Fernando Dámaso, Translator: Unstated
Here in my country, the movement of the outraged is front page news. In
the three national official newspapers and on television photos, images
and praised are repeated, to no one's surprise, accustomed as we are to
the government's taking advantage of anyone who criticizes the empire
and its lackeys. More than politics, it is an unhealthy obsession. The
same thing doesn't happen when people protest in countries with friendly
governments. These protestors are considered to be sponsored and paid by
the empire and are totally ignored.
I admire and respect the movements that deposed their autocratic
governments in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as in Libya with outside help.
Also those who are trying to do it today in Yemen and Syria and other
places. In the aftermath of them, in some countries, those called "the
outraged" have come to the fore.
But who are these known as "the outraged"? They remind me of the hippies
of the sixties, but without their exoticism and charisma. The hippies
passed and, at least, they left behind songs, musicals, films and
novels. I don't know if the outraged will have the same luck.
Protest, in recent times, has become a universal sport in developed
countries, rather like football. What are the outraged protesting? Are
they proposing something concrete? Perhaps the failed socialism. A new
economic system? from the photos and images it seems the majority are
young, and I suppose with little or no work experience, and without
having yet created families. They haven't even had time to make mistakes.
It seems there are some oldsters who, with their obsolete language are
people out of step with their times, eternal losers, incapable of
opening the paths of their own lives. Occupy Wall Street is one of the
main slogans. For what? To destroy it? Are those who have never even run
a hot dog stand going to run the economy? What's more, what have they
contributed to their countries.Have they created something that is today
the patrimony of humanity?
Sometimes I am outraged by some of these outraged, but I am reassured to
understand that they over respond to juvenile hormones, that they need
where they demonstrate. Plazas and parks are good places, especially
where they are conveniently equipped with modern tents, as well as food,
music, interesting books and agreeable company. It's like going on a
picnic or camping, but in the center of the city. I completely agree
that a better world is possible, but this will not be achieved through
protesting but through working.
November 4 2011
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