Power of Protests

When i went on exchange to Mexico i happened to see 2 protests and unsurprisingly i followed and video taped the protests. The first protest happened in my exchange university, UDLA. Basically a number of students on scholarships had their scholarships revoked by the university without any explanation whatsoever. The move sparked a massive protest which spread via sms, msn and word of mouth. It was interesting to see so many students congregate, regardless of being affected, to start a movement to fight for the reinstatement of these scholarships. It started in the morning when students boycotted their classes, aggregated and moved around the campus chanting with protest signs. Finally the protest ended up in an office, where heads of the student unions vehemently verbalised their discontent with the situation to university representatives. This carried on for a few days and the students disrupted the whole system by blocking vehicles from entering the university compound. Eventually the university re-instated the scholarships and life went on as normal.

I didn't understand much of the second protests that i saw, but it was much larger in scale compared to the one in school because some people lost their jobs if im not mistaken and they started a massive protest outside the parliament house of the city of Guadalajara. I don't know whether this issue was ever resolved. Strangely enought when following this protest, i noticed quite a few people holding up pictures of Che Guevarra. I don't know whether his symbol is supposed to be a mark of rebellion, a well respected latin american figure or whether he just looks damn cool in that picture this chap is holding.

In India, i've seen a riot, but unfortunately don't have any evidence of it. What happened was that there was an american missionary who had come into the country to give a speech or a sermon or something of the sort near the village where i was staying. It sparked a violent reaction from Hindu extremists who began to spread pamphlets which had information stating that the missionary was trying to convert the Hindus into Christians and that he must be stopped and people shouldn't attend the speech. On the main road, people driving vehicles with Christian symbols, like the crucifix, were pulled out of their cars, the men were beaten and the cars were smashed.

What i found most interesting from these protests, is that more than half the people in a protest don't really have a reasonable reason to be there. They just know someone protesting but can get as emotional as someone who has actually been affected. Also both these protests had people holding instruments and singing out their protests. Music was being used as a tool unite the people and remind them that they had a common denominater worth fighting for.

How do you get people who are emotionally charged to listen you?

For one i think that there needs to be an open platform to communicate when agitated.