As I traveled the world at the end of 2019 I was confronted with two story lines in almost every country I visited. The first has to do with the friction between the rich and the poor. The second has to do with concerns about the environment.
In some places the two issues are closely linked. In most places there was at least an under current of anti-government resentment and a feeling the leaders of the world are not addressing quality of life issues that would make life better for the average person or family. As a result, I found people taking to the streets to express their outrage and to demand change.
In countries where the best way to survive is to keep your grievances to yourself people are choosing to express themselves in the most public way.
I did not begin my journey with a plan to write about social or economic injustice, but I could not escape it. The issues presented themselves to me in places from southeast Asia to South America.
Landing in Vietnam (my first foreign stop) I stepped off a plane in Hanoi into a city wrapped in a thick envelope of air pollution. The air had the smoky smell of a forest fire. By the middle of the first night I found it hard to breathe. My instinct was to look for an open window for a breath of fresh air, but I realized there is no fresh air in Hanoi except after a hard rain. After another day in the smog of Vietnam my long term sensory memory kicked in and I was reminded this is what the air smelled like in my own country in the 1970s before the United States made a national decision to protect the environment. The observation proves that if humans choose to live a green lifestyle the world can be kept clean and preserved for the future.
Air pollution was a constant as I traveled through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand (less so), Nepal and India. By the time I landed in Spain, two and a half months into my travels, I had developed something like a smoker's cough that did not fade for about a week and a half.
My cough is just one small symptom in a world in which many are living in the environmental squalor of bad air, bad water, poor sanitation and crumbling infrastructure. These conditions effect everyone regardless of economic class. Billions of people were breathing the same air that gave me a cough before I arrived in southeast Asia and they are still breathing that same bad air months after I have returned home. Think of that in terms of daily life and long term health.
It is fair to ask who is responsible? And it is fair to say the governments of countries failing on such fundamental challenges as providing clean air, water, sanitation and transportation are failing their people. It is no wonder resentment towards those governments runs high.
Traveling in Cambodia last October I met a young man from Chile who left his country several years ago for better economic opportunity in Australia. I had been on the road for a few weeks at this point and was unaware that major street demonstrations had broken out in Santiago and that protestors were demanding the resignation of the Chilean president who had recently been praised internationally as an emerging world leader.
The protests in Santiago were spontaneously sparked by transportation fare hikes. They were led by young people and driven by calls for action on social media, word of mouth and street posters urging resistance to the government and a new constitution.
It is working. The first in a series of national votes is scheduled for April that may put Chile on the path to a new constitution and a government more responsive to the people. Demonstrators in Chile argue politicians of different political parties have been making the same promises of reform for over 40 years and none have followed through. Therefore all politicians are the same and the system needs to be re-formulated from the bottom up.
Santiago is painted from one end to the other with anti-government graffiti and each night there are protests demanding change. Tourists are warned to stay inside at night. Some businesses board up their windows to protect against mobs moving through town. No effort is made to clean up the spray painted slogans and protestations, because any graffiti removed is replaced with new messages the next day.
Above: Santiago
Dozens have died in Chile since the protests began last fall, but the intensity of the movement has not been dialed down. The people feel they have nothing to lose and for the first time in decades they feel their government is responding to their needs - even if very slowly and cautiously.
In an unexpected way the revolution in Chile and the worldwide movement to fight climate change came together for me in Spain as part of an itinerary I had put together last summer.
Chile had been scheduled to host a worldwide summit on climate change in December, but it was canceled due to the inability of the Chilean government to guarantee the success of the meeting, or the safety of the attendees. Spain offered to host the conference in Madrid as an alternative and it got underway the very week I arrived there.
Above: Madrid
For several consecutive days the Gran Via - the main boulevard through the center of Madrid - was closed for hours by protestors demanding global action to save the environment. Actually, the argument was framed in terms of saving mankind. Unlike the violent clashes we often see in countries where the government itself is the target of criticism, the climate protests in Madrid were conducted like street festivals with police maintaining a respectful distance.
Although the people of poorer countries suffer the most as a result of environmental degradation they do not have the luxury of devoting their time and resources to the cause. They fight for the more basic needs of a decent life while more affluent protestors in more developed countries call for action on climate change in the fashionable streets of cities like Madrid.
Regardless of the tone or the subject matter the message is the same. Citizens in countries around the world are demanding immediate action from government on issues important to them. Aided perhaps by ease of communication and fact checking, excuses for inaction by those in leadership are no longer tolerated by populations eager for change.
As my journey around the world was coming to a close protests were breaking out in India over a new immigration law designed to discriminate against Muslims. Fairness is another defining characteristic of the issues people rally around. Ordinary people see injustice in their lives and decide they are going to do something about it.
Standing in a line to speak to a government clerk behind a window about a grievance never seems to deliver the expected results. The clerk is a symbol of the government class. Someone who is asked to stand guard and protect those in power from the people they serve.
Public demonstration on the other hand is harder to ignore, harder to control and unsettling to governments that seek order above all else. The only way to restore order is to offer concessions to the protestors. That is the lesson the people of the world are taking from each other as they protest in the cities I visited and in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Moscow and Tehran.
The right to free speech and to peaceably assemble are very American values that seem to be spreading courage around the world. Despite the unrest and sometimes the violence associated with the organized agitation the phrase "we the people" is on the ascendancy.
© Dean Pagani 2020
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© Dean Pagani 2020