So, today started out really nice and lazy. I woke up nice and slow, read for a little while in bed, then decided to go into town for lunch. After a quick lunch, the plan was to go ride the cable car up the mountain and enjoy a nice vista of the Jura. However, things changed once a dozen, blue police vans whizzed past. The police maintain a very, very low profile in Geneva (and in Switzerland, in general) so the odds of going for weeks without seeing any are high. Needless to say, seeing SWAT vans fly by was a bit unusual. I look down the street and see a protest making its way down Rue de Mont-Blanc, and then I remembered what was going on: there was protest of the WTO Ministerial Meeting. The World Trade Organization is headquartered in Geneva, just like many other major international organizations, though it's easy to forget they're there sometimes.
It's important to point out that most of the protesters opted for peaceful means to demonstrate for their cause, and that it was a select few (few meaning probably around 100-200 out of the supposed 2,000+ people) who caused problems. That being said, the problems were definitely there. The Geneva police force seemed well prepared for it though I, of course, was not.
I walked down the street to take a look at the noise and saw what looked to be over a 1,000, later confirmed to have been over 2,000, people marching across the bridge and into the northern part of the city. I saw about 4 tractors pulling floats and effigies of figures I didn't recognize, as well as numerous flags and banners airing grievances against the WTO and the general, global community. After the tractors passed, things got out of hand. I heard a car alarm go off, then began to smell something burning. Black smoke began billowing from behind a large crowd and, by this time, I had positioned myself behind the police barricade that had formed to keep the protest from getting into the square I was eating lunch. Bright red flames began to billow out of a brand new Mercedes-Benz, and three other cars were ignited next to it. Soon, riot police were running towards the location and I was backing away. That was a little much for me, really. Sirens could be heard converging on our location from all over the city. I took a few pictures with my phone (it was all I had on me, because my point and shoot is broken, sorry for the poor photo quality) and then moved on to a safer, less chaotic and smoke filled, place.
For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, the public transit was out of whack and police were out in full force. I have never seen anyone in full riot gear before, much less an angry mob burning cars, so it was a spectacle. I can't say I understand either ways of manifesting (the French word for protest is "manifestation," by the way) their frustrations with the WTO, though. The peaceful protesters banners said all sorts of constructive things, ranging from "The WTO is Bad" to "Stop the violence in Darfur!" While I certainly agree that the violence in Darfur is bad, the WTO doesn't have much to do with that. A lot of the things being yelled and protested about weren't related to the WTO at all...it just seems as though some people live for a good protest. The violent protesters are a little easier to criticize. Burning up people's cars and smashing the storefronts of innocent people doesn't seem like the best way to further an agenda of progress, though the "black bloc" activists are supposedly anarchists. So I guess they don't really care.
The Swiss were very prompt in their deployment of street sweepers to clean up the mess, though. Once night fell, most of the trash had been picked up. Unfortunately, store owners and four car owners will be beginning the clean up process tomorrow.
Needless to say, all of this was a lot of excitement. I met up with some friends and watched a bit of football (European football) before heading back to the John Knox Center. The transportation was all out of whack, but we made it safe and sound. Thank goodness, because I've been looking forward to cleaning my room.
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