The Police force (Who are voting on whether to take strike action) and the Edinburgh Council have said that calling for a million people to drop into Edinburgh to show their support for this cause is irresponsible. Council Leaders and Senior Police officers have voiced their concerns about the safety of those involved in the march and also of residents of Edinburgh.
As an Edinburgh resident I would like to add my opinion to this debate. So, here goes...
To all of those people out there who are thinking of coming to Edinburgh to show your support for the Make Poverty History campaign...
Feel free to come along. The more people we have here marching peacefully the better. If you find yourself caught short and cannot take a piss behind a tree or find a nearby public toilet then politely ask a resident if you can use their toilet. Edinburgh people are generally a warm friendly bunch of folks and will more than likely be willing to let you do so. Just as long as you put the seat down after you've finished and don't make the loo smell like an Australian sheep shearers armpit.To those protesters who think that sticking a chair through the window of the McDonalds is a great laugh and will bring down capitalism...
Keep out. You will not help this cause in any way. You have your beliefs and I respect you for that but remember that if you kick a dog and it bites you back you only have yourself to blame. Causing mayhem on the streets and smashing the windows of Dorothy Perkins and overturning police vans will only give the government more reason to remove your, and everyone else's, freedoms. Please remember that the government have the power to make protesting illegal and will do so if you insist on attempting to cause riots in the streets of Edinburgh. And not only that but I'll be the first person to kick your arsehole if you do so in my home city.
Quit scaremongering the residents of this city into thinking that Geldof has just told 1million anarchists to come to Edinburgh to rob, loot and pillage like a modern day Viking horde. This is more than irresponsible, it's fucking nuts. You should know better. If you do not stop this at once I'll send you to your room with no dinner.To the Lothian and Borders Police force...
Please remember that the people on the streets are exactly the same as you and only want to show their support for a very good cause. I know the temptation to crack some skulls open and pretend Edinburgh has become a live and interactive version of the LA Riots will be high but please try to resist the urge. We, the peaceful protesters, only want to help others. As, I'm sure, is the reason why you joined the police force in the first place.To Edinburgh residents...
Calm down. The seventh level of Hell has not been opened and fire and brimstone will not fall from the sky. You and your family will be safe. There are no bogeymen in your wardrobe and the nasty Anarchists will not rape your pets and set fire to your Ikea sofa. The people who will be coming to show their support for this noble cause should, for most, cause only a little disruption in your life. Your bus may be late but you will not be savaged by long haired freaks who have dried in crusty semen on their trousers and a menacing look in their eyes.And that is my views and suggestions for how we can all work together to help the children of the world from dying needlessly from diseases that we can cure easily.
Remember, that if it wasn't for the serendipity of you being born in the developed world...
It could have been you.
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Or your Father
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Or your Mother.
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Or your child...
1 comment:
Hiya Cuzz.....back in Africa after a great visit to Dublin and Edinburgh, and I must say I agree with your views on what the residents and visitors of Edinburgh should or shouldn't do so as to restrict conflict over the summit...but...
With a different, perhaps more experienced outlook on the Africa problem, and without wanting to change your site into a political soapbox...It's all very well calling for African debt cancellation as some of the poorer people might benefit from it, but more likely to happen is that, firstly, the African leaders will go and pat themselves on the back by giving themselves handsome salary increases, and, secondly, the very next thing that these very same African countries are going to do if/when it happens? Right on...they're going to ask for another loan.
The G8 countries and the rest of the financial world have got to start devising ways of getting Africa to start accounting for itself instead of expecting handouts on a regular basis...Africa (and, in fact, all the "developing nations") should be required to pay back every cent they borrow, otherwise we'll just keep repeating the cycle, and the borrowing nations will keep on expecting (demanding) the world to keep carrying them.
Africa, in my experience, keeps expecting everything to be given to them without expecting to actually have to deliver a return...that's got to stop...
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