Credit: The Globe and Mail
I think I might be one of the few people on earth sometimes who supports the G8 and G20 summits. I don’t think that the idea behind the leaders of the world setting time aside to get together to see if they can all get on the same page is a bad idea. I don’t think that using that time to promote your own country is a bad idea either, because your country does get exposed for that week to the entire world.
I’m also one of the few people who thinks that the budget for the summits in Toronto this year was not over-budgeted. I hoped that it might be, but thought it was better safe than sorry.
If someone were to ask me what I oppose the most about the G8/20 summits, it would be the protesters.
Opposing something like war, poverty, environmental destruction is natural. Nobody WANTS these things to happen. But where is the logic in sitting around, yelling at a window saying “I don’t like this!” Perhaps I have always been the type of person who believes in actions speaking much louder than words. I feel though that, if you have the time and energy to care that much to make a sign and yell, that energy would be better spent volunteering directly towards the cause you believe in. Help in a soup kitchen, volunteer at a hospital, start a recycling program at your workplace. Find out ways to donate to environmental group. Start an organic garden, save the naked mole rats – do whatever it is that fuels your passion. But just yelling things doesn’t make things better.
The most ironic thing I found while reading about the G20 protests were the people who protested the budget for the policing in Toronto this weekend. It’s ironic for the simple fact that, in gathering as a large group to protest, they are creating the exact environment necessary to turn a peaceful protest into one with a million dollar cleanup.
The Globe and Mail wrote a great summary of where the Black Bloc comes from. Simply put, if people are in a crowd, and there will be cameras, the Black Bloc will be there. So when people gather to peacefully protest the billion dollar budget, they don’t even realize what they are doing is creating the perfect storm to prove why that budget is necessary.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” If you want to save the world, then go and save it. Save the rain forest! Clean the oceans! Feed the hungry and care for the sick and help people get back on their feet! Don’t just talk about it. And, don’t just yell about it. You’ll make a much bigger point when you take away the place where the violent protesters can hide by NOT protesting, and doing something about it. Maybe one day, if enough people tried, we’d see governments apologizing for over-estimating their defence budget, instead of justifying it.
