"Foreigners seen protesting in protest actions can be deported for violating the country's immigration laws ... Foreigners have no business joining these mass actions because it is tantamount to meddling in our country's internal affairs" - Philippine Bureau of Immigration
"The protesters brought with them placards that simply said "No to GF*D", "End labor export", "End poverty" and "Create jobs at home", all written in different languages. Is there anything subversive to the international and national interest about these?" - N.O.G.
Ever aware that choosing not to make this blog private somewhat jeopardizes my willingness to talk candidly about all things interesting, I will avoid spelling out the name of the actual global meeting that brought myself and more than 1,000 top expert foreign diplomats, trade union reps, non-profit professionals, academics, social workers and migrants to Manila, but I trust that it will be obvious for those who choose to take a peek at the PICTURES HERE and/or a few of the bazillion news articles, including, perhaps, a couple of these:
- Bureau of Immigration: Foreigners joining protests to be deported
Not withstanding the one-of-a-kind hospitality and friendliness of the Philippino people that would, undoubtely, grant them the title of "World's most friendly people", the meeting was branded by thousands of military soldiers and police officers, blocked off roads, x-ray security, digital security badges, traffic escorts should you ever need to set foot outside of your (arranged) hotel or the conference centre and even security professionals to ensure that you do not inadvertently get into any trouble while making visits with Mother Nature. Thus making "escape" from the picture perfect conference world all that much more appealing.
Change scenes now to life in the streets outside the cordoned police barricades six officers deep and you have a very different picture ... one of rallies involving some 5,000 people frustrated by an opaque system that has not allowed them to participate in the conference and fearful that decisions being made behind closed doors about migration policies come at the cost of using human beings who are unable to find decent work at home as nothing more than economic bargaining chips for greedy governments.
Despite the fact that a number of media have entirely misled unknowing readers into believing that these rallies were led by "militant activists", they were light years away from being even remotely violent. Case in point, protesters went down the lines of police barricades affixing giant "Migrant rights are human rights" stickers to their riot shields and placing roses in their uniform lapels ... receiving only smiles in return. How many of those officers must also have wives, mothers, daughters, brothers working abroad?
Braving the indescribable pollution and daunting humidity, I later spent a day meandering the streets and neighborhoods of Manila. If back in the conference delegates were totally oblivious to the daily protests, they certainly had NO idea of the evident social backlash by other groups on a very local ... made clear by an array of anti-forum graffiti, posters, etc.
In a nontransparent, government-only process, removed from the United Nations and with limited intention to evaluate the process and/or produce concrete results beyond the "talk shop", the added "social oblivion factor" makes you wonder all that much more ... what the heck are we, and our leaders, doing?
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