wanted to get a better vantage point but unfortunately, street-level was all I was able to manage.
Pretty much every TV station had an elevated platform setup before the festivities kicked off; several camera jibs hovered over the crowds, and streets were crowded with OB vans and uplink trucks.
And of course, where there are crowds, there are street vendors. Rallying really gives one the munchies, after all.
I personally dislike how they have to pander to the religious leanings of the masses in order to get them to participate (they referred to this event as an "Inter-faith Rally"). I’ve said this many times before, but I’ll say it here again for emphasis. People need to stop using religion as a compass for morality and common decency, because religion is far from moral, or decent. But that’s a subject for a different rant, I suppose.
Come to the light, you mindless zombies, and leave all your garbage behind.
It turns out that I am extraordinarily apolitical. It was fun to blow an hour’s time at the rally, although I think that the frequency of these events have reduced their impact to pretty much nothing. People are about as responsive to these things as they are to advertising on the web; the vast majority simply ignore them.
March 1st, 2008 at 3:36 am
heh, was this by choice or chance, your rally-ing?
March 1st, 2008 at 11:49 am
If you say a rally is “inter-faith,” does that mean it welcomes the faith-less?
March 1st, 2008 at 12:59 pm
there is faith somehow in being faithless.
March 2nd, 2008 at 8:52 am
>>People are about as responsive to these things as they are to advertising on the web
Beautiful analogy.
I attended a talk on “the promise of edsa” a few days ago and the speakers brought up the fact that one thing dividing the first two edsas was a fear, or lack of it. When people came storming out of their houses during EDSA 1 there was a palpable fear that Marcos would turn the army on them. People feared for their lives, and were taking a risk being out on the streets.
The succeeding EDSAs were a carnival by comparison. People were intoxicated with the success of the original and knew that our country doesn’t have the stomach to put down a huge rally on global televeision (Hello Kenya). The lack of urgency in these rallies makes them less potent in my opinion.
If I saw people being teargassed and clubbed out there, I’d probably feel more compelled to go out and join them. But as it is they’re just causing traffic and I’m only happy I don’t live anywhere near the area, or work there for that matter.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:07 pm
[…] GutterVomit […]
March 4th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Our (Post)modern Revolution and the Tyranny of the Apolitical
March 7th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
…and now I don’t want to go home.