Protester Simon Murray is one of our G8 guest bloggers
At 3am today I was watching IndyMedia's Have I Got Schnews For You with a team from the Rebel Insurgent Clown Army attaching clothes pegs to the Angus Deayton stand-in. My thoughts were struggling to compete against the carnival of sound and joyful banter in the forest cafe.
I feel the need to clarify a few points following my last post. First off: i am not 40 (29 and a sprightly one month actually!) and I feel far from middle-aged. Second: my time in advertising was extremely brief (three years studying the dark art at university, one year's exploititive placement as part of a freelance team and six months pimping my work around London's creative agencies living off jobseekers allowance and housing benefit).
Hardly the formula to earn my fortune, but a perfect career path to foster a bitter loathing for the industry and all it stands for.
So on to the G8.
My reasons for being here are not to look pretty in a march endorsed by the very government that has been part of creating global poverty and which will (by the very nature of capitalism) ensure that the world is run for the benefit of its economies and those of the other seven in the cartel. (I've started on that last chapter of A Beginner's Guide to Anti-Capitalism ...)
I admit that I have not been to the bountiful and resource rich continent of Africa myself. But why do I need to? Apart from the fact that I would increase my carbon footprint by the air travel, there are enough people here who have been: doctors, professors, environmental scientists, sociologists, geography lecturers ... all who have given willingly of their free time and energy to try and right what they see as an unacceptable situation. I feel humbled next to these generous people and if they are prepared to give so much (including their liberty in some cases) to speak out, then the least I can do is listen.
Yes there are a few people who the corporate media will inevitably focus on who will feel angry enough to smash a window, but the majority of people I am meeting are intelligent, compassionate, and understand that change will not happen by wearing a fashion accessory bracelet on your wrist, listening to a few pop songs and saying please. (To quote the anarchist newspaper Schnews: "Asking the G8 to do something about poverty is like asking a paedophile to look after a nursery.") I ally myself with people who actually want to make the G8 history.
So, by making this small trip up the road I can learn and find out about these issues from those who have a better understanding than me and certainly a better understanding than the aforementioned millionaire pop stars and those whose sole interest in Africa lies in the economic interest of the corporations that run their countries rather than the wellbeing of the global population. And by global population I mean kids on Scottish council estates as well as those in Africa.
I also saw another notable figure at Glastonbury - Tony Benn. He's 80 (even older than me) and he stood up to say he has given up protesting. He is now demanding.
I look forward to the sideshow today and maybe helping to convert a few people to the real cause but I also look forward to the rest of the week and continuing my journey of enlightment.
