Mecha-Rudhraigh vs the WTO!!

Well, as you know everybody's favourite trade regulator, the good old WTO is in town having a meeting that's apparently aimed at solving the burning trade issues that cripple the poor and molest the rich of their god given dignity. They surely are a bunch of good Samaritans at the WTO, kind, considerate and truely concerned for the fortunes of their fellow man. Sadly, not all agree with this righteous point of view and a few of these malicious minded thieves thought it proper and appropriate to litter the streets of Hong Kong with their maloderous presence today.
I, thinking it an interesting situation, tagged along for the ride. To start with, it was pretty sedate although some of the walking bands and megaphone shouting was pretty cool. They closed off a long part of Wan Chai, there were representetives from every conceivable anti-globalisation organisation around, if Hong Kong is anything it's a mish mash of people from everywhere around the world so pretty much everyone has access to protesting here. Indians, Brits, Germans, Chinese, Koreans, French, Brazilians and of course the Irish. When I first got there it was pretty standard protest stuff, hundreds of people all walking in the same direction trying to make it look as though it represented something, even though the something in question was slightly different depending on which banner you were walking behind.
Some people wanted genuine fair trade, others wanted fair trade strictly for homosexuals, yet others wanted fair trade as a part of international communism and thene there was me, who wanted to take photos. Then there were the Korean farmers, who wanted to have the right to sell their products at the same prices as the multinational corporations who are edging them out of the market with mass production. Those pesky Koreans have a habit of dying of starvation and making everyone look bad as a result.
While I was walking next to the Oxfam group, I noticed that I was beside the dude from Amorres Peros and the Motorcycle Diaries. He was small, hairy and had a camera.
When we finally got to the ground outside the conference center, all the groups stopped by the seaside and took out the megaphones. An hour of shouting in Chinese and heavily accented English, nothing much had happened. The problem with these sorts of protests is that at the core of your mind, you're always a little bored and you hope there will be a little action. Luckily, I was not dissapointed. I was lucky enough to be beside some railings that overlooked the main poiint of entry to the conference when the Korean farmers attacked the Hong Kong police barricade. They tried to dump a burning funeral pyre on the police, but luckily they didn't achieve it. The cops were replaced by a forty person deep line of police officers, all of whom seemed to be about ten, in full riot gear with shields, pepper spray and batons. It was a crazy thing, people were getting sprayed, cops were getting hit, it's weird to see someone hit a cop and know that they won't get arrested cause there are just too many of them. It really drives it home how much the police rely on the support of the people to do their job.
When the Koreans started getting out of hand, they got pepper sprayed like crazy, I was about four meters away from this one guy who got a load of it straight in the eyes. He was on the ground writhing in pain, the kind of pain you don;t really see first person these days. I was on top of the railings taking photos for about an hour and a half whilst a full on riot was going down less than two meters below me. The photos I took were pretty unbelievable, you really can't beleive the craziness of see a guy get beaten with a baton, especially when you know he kinda deserves it for trying to smash a policeman in the face with a piece of wood.
Eventually things calmed down somewhat, the Koreans had all been peppersprayed and beaten so there wad no-one left to go crazy. It was odd, you could see loads of crusty Europeans in the mix, giving a lot of shit. Very weird to see that, kind of wanted them to get arrested. After a while I decided to leave and went off. As I walked home, I kept looking at all the people, amazed by the fact that no-one was fighting.
So all in all, my first riot was a glorious success, except that nothing actually got acheived. Some people got smacked around and yet others couldn't see yet, thank god, the WTO conference goes on and we can all go to bed safe knowing that the world is an ordered place. Apparently Saturday is going to be the hardcore day because 600 more Korean farmes are arriving so I may go again if I get time. I'll post the pictures I take then too..