Make Poverty History
Although I was not there (I was helping Bannon move house) a member of the Incognito organisation attended yesterday’s protest in Edinburgh and has kindly sent in the is review of it.
Review by Kaz The Cat
Having worn my trendy white MPH wrist band for the last few months, it seemed only right and proper that I made the effort to join 224,999 (approx) other people on saturday in Edinburgh to create a human version of the aforementioned band.
So I did.
And what a great day!
Having stayed up slightly later than planned watching a Korean horror movie followed by an episode of Family Fortunes where we learned that 9 people believe another word for cry is blart, getting out of bed in the morning was hard. However, we were soon dressed in our white t-shirts and heading to the starting point (via the Panini and coffee shop). The starting point had its usual collection of activists, shoving leaflets in your hand at every possible opportunity and to be honest, I’m just not interested. I’d already committed to the Make Poverty History message, thats why I was there, I’m not interested in buying the socialist paper for a quid. Grrrr. I was also pleased to see that while the Daily Mirror had kindly contributed hundreds of placards, lots of people had torn off the huge Daily Mirror logo to leave only the message that mattered.
At around 1.30pm, while we were soaking up the sun, queuing up to start on the march route, the voice in the sky announced that the first protesters were back at the start and there was now a continous flow of people in white around edinburgh city centre. Woohoo! And we hadn’t even started yet!! (I was quite glad of that fact as it meant we’d seen the mexican dude from the motorcycle diaries talk on stage…a pleasant image to carry with me..).
The march itself was as marches go I guess…lots of people in white, walking, occasional chanting, lots of whistling. We found ourselves halfway along Princess Street at 3pm for the organised silence. In the shadow of the castle draped in a humungous MPH sign it was a poignant moment - exagerated by the fact that my friend phoned 2 minutes later to tell me he was watching Live8 and just phoned to say he wished he could be there and was very proud of us! Awwww!
On reaching the end (or the begining) it felt like we’d run the marathon…..not because it hurt, or it was a long way….but because a few of the stewards at the end had taken it upon themselves to clap as you came by….I was half expecting a silver cape and a medal! My favourtie signs of the day were the one man crusade of ‘Richard Whitely - RIP’ (and why not) and the rather surprising BAWS - which stood for Britain Against something I can’t remember now but recall being amusing at the time!
There was as many people in Edinburgh yesterday as there were people in Hyde Park - there were some differences…..we got texas, they got The Who,we got Elaine C Smith, they got Brad Pitt, we got Daniel Beddingfield, they got Snoop - but the message is the same. This week the 8 most powerful men in the world meet in our country to discuss the future of the world. I’ve never asked any of them for anything before but yesterday, I did - and here’s hoping they’re listening, cos if they are…
..I changed the world.
KtheC
PS - Thanks to the big man upstairs for the great weather - it helped.
PPS - Make Poverty History
Loads of thanks to Kaz for doing this.
GI 
July 4th, 2005 at 8:43 am
Id like to thank Mr Geldof and Bono for rightfully deciding the foreign policy of the G8 countries in terms of debt relief/aid.
It would be of further use if they could tell us what to do about the Middle East.
July 4th, 2005 at 8:50 am
I oppose this wearing of white and making poverty history. July is the season for the glorious King William of Orange. If any anarchist tries to stop us marching on Wednesday there will be blue murder. All this is a plot to stop Orange walks and we will defend our rights with blood if necessary.
July 4th, 2005 at 9:22 am
Orange walks should be stopped, they serve no other purpose other than to cause trouble, make people late to get to there destinations, and bug people with annoying pipe music.
I would hardly class everyone protesting in Edinburgh an Anarchist, these were people making themselves heard. It’s a sad day when we have to protest to try and make our ‘elected’ officials listen to us,
The orange walk is just a big na na na na na to something that happened in 1690, talk about holding a grudge or not getting over something!!!!
There is no comparison to Orange Walks and Make Poverty History. Make Poverty history is a cause worth fighting for, the orange walk is just nonsense.
July 4th, 2005 at 11:42 am
GI - never a truer word spoken. You are a man after my own heart!
MPH march was quality - worth every minute of standing around for *2 hours* waiting to finally get moving, although it didn’t always feel like it.
Proud to have been there.
July 8th, 2005 at 3:07 pm
I seen the dregs of the concert on Saturday: Maroon 5, Black Eyed peas, Sting, Will Smith. They will all sell a lot of CD’s on the back of those gigs. Solving world poverty is an easy thing to say but I was disappointed no-one actually outlined what it would take to solve world poverty. Funding water supplies, sewerage systems, electricity, banks, schools, construction, shops, gas, telephone systems….the list is endless. Who would get rid of the corrupt dictators is these African countries? Was there not an outcry from the same people who are wearing white wristbands as a badge of honour when a similar regime was ousted in Iraq?
The cost of this would mean a substantial reduction in the Western World’s standard of living. The sad fact is that people are too greedy to make poverty history but stupid enough to scream and shout about it and go on marches. Why didn’t these people vote for the Green Party at the last election? They had all this make poverty history concept in their manifesto.