Silent indifference from the Ivory Towers?

For anyone who hasn't made it over to visit me - oops, Freudian slip ... I mean, who hasn't had the pleasure of knowing the United Nations in Geneva and its surroundings ... imagine a big plaza located directly in front of the main entrance to the UN (you know, the one you see in all the movies, lined with all the flags of the world?) with sporadic ground-based fountains (complete with naked kids running through them) and a GIANT wooden three-legged chair sculpture located directly in front of the main entrance to the UN.

Now imagine protesters of all kinds populating the plaza ... silent marching ones, coordinated cheering ones, banner-bearing horn-blowing ones, chorus singing ones, pamphlet distributing ones ... you name it you got it.

And imagine my office right across the street from this plaza, along with several other large and very well known international organizations ... organizations whose staff members do indeed work on many of the very issues the protesters are working so very hard to bring to public attention and who, at most, walk by them on the way into the UN for a meeting.

Today and yesterday there's an especially rowdy crowd out there ... alternating singing (quite beautifully, in fact), with loud drumming and angry yelling.  Do I know what they're protesting?  Not a clue. I haven't even bothered to look out the window (though to be fair to myself, I have a big building in front of me ... "looking out the window" would involve a bit of a walk).  Sadly, though, I'm willing to bet all the money I don't have that less than 1% of all the literally HUNDREDS of people working in the international organizations within earshot haven't a clue what the protest of the day is either. Quite frankly, their presence has become as everyday as a computer screen ... they're just there.

To be quite honest, I'm not sure who they think they're getting their message to ... with the huge garden areas and parking lots that stand between the outer gates of the UN and the actual offices/meeting rooms you most certainly can't hear anything there. There's no "passer-by" traffic in this area of people with no international business, and we, those whose offices are outside, clearly aren't paying much attention. I wonder, though, should it really be like this?  I was always one to love being witness to the energy and passion and debate of a good protest, no matter the cause ... can it really be that we have become so sucked into our Ivory Towers that our reaction to our own repressed curiosity is silence ... or, worse, indifference?