Roselle Pineda
Jess Azner
Mideo CruzMarking the Streets
“Kill” a Photo by Jess Azner
Subject/Performance by Mideo CruzFilipino performance artist, Mideo Cruz, holds a placard up high in protest against globalization, while dispersal police units; inch their way to dislodge the people’s assembly. Later on that afternoon, police violently tried to disperse the protesters. Some members of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, Congress of Teachers for Nationalism and Democracy, and other militant organizations, were hurt.
I gradually inched my way forward, alongside a colleague and friend from the university. My right arm hooked in his sweaty arm, while my left hand was preoccupied with waving a flag of protest. I was, maybe ten rows from the frontline, it got harder and harder to march forward as the police who waited in the gates of the Congress slowly but forcefully dropped weight upon us to disperse our assembly. Suddenly, a blow from one of the police sent almost immediate hysteria among the protesters. People started to run around towards safety while the police snatched and smacked almost randomly at every protester that they could reach. The police took some protesters, while others were caught in the stampede. Afterwards, all that was left on the streets were pieces of shoes, slippers, clothes, and streaks of blood on the concrete, and a thousand bodies and faces bruised from violence.
Ahhh… this government is full of ironies. Irony in the way that it takes pride with being a democracy and yet, it is a subservient entity in relation to imperialists, particularly, U.S. imperialists. Irony in the way it declares itself to be democratic and yet, it labels all those who are not passive to it, and other potential enemies as “terrorists.” Irony in the way that it violently cuts people’s right to be disgruntled and to protest against its actions, every time people in streets are met with blows and water canons to disperse their assembly.
Despite these, the grueling heat of the sun, the long arduous marches, and the dangers in the face of the government’s iron fist, we continue to mark the streets with our rage. We continue to mark our streets with protest against oppression. We continue to mark the streets with the people’s disappointment against subservience to imperialists. As the great Bob Marley would say, “you can fool the people some times, but you can’t fool all the people all the time,” and we will continue to mark the streets with passion and action towards true nationalism and democracy.
--Roselle Pineda