Big Mouths Strike Again

[dotinthesky]

Yesterday, I took Bruno to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park and he promptly fell in love with it. He loves anything that has to do with controversy and argumentative people. He took many photos of determined faces blaming the wrongs of the world on Christianity, Islam, Capitalism, Socialism, and what-have-you.

The old man in this photo had two buttons pinned to his jacket, which read "Don't Panic" and "Back to the 70s". His belt buckle had a Marijuana leaf design. He went from one speaker to the next, grinning silently as if he was incapable of taking anyone seriously.

The guy to the right in the photo would say to nobody in particular: "how many of you are feeling bad right now? Aren't we all feeling good? It's a miracle." He spent a good amount of time talking to uninterested passerbys.

Most of the crowd consisted of Muslim men. Interestingly, while the Christian speaker proclaimed a lot of evils had to do with Islam (while angry young Muslims screamed back at him), the Muslim speakers emphasided how Islam was not about terrorism, the oppression of women or any of the other evils pushed forward by the right-wing press (though I can't put my hand in the fire for one of the men speaking heatedly in an Arabic-sounding language.) The most interesting speaker, by a wide margin, was the articulate socialist who wanted to prove Hugo Chavez's government was doing great things to Venezuela.

Some families appear to rent lawn chairs at Hyde Park and sit all day facing Speakers' Corner. I wonder if they were related to the speakers and the men in the crowd who treat the place as their Sunday routine.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of angry young moderates loudly proclaiming a tolerant point of view.

"I can't put my hand in the fire..." that's an ace expression -- is it Brazillian?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I didn't know it was a Brasilian expression. But now that I look into my own head and think about it, yes it's an expression I mostly use when speaking in Portuguese. :-)

[greenteablack.livejournal.com]

Speakers Corner is really an interesting place. I don't remember what people were talking about when I was last there but I'm sure it was politics. Those chairs remind me of when my Aunt and I, exhausted from 4 hours of walking around London, crashed down on them, not knowing we had to pay. When the guy came around asking for money we had none on us and told him that we had no idea we were supposed to pay and he almost chased us out of the park lol

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

My friend wanted to sit on the deck cheers too but I stopped him in time.

[sallypointzero.livejournal.com]

what a startling metaphor-type-thing "hand in the fire' ooooouuuuch! that was a bit of a shock!

[sallypointzero.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, simile

[phyrephly.livejournal.com]

you totally stole your subject line from my last post.
also, i am not exactly sure what Speaker's Corner is but it sounds like a really great idea. the only thing i don't understand is, why do you have to pay to sit down?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I live to steal from you. :-)

Speakers' Corner is a place in Hyde Park that's been around for ages (centuries?), where people are allowed to speak their mind as long as they are standing on a box, chair, etc. A place for freedom of expression, which naturally attracts all kinds of nutters.

You can sit on the grass for free, but the chairs provided by the park (not the benches, mind) cost a pound or two.