I've been looking at newspaper and Internet reports about the recent wave of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The streets are teeming with people. Police in riot gear and gas masks stand by. Clouds of tear gas waft through the streets. People kneel in the streets, weeping, as fellow protesters pour water in their eyes.
It's all very chaotic. And it all looks very familiar.
It wasn't too long ago that we saw similar scenes on the streets here, and I witnessed it first hand. Before that, I was on the streets of Seattle as the WTO protests and police crackdown happened in 1999. Those are the ones I've seen in person. But there have been many more in recent years, like the Hong Kong protests, that I've only witnessed through the media.
It's funny to look at the pictures from Hong Kong. I was just there on holiday a few weeks ago, and I recognise a lot of the areas in the photos. Hong Kong isn't a big place, and it's strange to imagine it full of protesters, cops and tear gas.
But the two series of protests that I've actually been around for in person were all too real. And almost equally difficult to imagine — even though I saw them myself.
In 1999 in Seattle I saw massive crowds on the streets. I smelled tear gas in the air. I heard, in the distance the unmistakable roar of an angry crowd and helicopters circling overhead almost all night. I lived within a few blocks of where the protests were happening, and the cops were herding the protesters up the hill closer and closer to my home.
In 2010 in Bangkok I saw huge crowds on the streets. I smelled burning tires in the air. I heard helicopters all night. Once again, I lived very near one of the centers of protest, on Rama IV — and the protests were all too near and all too scary.
I didn't take to the streets in 1999 or in 2010. I've been a member of the media all my professional life, so I have a professional obligation to stay impartial. But I do know what it's like to live near the center of civic unrest, so I'm thinking about the ordinary residents of Hong Kong right now.
Every time I see a news story about protest anywhere in the world, I think about the people who live nearby but don't get involved for one reason or another. Because I know what it's like, and I can empathise.
It's all so familiar.
Sean Vale
Editor
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