So I am in bed with horrible developing tonsillitis, while my friends are trying to fight their way through the big tuition fees increase protest in London. I have been following the BBC website and it just looks so terrific to me. When I heard about this event weeks ago, I thought it would just be an innocent and sophisticated protest, which would show how devastated we all are about this horrendous decision about University’s tuition fees being raised up to £9,000 per year, up from current level of £3,290. But it turned into a riot, or I would even call it a jungle. Anyone would get angry and upset, but not to this level.
The protesters are made up of university students and lecturers, as well as sixth form students. These sixth formers are the ones who are most likely to face the climb in tuition fees if it ends up happening.
Students found their way to Millbank Tower, where the Conservative Party is headquartered and smashed the windows on the main floor, and hundreds filled the entrance hall of the building. Police tried to beat back the students, but they seemed to be stronger. The ones that stayed outside set a fire outside the building. Protesters were throwing bottles and other items on fire at the police line. According to Sky News, 5 policemen and 6 students were injured and taken to 2 hospitals.
Now, is it actually a protest against dramatically increasing tuition fees or just an excuse to throw heavy things at the police, because in this situation it seems like they can? This surely isn’t the way to change the Government’s decision. And the injury of 11 people was certainly not worth it.
More importantly, did today’s devastation in London bring anything good into students’ life? I very much doubt they achieved what they wanted to achieve.
Hi Justi I hope you get some antibiotics for your tonsillitis and feel better soon. I am glad that you were not there, as crowds and violence of this sort is a frightening experience. I wait with interest to see who the police arrest and charge and how many of those will actually be Students. I hope that your expression of 'beating' the students back may not be accurate, as they sort of push and pen people in, unless directly hit and challenged themselves. You are right however, that once it starts people join in and it all escalates. Excuses for causing such damage are not needed for those with that outlook just venting their aggression. Somehow I have a vision of some of those who smashed the windows, watching the news at home today and thinking that they did well. It appears to me that the troublemakers may have slipped away after causing the mayhem. This is often the way even with the best organised protest or march and it is why I personally simply cannot stand mass/group ativity like this, although it should be a great way to make a point. People do things in a crowd situation which they would not dream of doing alone, football crowds come to mind. I doubt ANYTHING is going to turn the government's plans around and some of it may be good. It appears that really hard up parents of students may see their children subsidised and still able to go. All of this causes me great distress, because once I thought, that the matter of FREE education for all was an English thing to be very proud of and even if a student had to work for his maintenance and spending money that the tuition was free. I hold to my principal that the power of the pen,(letter, -e-mail etc) is greater than the sword. "The pen is mightier than the sword" is a metonymic adage coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu (Google) I have sometimes won a battle with a letter, although it is more difficult nowadays. Bye for now, take care.
ReplyDeleteI expect when it all comes out that the "students" were actually anarchists with nothing whatsoever to do with student.. They always seem to be around to hijack marches. If we could look at it on the funny side ? my solution for the police is to have hoses spraying porridge !! can you just visulise hooligans slip sliding drenched in porridge they would be unable to do as much damage thats for sure LOL
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Cait though that he pen is often mightier than the sword. Get everyone you know to write to their MPs. I already have...
Keep warm dear Justi do hope the throat is better soon. take care x
Hi Justi I am sure that you will have heard this story which I have copied from BBC for you. Sorry, another star from your homeland gone but still shining! Love as ever, keep the stories coming.
ReplyDelete12 November 2010 Last updated at 13:32 Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print Polish composer Henryk Gorecki dies at the age of 76
Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 became the best-selling record by a contemporary composer Polish composer Henryk Gorecki has died at the age of 76, the country's national orchestra has announced.
He was best known for his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, which was composed in 1976 and sold more than a million copies following a 1992 re-release.
The symphony - part of which drew on an inscription scrawled on a Nazi prison wall during World War II - featured vocals from US soprano Dawn Upshaw.
It was often played on radio station Classic FM when it launched in 1992.
Gorecki had been suffering from a prolonged illness, a spokeswoman for Polish Radio's National Symphony Orchestra said.
Monumental style
Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki was born close to the industrial city of Katowice in southern Poland, where he studied music and taught at the city's music academy.
His early works were avant-garde in style, and later influenced by folk music of his native land.
By the 1970s he had developed the monumental style for which he became famous.
He was often at odds with the communist authorities in Poland and withdrew from public life in the 1980s to concentrate on composing.
His Symphony No. 3, which dealt with themes of war and separation in a slow, stark style, became the best-selling record by a contemporary composer.
Gorecki had completed his fourth symphony, the premiere of which was shelved on account of his illness.
Last month he was awarded the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour