> > But yeah, I had the same reaction. *What* were they trying to do?
>
> I had a somewhat similar reaction to the recent IMF/World Bank protests in DC. There was a lot of yelling about how a lot of nations are poor and exploited, but they seemed to be protesting the *fact* that nations are poor and exploited more than any coherent cause.
>

After my other post, I have to say something about this...these protests, on the other hand, I thought were very silly. Not only did they accomplish nothing, they had no clear idealogical purpose and what purpose they did have I think was probably misguided. We had one student from the College purposely get arrested in D.C. by walking across a police line he had been told specifically not to cross, because he thought it would be a cool story to tell when he got back. Not only does this not help anybody, this kind of protest is probably actively counter-productive, because any legitimate complaint or attempt at reform is going to be seen as part of a movement inspired by idiots like this fellow and "suburban hippies."

Tom