Minimal Effort, Maximum Impact - Why You Don't Have to Rally to Protest

Once upon a time, when one thought of protest, images of Greenpeace members waving banners in the air would immediately be conjured.

However, Princeton defines the act of protest as "the expression of opposition through action or words". Bearing this definition in mind, surely protest cannot be limited to over-the-top organized rallies and demonstrations. If you stop and think about it, look more closely at the things around us, you can see that everyday we come across some sort of protest, be it the seemingly innocent remark your friend makes about the school's ridiculously long lunch lines or even your favourite kid's book.

"YouTube" is more than just a place where you can catch your favourite music video of the latest episode of SNL. One of the internet's fastest growing online communities, YouTube is home to a myriad of home videos made by activists of all ages, races and genders. When you type in 'protest', "politics' or even 'Bush', into it's search engine, you get a multitude of videos ranging from a young British girl's self-made videos protesting the war in Iraq. And if you think these videos aren't getting attention you'd be wrong. On average, "YouTube" gets 16.2 million viewers, so you can bet that these people's voices aren't going unheard. Also, in October 2006, YouTube caused controversy in the media when the New York Times did a report on the abundance of anti-US videos on its database. It may be difficult to believe that such amateurish five-minute videos could ever create such an impact, but with the world's growing access to the Internet, "YouTube" may only be just the beginning.

What about children's books? Those stories that YOU, personally, have grown up with and have presumably heard or read countless of times and maybe haven't given much thought to. Let's take The Emperor's New Clothes, for example. On one hand, it can be interpreted as a relatively innocent and humorous story. However, if you look at it more closely, could it be an indirect form of dissent against the idea of democracy? Then even recently, there have been a number of children's books published that have caused a storm as a result of their taboo topics such as homosexuality ('And Tango Makes Three' by Justin Richardson) and drug usage (It's Just a Plant' by Jamie Peatras). Although they were banned in some schools, they all seemed to serve their purpose to certain extent: they got under someone's skin.

What about something a little closer to home? At one point or another, we've all heard some form of political humour, but it's never really been thought of as a means of protest. Russian humour, for example, started out quite directly as a means of protest. In the late 19th century, Russia was burdened with harsh censorship laws. The idea of free speech was inconceivable, laughable even. Of course, the Russians did what came naturally. If the media would not tolerate their voices, Russians would go back to what their forefathers did and spread their opinion through word-of-mouth; thus came the birth of the anekdokt, the dark and often political joke. All this was done with knowledge that there was a risk factor involved: 5-10 years in a gulag camp.

The point being is that protest is around us all the time. It's in the books we read and it is in the voices of our peers. Whether or not you choose to acknowledge it, or allow it to do its job: to make you think, to inspire you or to instigate change; it's entirely your call.

Damisa Prompoj

Special to The Nation

Damisa Prompoj, 17, is editor of Anglo-American International School's newspaper in Moscow

The Nation Thailand
Saturday January 27, 2007