La Marcha Contra Las Farc

This is not really an update as I have something planned for that in the next week or two. I’m writing because I feel like I was part of something truly great today. Yup, today people took to the streets in their millions, not only here in Colombia but across the world, to protest against the kidnappings, terrorism and violence against innocent people.

People take to the streets in Bogota!

Before the march, which took place in every part of every city in this country, I was sceptical about how many people would take part and what impact this could possibly have. I’d heard talk of protest marches in South Africa before, where barely 500 people were able to march against crime country wide. I was always left with a feeling of powerlessness and disappointment at the inevitable muteness of it all. Today was different and truly the most emphatic statement from people that I have ever witnessed.

A demonstration of the Farc's kidnappings as people look on

This was all started on Facebook by a 33-year-old engineer from Barranquilla on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. He created a group and people rallied, signed up and added their voices in support of stopping the situation here in Colombia. There were protests in over100 cities world wide today!


Read about it at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7225824.stm


This made me wonder why things are so different at home, that people cannot stand together against something like crime, which on many dayskills more people in SA than in Iraq! What or who took our voice away? What made us stop believing and what could possibly ignite that fire again? Elsewhere the situation is the same and it has quite often appeared to me like the entire world is asleep in an impenetrable cocoon of day-to-day, self-absorbed paralysis.

Millions of people gather in Plaza Bolivar, Bogota

However, being a part of this now gives me hope that people, like us, still have a voice and that we can be heard. There is a ways to travel yet for this country, but the people (not just from this country) have decided that they will do what they can to end this war and that they won’t accept the current situation anymore. What a wonderful example of our common humanity! Trust me, these people are not the same and they certainly don’t share the majority of their beliefs, but they were able to put all those differences aside for this worthy and common cause.

Check out my photies and videos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hilton.johnson/LaMarchaContraLasFARC?authkey=A0cpSJQB7c8

The scale of this thing is unbelievable and I can’t believe I was here!