In all honesty, at first I wasn’t that interested in attending the Anti Berlusconi demonstration. I just don’t find politics very interesting. But curiosity got the better of me and Cart and I headed to the Piazza Del Popolo last Saturday.
By the time we reached there, it was bustling with activity. All the way from the metro to the piazza, it was crowded with people. Cart guessed that there were about a good 30 thousand people when we reached there at 3. There were even more people streaming in as we left later.
Many of these people were wearing purple in a demonstration against Berlusconi’s corruption like the hiring of unqualified girls for his party.
I was hypothesizing that since purple in Italian is viola, the colour was chosen because it was close to the word violare, which means to violate.
There were an impressively large number of people carrying banners and marching around
But I was amused and most impressed at this very well made effigy. Everywhere the dummy went, the camera would follow.
And in this picture, he was probably trying to make the kid in the red coat cry by lowering the dummy close to the boy.
Eventually the speeches started and everyone was listening keenly to the speeches being done on stage. And all around me was cheering and clapping at what was being said.
Even though I couldn’t follow smoothly at what was being said, I thought that the event was very well planned and executed. Every speeches went back to back with no awkward pauses.
But what amazed me the most was the unity and the very public display of protest. And yet everything was very civil. What an eye opener.
I couldnt help but to compare it to Singapore’s own Hong Lim Park and all its regulations.