CAN’T HEAR US? THEN SEE THIS
Messages aren’t always driven home with fists. Political cartoons aside, activists have resorted to some rather creative methods
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revealed that protests have negligible bearing on effecting changes, legislative or otherwise. It is unfo unately even less so for violent demonstrations despite the risk to life and limb, according to protest pa icipation expe Dr Jacquelien van Stekelenburg. Despite this finding, passionate protests continue to leave blood on the streets all around the world. Some activitists, however, have learnt to rein their emotions in and focus on finding more effective ways to get their messages across instead.
A 2014 PRINCETON STUDY
Toys
In 2012, a corruption-marred Russian government allowed then-prime minister Vladimir Putin to secure an unprecedented third term as the country’s president, thus marking a new low in the country’s politics. As unsanctioned rallies are illegal, Russians protested by placing banners with satirical messages on so toys, plastic figurines and caricatures of politicians, which they then displayed throughout the streets of Barnaul. It was protest-byproxy at its finest.
Balloons
Activists from One, an NGO led by U2 frontman Bono, installed seven illuminated balloons outside the Church of Our Lady prior to the 2015 G7 Summit in Munich, Germany. The balloons, decorated with the po raits of the G7 heads of state, served as One’s call to action; the idea was to pressure these world leaders to provide more aid to the world’s poorest countries to reduce pove y and inequality. The subtext? These leaders were just full of hot air, and One was calling them out on it.
Video Games
Protests in Hong Kong may have halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the city’s desire for independence hasn’t. To that end, pro-democracy activists took their demonstrations over to the social simulation video game Animal Crossing. Joshua Wong, the de facto leader of the city’s youth activists, created an in-game island filled with disparaging remarks around po raits of Chinese president Xi Jinping and Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam, alongside banners that read: “Free Hong Kong — Revolution Now.”