January 20, 2001
12:27 AM   Subscribe

Spent half of last night on the streets with around a million other people; my feet still smart from standing up so long, but we've finally kicked the f**cker out!
posted by lia (16 comments total)
 
Quite a crowd in that Time photo. Which one is you?
posted by netbros at 12:51 AM on January 20, 2001


Nice work. But why do "the poor" still support him? Is it cult worship?
posted by aflakete at 1:46 AM on January 20, 2001


can you come up to d.c. next? the sooner the better.
posted by moth at 1:47 AM on January 20, 2001


Lia,

Many props for standing up (no pun intended) for your beliefs. I wish I were that dedicated.
posted by Optamystic at 2:41 AM on January 20, 2001


Congratulations, lia, on a job well done!

Now, what's his successor like?
posted by lagado at 2:53 AM on January 20, 2001


netbros, i'm the one in black. :)lagado, she's at the very least prepared for office (unlike the previous guy); she has degrees in economics, has spent time working with the department of trade and industry, and served two terms as a senator. competence is, i think, the key word.(and yes, our new president is a woman -- second one in fifteen years! yayyy girl power)aflakete, i wish i knew -- some of them don't know either! ::sigh::
posted by lia at 4:15 AM on January 20, 2001


Nice work, lia: file this one under "democracy in action".
posted by holgate at 6:25 AM on January 20, 2001


Two thumbs up! You inspire me.
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:16 AM on January 20, 2001


Congratulations on a job well done! But I gather that the street protests weren't all one-sided. Was there much of a problem with that?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:29 AM on January 20, 2001


here's part of that article i mentioned in lia's last post:

A Poor Man's Situation

The anti-Estrada rallies, speeches and media coverage are concentrated in the business district. About 50 miles from Manila, among the sugar-cane farms of the province of Batangas, Virgilio Fabilitante wakes to another day of joblessness. His six-month old son died of meningitis in September, leaving him and his wife with nearly $1,000 in hospital bills. Fuel prices have risen so much that he has lost his main source of income, trucking the village's vegetables to the city market. He's struggling to feed his family of five with the vegetables he grows himself and the $2 a day he earns by fixing other people's cars and taking care of his uncle's pigs.

While the president may be corrupt, Mr. Fabilitante says, at least Mr. Estrada has made small gestures to the poor, such as launching a mobile store that sells subsidized Erap-brand rice and sugar to remote areas like his own.

Staring at a bare, plastic Christmas tree on the concrete floor of his small house, Mr. Fabilitante adds: "The businesspeople and Mr. Estrada can fight all they want. It doesn't matter for us. For the poor, life stays the same. That's what happened after People Power, and that's what will happen again."
posted by kliuless at 1:08 PM on January 20, 2001


Congratulations lia. I wish I could have been there; that's definitely a cause I could back wholeheartedly. It may be true that the Philippines is a matriarchal society, now that once again we've replaced incompetence and bad leadership with a strong, capable woman. (I wonder what her trademark color is going to be?)

Maybe if people power were as alive in America (and had as much government support), then the protests in D.C. would be more successful. Did anyone see the inauguration parade today? I think the protesters outnumbered the supporters 2 to 1.
posted by Mllebleu at 10:36 PM on January 20, 2001


Congratulations to Lia and all other residents of the Philippines. I've always thought that watching a tyrant go down must be one of the most inspiring events for anyone to experience.
posted by underpantsgnomette at 2:30 AM on January 21, 2001


Erap Estrada wasn't so much a tyrant as a politico with his arm in the till up to the elbow. (At least that's what we hear over here.)
posted by dhartung at 9:56 AM on January 21, 2001


Sounds like there's as much of a urban-rural political divide in the Philippines as there is in the US.
posted by aaron at 11:12 AM on January 21, 2001


Sounds like there's as much of a urban-rural political divide in the Philippines as there is in the US.

I don't think the one in the US even rates on the same scale.

posted by lagado at 10:53 PM on January 21, 2001


After the initial glee, this looks ominous.
posted by Avogadro at 11:30 AM on January 31, 2001


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