China President Hu Jintao Visited My University. Big-Scale "Free Tibet!" Rally.
Thursday, May 08, 2008 | by The Great Swifty
Aside from the FREE TIBET signs, I also saw some 'NO PANDAS' and 'NO MORE POISON DUMPINGS' signs around. Couldn't snap any pictures of those though.
Hundreds of cops were already there to keep things in control, in fact, the amount of policemen may surpass the amount of protestors.
Now, an obligatory photo of myself to prove that, yes, I was there. (not to protest, just a random passerby who was just having lunch ten minutes before before being disrupted)
There were more and more people as time went on.
Then the cops, troops of them, started marching around, shepherding the people... in a rather polite way. All of them were shouting "move forward, onegai shimasu! (please)"
Of course, while this was going on, the white-haired man in the photo below bellowed in rage, his face turning bright red, his eyes seemingly bulging out.
"WHERE'S FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN THIS COUNTRY? THERE'S NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN JAPAN?" He screamed at a cop. Then he switched to shouting in Japanese.
"THIS is police brutality!" He said to me, pointing at the sea of police and protestors in front of him.
We all ended up standing pretty far away. In the sky, there were numerous helicopters circling around.
"Yeah." I nodded.
"This is ridiculous! What country is this?" An Irish girl nearby said to me. "It makes me miss mine even more."
"Uh huh." I nodded.
She continued. "I was supposed to come here in two years, but now, I'm not so sure! I was cycling my way around this morning, and then some people were in my way, so I said 'sumimasen', and they replied 'SORRY'. It's all because I'm white and they assume that I can't speak Japanese!"
"Right." I nodded.
"This is really nothing. I've seen worse in my country." An Argentinean woman nearby said in wry bemusement.
Twenty minutes later, realizing that Hu Jintao wasn't arriving anytime soon, and that I've been sheperded to too far a place to get a good view of things, I started feeling bored and returned to my classes. Royksopp's ONLY THIS MOMENT music video this ain't.
Only This Moment
Updated (9th of May, 2008): Here are some videos (not uploaded by me):
Videos of the China President's speech in Waseda University:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Videos with Japanese translation: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
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10 Comments:
The Great Swifty
I thought he was just being ironic or something. Frankly, this is the most peaceful and civilized, almost family-friendly (a woman had a baby in a carriage with her) rally I've ever witnessed.
I like the way you presented the "argentinian" and "irish" girls' comments so biased. I don't think you realise that police however polite are essentially not allowing people to occupy free public space.
I was standing next to you when the "irish" and "argentian" girl were talking and that's not what either of them said completely.
Another blog, another distortion, another reason why the internet is getting more and more worthless these days.
Princess Aneta
Just reading Japan Times ONline
"China is still a developing country struggling with grave structural problems and needs stable relations with Japan and other nations to ensure its development, Chinese President Hu Jintao says in a speech at Tokyo's Waseda University, while outside dozens of students protest China's repression of Tibet."
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080509a1.html
Juding by your photos there were quite a few "dozens".
The Great Swifty
I like the way you immediately decide that I'm throwing them both under the bus.
While I may be paraphrasing, I do distinctively remember that they did say the stuff to me while I was there.
The Argentinean lady's (friend of a friend) wry bemusement then was thought-provoking enough for me to actually return to my dorm and ask some South American friends whether they went through such riots themselves (and one of them gleefully described in graphic detail about his adventures with using the molotov cocktails).
As for the Irish lady, her description of what happened to her in the morning also left an impression, as I myself was amused by the incident she described. And slightly sympathetic that she became a victim of being stereotyped. Makes me wonder what makes you feel more foreign, to stand out among others as a white person, or look similar to everyone else except until they speak to you and they realize you don't speak their language.
And therefore, these quiet moments during the rally where people of different cultures and backgrounds exchange their thoughts stood out more for me.
I left out the bulk of my own thoughts from the actual blog entry for the sake of reducing the misinterpretation that I'm taking either sides (of the China/Tibet issue). Not interested in being a propaganda tool for either side.
And yes, I was just as annoyed with the police as everyone. And agreed with most that preparations should've been made earlier for the visit instead of having thousands of cops herding people around. Not outrage though, just annoyance.
There's a difference between deliberately insidious distortion of truth, and reading into something too much. But I apologize if my inability to share your exact feelings and thoughts of yesterdays' events have contributed greatly to the worthlessness of the Internet today.
The Great Swifty
Aneta: Yeap, I'm updating this post with links to Youtube videos of the rally (uploaded by others, I didn't have my camcorder with me yesterday).
Appreciate the response, I'm running out the door as type.
Worthelessness comes from lack of substance. I would have liked you to point out that observation as it would have contributed to the fact that this is "your" blog and "your" interpretation of events.
Why else would I read it?
Write what you think and worry about the rest later, the less substance to your writing backed up by your own thoughts invites what you refer to as "reading into things" which is not the result of political correctness but instead, more often enough, the result of poor presentation.
Thanks for the apology but I much preferred your insight.
The Great Swifty
I don't know whether I'm hallucinating, or I'm feeling a mild quake as I type.
Yeah, this blog has always been heavier on the things I'm more passionate about, films, literature, music, traveling etc. What I'm less passionate about is reflected in my writing, and so you get this entry. Something that lacks what you would call 'substance'. (as opposed to my recent "JAPANESE FILMS VS THE REST OF THE WORLD" entry which I argued the overlooked merits of Japanese films)
To be fair to myself and the blog, posting 'my' interpretation of yesterday's events would have ended up feeling rather forced and hollow, because frankly, I personally wasn't as 'into' the event as most. Even if I want to write more yesterday, an insight into the event that you much prefer would never come into light at all.
I happened to take some photos, so I posted them up here. Then some quotes stuck out to me, so I posted them here as well. I would've easily moved on to writing another film review or two right after that entry if I weren't feeling so weary from the flu pills I took last night.
Yet that's the beauty of blogs, the content constantly evolves based on interaction from between the blog owner and the readers.
You implied that I was making things up with the quotes of the two ladies, hence it allowed me to think briefly not just what interested me yesterday, but also why, hence my previous reply.
But thanks for writing again anyway.
And now I quote Dr Evil again. "We're not so different, you and I."
The Great Swifty
God, I would join the mob if my supermarket runs out of Tim Tams.
Wait, there's no Tim Tams in Japan... at least not what I've seen so far.
No wonder I felt this strange emptiness lately.
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at 5/08/2008 09:21:00 PM
I wonder if the nice man shouting police brutality knows the meaning of it...doubt BRUTAL police say "please" when herding protesters...