a protest against protests

nothing like a meeting of the world's superpower leaders to cause a frenzy in the otherwise docile metropolis we call T.O. And its funny how normally uninvolved citizens suddenly become activists, advocates, economists and political experts when one of the world's most important summits takes place in our backyard.

i have a few issues to address here: first, the comment made by several of my facebook friends expressing discontent over Toronto's transformation into a "police state" for the G20. you all clearly have not one iota of a semblance of a clue as to what a "police state" really is. a police state is a governmental situation where government exerts repressive control over the economic, social and political aspects of a country. if you're not smart enough to know the difference between this and what we had for the summit, then you're in no position to make a legitimate complaint....next, to all of you who complained about toronto hosting the summit. it is a big deal, however you want to slice it, for the world's leaders to choose our city to meet. a lot of you criticize the world's governments, including your own, for not addressing the issues, but we are unwilling to want to sacrifice a little of our convenient way of life to facilitate a forum for the possible addressing of some of these. the summit had to be held somewhere people, get over it....

now, i am not sure if the violent hooligans who stirred shit up downtown were genuinely passionate about issues or if they were just punks trying to get noticed, but either way, they are still inconsiderate douche-bags. in just one weekend they trashed toronto's hard-earned reputation as one of the most classy and well-behaved cities in the world. and for what? 15 minutes of fame? i hope those detained get 15 months in jail for their stupidity. and to the guy interviewed on cbc news who said "I just want to be here and be a part of this," I hope you got a rubber bullet in the face.

and i can never understand why protesters genuinely feel that marching and shouting will really make a difference in the world. especially since the majority of them are only part-time advocates who jump on the bandwagon of casual marxism and social justice when its most convenient to them. let's face it, ever since the first G8 meeting, world leaders have come to expect protesting of this nature, so the cries and chants and marches of protesters will always fall on deaf ears. governments know that after all the hype, the large mobilizations of people will dwindle down to sparse numbers as soon as conferences such as these are over.

and of the many cries heard this weekend, none were more furious than those bashing capitalism. i've been reading up some public debates (on FB) about capitalism, and i'm saddened that many people are either brainwashed by social mass media or fatalistically hardwired by capitalist controllers. no one i've heard has taken a middle ground; and this constant black and white clashing will get us nowhere until we realize that life pretty much always lies somewhere in the grey area.

capitalism is indeed the principle method in which liberal empires are spread and through which the wealthy and powerful continue to dominate at the expense of the poor and powerless. but the system is not the root of all evil; in order to figure out why all men are not equal in practice, we must look inward. it is the greed and lust of some men, and the unwillingness of others to give up their comfortable way of life to take action against this, that has caused to the enormous gap between the elite and the destitute.

indeed we need to hold our leaders to account for their mismanagement, corruption and insensitivity to the human condition; but most are unwilling to make the real sacrifices necessary; and then we blame it all on capitalism. but to all you protesters, let me ask you this question: how many of you buy food at the local farmer's market, or grow your own food in kitchen gardens? how many buy clothes from the local tailor? how many of us give up driving altogether and commit irrevocably to public transit, to reduce carbon emissions? how many of us see garbage lying on the side of the road, and make time to pick it up? how many of us take a few dollars out of our paycheck to help sponsor a starving child in Africa, or to send supplies to Doctors Without Borders? How many hours do you spend at the local homeless shelter or orphanage? how many products do you KNOW, or even suspect are made in sweat shops, but you buy them anyway? how many of you forgo that resort vacation and opt instead to go to a poor country to help build a school or a hospital? how many are willing to devote the majority of your time doing genuine, long-term advocacy for issues instead of yapping traps in large, periodic groups? come on people, the governments definitely need to do so much better, but so do we; so lets stop passing the buck and screaming at someone else to fix the world, and let's own up to our own responsibility as Earthlings and as human beings.

and if you still cant see yourself committing to the cause, there is still another better way for your voices to be heard and to ensure that governments at least take your issues a little more seriously....its called voting