The Nature of Protest

Yesterday I went to a demonstration in support of the depenalization of abortion in Argentina. Sadly, the group of 20 to 30 abortion advocates were oversahdowed by a massive demonstration involving hundreds of people marching from Congresso to Plaza de Mayo. I couldnt really understand what the demonstration was about but I believe it has to do with Kraft foods and the firing of a huge number of employees and something about H1N1 as well...obviously had some trouble understanding the pamphlets, but I was incredibly struck by the culture of organizing and protesting here in Argentina. And I am having a moment right now where the world just kind of looks really ugly. With everything that is going on in the U.S to stop the (modest) healthcare plan from being passed and WHAT the pro-democracy demonstration in Guinea in which 100+ people were killed as police open fired on the crowd.
There are some days when I just cant handle how fucked up the world is. I had kind of shut myself off from current events. Being here makes it a lot easier to forget that the rest of the world still exists. This is kind of a rant, but what I really want to do is just put all of these events in perspective,trying to understand how all over the world people are fighting to be heard, fighting for the right to just live. Its like im seeing too much this week how fragile democracy really is. Its really only this tiny thread of a thing and if you stop fighting for it for even one second someone will try to make you forget that its the only thing we have to keep us from dying, slow painful deaths bc we cant afford to see a doctor, or quick surprising deaths to silence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/world/africa/30guinea.html?hp