A few thoughts about the demonstrations in London

A contrarian approaches a group discussion and says: “What are you talking about, so that I can disagree with you?” For some, the issues are not important. The important thing is voicing opposition.

So once again we have a meeting of the major economic powers, and the usual suspects, like hibernating bears, have emerged from their hideaways ready for action. The boredom and energy accumulated since the last G-20 meeting needed to find an outlet by smashing the windows of The Royal Bank of Scotland or the nearest McDonald. How creative. If these demonstrations had taken place in Fort Lauderdale or Acapulco I would have thought that these were C students on spring break who have consumed an excessive amount of alcohol and recreation drugs. Let’s put it this way, the demonstrators were not of the caliber of those who demonstrated on Bloody Sunday in Moscow or Alabama in the 60’s.

The next thing that has been puzzling me for a long time are the different groups that get together to protest. Talk about a confederacy of dunces. Ethiopians Against Genocide, Palestinians, Arabs, Anarchists, anti-Wars, Environmentalists, Greens, anti- Capitalists, Communists, Trotskyites, Free Tibet, Maoists, Marxists, anti-Globalists, and Skin Heads, just to name a few. These characters have as much in common as cats and dogs.

Why is it that every so often we see among these groups a gay flag and feminist slogans? The fact that a group feels oppressed does not justify its association with other groups who claim oppression. Given a chance, many of these demonstrators would exterminate gays and place women in a time machine sending them back to the seventh century. How can gays and feminists fail to realize that any association with Islamists, Palestinians and Arabs is the equivalent of Jews protesting with Nazis? Do a search on Google images and see the way gays are hanged in Iran or Afghanistan or Saudi-Arabia. And those are the lucky ones. The unlucky ones are thrown from a roof or buried under a collapsing wall.

Gays and feminists have to realize that it is under a free society that they will achieve equality. The only country in the Middle East where you can see feminist and Gay Day parades is in Israel. If gays and feminists feel like demonstrating, do so. But not together with those who, when push comes to shove, want to destroy you.