#TTPANoWay

(I really did post this yesterday, it’s just DD was playing up again so wouldn’t let me post, so I had to put it on LiveJournal instead.)
Bother, looks like DD is down again 🙁 So another daily post that I’ll have to post on LJ instead, and re-post to DD in the morning once it’s (hopefully) back up.
Another anti-TTPA march today (or series of marches, really – there were 20-odd held all over the country), repeating the message of the ones before the elections: if this trade agreement is so great, and really truly doesn’t threaten our sovereignty in any way, then how come the NZ public aren’t allowed to see the details before it’s signed? Yeah, even if it was a party I liked in government, I still wouldn’t trust them on something as big as that.
Despite the rain, there was a pretty good turnout in Christchurch (somewhere between “hundreds” and “several thousand” depending on the biases of who was doing the estimating – I’d guess given the range of estimates somewhere around a thousand is probably the closest to reality). Lytteltonwitch came over to my place and we took a bus into Riccarton to join the march (rather than her having to find parking). When we got to the start of the march it was raining pretty steadily, so it was a bit damp and chilly waiting around for the various speeches to get done so we could start marching (I never quite see the point of the speechifying at the beginning of marches – we already know why we’re there, and obviously all think the issue is important enough to come out on a rainy day to protest it, so it’s very much preaching to the converted…). But once we got moving it improved, and it was a fun walk down Riccarton Road, stopping traffic and chanting slogans of varying degrees of cleverness. There was a lot of support from passing cars and people watching from the footpath (in fact, I think more support than last time) – so much for John Key’s “silent majority” wanting the TTPA…
We didn’t bother staying for the speeches when the march reached its other end in Hagley Park – although the rain had eased off, it was still a bit damp to be standing round, and it looked like there’d be the usual degree of chaos before anyone got round to starting the speeches anyway, so we just carried on walking into town to catch a bus back to my place.
As usual, I’m pretty cynical about whether the marches will have any effect, as it’s obvious the government has already decided its course, but I still think it was worth marching. That’s what democracy is about – not just electing governments, but letting them know when they’re veering off track. And if you don’t speak up, your voice will never be heard.

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