Headlines 28/06/10
Here are my thoughts on today’s headlines. Everything but the titles is written by yours truly.
More than 600 arrested during protests by Linda Nguyen and Juliet O’Neill:
Over 600 arrests were made this weekend as demonstrators protested the G8 and G20 summits hosted by Toronto.
Police cars were set on fire, windows were smashed and objects were thrown at officers.
But only by a such a small percentage of the protestors.
A handful of irresponsible citizens, who think that vandalism and violence are necessary to prove their points, tarnish the value of our right to peaceful assembly.
Instead of sensationalizing the actions of a few, those actually breaking laws should be quietly arrested with little media coverage: it doesn’t have to be covered up, but it doesn’t deserve attention either.
G8 pledge comes up short. Surprised? by Craig and Marc Kielburger:
Statements and accusations that Canada spent over $1-billion on security for the G8 and G20 summits have been all over the news.
While on the topic of billions, the G8 fell $19.5 billion short of it’s goal to send $50 billion in aid to developing countries by 2010.
In 2008, $300 million was promised to Haiti. Unfortunately, only 30 per cent of that had been delivered when the early 2010 earthquake struck.
A couple of things have become clear in the last few days:
The first is that, because of the Media focus on negative events, a single rock thrown through a window will be seen by more people than 1000 people sitting in silent peaceful protest.
I think it is safe to say that in that context, the Police are never going to win any PR wars.
With that said, it follows that the extreme measures taken for security at the G8 and G20 will never succeed, because that same single rock will be able to skew the media message.
Further, I heard it reported, and do not know the accuracy, but believe it possible, that the most violent protesters were not in fact “citizens” as defined by the online dictionary:
“A person owing loyalty to and entitled by birth or naturalization to the protection of a state or nation.”