This weekend has turned out to be one of the worst in a long time. After one of the worst weeks in a long time. Fading into what will most likely be another superlative of the bad.
Yesterday, after burning a lot of wood and papers and cardboard, I felt better. And then I woke up to the news that the military killed someone during heavy confrontations between protesters and armed forces who where trying to push a the trucks of a hyper-capitalist supermarket chain through the barricades.
Is that worth killing for?
I watched the video. I shouldn't have. The footage doesn't show the shots themselves, but how the body is carried by protesters, who are then dispersed. Only one remains. Trying to protect the shot man. Trying to help him. Calling for help. Military trucks drive by, then come back, halting next to the body and his guardian. They get out. They kick the guardian on the ground. They beat him. They try to pull him away from the body, he holds on, doesn't let go until they finally let off, drive away.
It shook me. It was right over there, on the other side of the canyon, maybe 3km. And here, in town, such a peaceful morning. The sun shining in that particular way that makes the air taste fresh and promising. It took me a while to get up and on with my day. Friends came over with their daughter, the kids played. They, too, were dejected, powerless. We only talked a little about the situation and then went on to cooking together, pretending a little normality, for the kids.
They were happy.
At least that. I remembered when I went out to protest, 25 years ago. The confrontation with police, tear gas, high-pressure-water guns. How outraged we all were when a protester against the Stuttgart-21 project lost an eye due to a rubber bullet. Or a tear gas canister? I don't even remember. We only heard about deaths at protests on the news, sometimes, mostly from countries with dictatorships and/or corrupt governments.
So overwhelmingly privileged.
Then and now. I don't have to decide between food or bus fair to school. And probably never will have to do so. Who am I to tell them the "right way to protest"? To judge? I've grown to dislike judging situations and people alike, especially with scarce information available. And even more so while seeing that the trend is going the other way. So many rash, purely emotional comments, without understanding half of what's going on and even less ability to consider the points that the other side is making.
It's not up for debate.
Good old parenting phrase. I try to avoid it, try to take the time to listen to the incredibly cute arguments that Lily is making, her childish attempts to change decisions in her favor. And if she's got a good one, I let her have her will - she worked for it, she was able to convince me. Discussions are so important.
It's getting late.
Yes, I was writing to calm myself down. To get tired. I hope it wasn't dull. It's hard to focus these days, to get things done. Even my lists don't really work. Maybe tomorrow.
They say that they're going to cut the power around Midnight. Cellphone service is already limited, kind of hard to say if it's on purpose or just the general bad network. A huge military convoy is coming from Quito. The government claims that 17 military personal were abducted by communities, but the communities didn't say anything about that, ever. The social media feed reeks of fear, anger, sadness, anxiety and rumors, so many rumors, all hearing the drums in the depths of Moria:
They're coming.
What are your thoughts about this topic? Please feel free to engage in any original way, including dropping links to your posts on similar topics. I'm happy to read (and curate) any quality content that is not created by LLM/AI, as well as read your own experience and point of view, I love to learn!
There's this real sense of unease isn't there, when something so awful happens yet at the same time, the ordinary life persists - the sun shines, you make lunch, you talk to Lily. Living somewhere like Australia, you can't even fathom such unrest and violence.
Human beings can do such awful things to each other. We get - caught up. I can't pretend to know anything of what is going on, but I hope those drums fade.
The weird thing is that nothing of this is really new to me. I've been here since 2014, so I experienced the earthquake, the 2019 strike, the pandemic, the 2021 mini-strike, the 2022 strike, the 2023 beginning of the violence, 2024 the national energy crisis - and yet, it feels so different this time. I think it's because Lily is living with me now. I can't be out there and actively help people, but always stay behind, taking care for her. I usually combat unrest with work, organize for the expat community, mostly, as foreigners are not allowed to protest and some are really scared by this. Can't really do that these days.
When I was at university, there was a terrorist attack on something, somewhere in the world, and it dominated the conversation - instead of the subject matter. I tried to return the conversation (in class, which i was paying for!) to the topic at hand, and people just wouldn't.
As @riverflows says, its easy to be detached from from conflict and horror when the sun is shining and you're hungry and need to buy toilet paper and bring the clothes in before it starts raining.
But anyway, I steered the conversation (or rather, drove it off a bridge) when I said that - "If the Sydney Harbour Bridge" (probably one of the most famous bridges in the world) collapsed today - our lives in this classroom would not be materially changed.
We don't use it every day. The freight it carries isn't intended for us. But it would be a cultural scar. Some of those can be ignored, some of them are crimes, but ultimately, we have to endure and go on.
No matter how bad the tragedy, tomorrow still comes for those who remain. How we shape the tomorrow after is what makes us "more equal".
Honestly, I think that Ecuador is at a turning point. I hope not, I hope I see patterns that aren't there, but as I explained before, everything points into the authoritarianism direction - the way the protests are managed, too. The sad part is that it's a done deal, most of the country is on board with that, they think that a strong leader will deal with the narcos, though he hasn't accomplished anything in the last 2 years, on the contrary, it's worse than ever. But declaring the protesters "terrorists" and going against them in this brutal way makes him look strong, and that's all they care about.
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So, I have nothing to comfort you. You know I am not that type of person.
What I can tell you instead is where l have been in the past because what I do.
Nigeria at the height of kidnapping and insurgence in the delta.
Sierra Leon after the war
Syria just before the second war
Iraq, northern Iraq just before and after ISIS
So I think that’s enough. And yet I am still mostly sane, eh?
I haven’t mentioned Algeria and Libya that my wife travels frequently. In fact she is heading over there tomorrow for 3 weeks. And yet we are mostly worried about school drop off in Houston while she will be away and the variation of dinner that I may or may not able to provide! :)
Life goes on. It’s not fair. Yet I won’t have it in any other way.
No need for comforting, I just needed to let it all out somehow. I honestly don't like comforting too much, as there is usually not much to say. Many humans have the tendency to need to say something, "it's all going to be fine" and other platitudes, and give advice where it's not needed. I prefer to be just able to vent, and just get a "that sucks" or such, without any attempts to pseudo-help.
Also, I'm very aware of where I'm living, and how things go here, and that it could always be worse. Perspective and comparative.
As I mentioned, it's a little harder on me this time as I can't be as active in the community as usual, and because there is a degradation in how people treat each other. Nothing I can change, I know, but it still bothers me, for now, it won't for long as I'll find my way to deal with it, as always.
Thank you for taking the time to comment, I appreciate that.
Oh, and no snarky comment on how I screwed up the title and the link to this write up? 🤪