Gender part 2

I am sorry for letting you wait for the part two of my gender writing experiment. Past few days were too full of films and late meetings. Writing in two different genders appears to be more difficult than I thought. But I am sure I can do it. In my previous post I have asked to leave your guesses in comments. Unfortunately, some stupid racist came along and started leaving obnoxiously rude comments all through the blog. I have disabled anonymous posting because I knew he/she/it wouldn’t dare to reveal its identity. If you tried to leave your guess as anonymous and didn’t succeed – I am sorry. Anonymous comments are enabled now so you are welcome! Here’s the same blog post, but in a different gender. Guess!

So there’s this revolution thing going on in Egypt now. Just before you start throwing stones at me, let me place a disclaimer: I do truly respect the will of the people in Egypt and admire them for taking action. I also believe that we get just enough information from the usual media channels to be aware of things happening around the globe, but not enough to form a strong opinion supported by facts. So, I kind of know what’s going on there, but do not really have an opinion on that particular situation. I simply do not have enough information and I choose not to look for it.

I do have an opinion on protests in general however. A public protest is a powerful tool in democracies for people to influence decisions of the government. Or isn’t it? If it’s about a particular policy question, maybe. But protests against the government in general (call them revolutions if you wish)? I have my doubts.

Just look at them. Most people anywhere are not very much politically involved. They vote (or not),  follow the news (if they do) and mind their own business (which is not politics). There is a smaller group of very politically active people who start a protest. They have a clear idea as to where they want to be in terms of politics and why. But they need support. If they manage to get their word across, they’ll get support.  And then they go out to the main square and protest. They stand there with people who like them and basically don’t care about their ideas. With people who think they understand what the protest is about because they watch TV and listen to what their neighbours say.  With people who like to be where the crowd is. People who are always against and basically attend any protest. People looking for an adventure. Those who think it’s cool to join a protest and those who have nothing better to do. Journalists and amateur photographers.  Curious. Pickpockets.

I remember when Netherlands voted against the new EU ‘constitution’ several years ago. Most people had no slightest idea about the context and the real meaning of the changes. Although they thought they knew. Or they thought it was cool to vote against. I’ve seen the Orange revolution in Ukraine some years ago where people were wearing orange an singing songs on the main square of Kiev. One cannot imagine the amount of disappointment in the years after.

So who is protesting against what and why? When we support a protest, do we really know what it is about? When it comes to mass protests I don’t believe in democracy. Same goes for referendums. I hope it works out for the best in Egypt!

So, is this written by a man or a woman? What do you say?