Sunday, July 30, 2006
The orchestration of demonstrations: a survey of the world
Power Line wonders how it was possible for "anti-war" demonstrators in Beirut to have produced a massive banner -- complete with photograph of Condoleezza Rice -- protesting the tragedy in Qana within a few hours of the attack.
What seems odd about this is that the banner was unfurled within hours after the Qana attack took place. The building where the civilians died was bombed on Sunday morning, and the demonstration took place during daylight hours, later the same day. I have no idea what kind of facility it takes to produce a 30-foot-high banner like this one. It is obviously professionally done. It would be interesting to know where this banner was produced; who designed and paid for it; and how its production was expedited so that it was ready for use, on the street, within hours after the event being protested. For example, was the image of Rice produced in advance, awaiting a pretext for its use, with only the script added at the last minute? I've often been curious about the logistics of pro-terrorist demonstrations, and this seems like an especially curious example.
All good questions that I am sure AFP photographer Ramzi Haidar did not think to ask. However, timing is relevant, given the more than seven hour gap between the Israeli raid and the collapse of the building with the children. Maybe an international investigation of the raid is in order.
In fact, the demonstrations around the world are extremely one-sided, virtually all in support of Hezbollah and opposed to Israel. One can conjure quite a selection by searching for the phrase "anti-war" among the news photo captions, even though it is not clear that any of these demonstrators oppose the launching of unguided rockets into Israeli cities.
In Lahore, Pakistan, an "anti-war" demonstrator fails to denounce Hezbollah. Who can blame him, really? If he had, he probably would have been killed by passers-by.
In Dublin, the "anti-war" demonstrators are particularly one-sided.
The sign shows a picture of a baby and reads "Hey, Israel, you missed one!" Delightful. Back at you, buddy: "Hey Europe, you missed a few million."
In London, it is important that Israel keep its "hands off Lebanon," and, by the way, that it shouldn't attack Syria. Nobody seems to think that Syria and Lebanon shouldn't be attacking Israel, which is astonishing, even if not surprising.
According to the caption, the signs read "Israel stop the aggression." It has been trying to "stop the aggression" for a long time.
Then there is Manila, where protestors in a country that has been at war with jihadis know precisely who to blame... Israel:
Of course, we know who the Egyptians despise:
And, finally, Athens:
None of these protestors are asking for an end to war. None ask for Hezbollah to stop firing its rockets, or for Syria to stop shipping in new weapons, or for Iran to stop threatening to go to war. They all demand that Israel just take it. Who are they kidding? Other than the mainstream media, I mean.
10 Comments:
By 
C. Owen Johnson, at
Mon Jul 31, 02:47:00 AM:
Nice sign the old guy in Lahore has... I wonder if he can read it? How many Pakistanis are fluent in written English? And I'm wonder who the photog was. I suspect there's quite the little story behind that shot...
By 
, at
Mon Jul 31, 02:48:00 AM:
FYI on printing a banner like the one showing Secretary Rice: There are printing companies in Lebanon that do wide-format printing, such as this one:
http://www.leodigital.com.lb/Pages/6P&SVUTE.HTML
That's just an example, I have no idea who actually produced the banner that's pictured. They use a printer that could probably produce that banner in two to three hours, given priority and concentrated effort. I'm sure there are more companies than that with that capability, but there probably aren't that many.
I don't know what the timing is between the building collapse and the rally in Beirut. If it was under four or five hours I would be very suspicious. More than that and you can't say one way or another. It might though, be interesting to know who produced it and when. Like I said, there can't be a huge number of companies in Beirut that can make something like that.
By TigerHawk, at
Mon Jul 31, 10:35:00 AM:
Good question. If I had to speculate, that picture is taken from Congressional testimony. That guy is probably a bag carrier who was sitting behind her in range of the cameras during one or another hearing. I imagine that if you Google "images" you could figure out the basic photo within half an hour -- I bet that is what the Hez did to make the banner. Whether there would be a caption telling you who that guy is is anybody's guess.
By , at
Mon Jul 31, 10:58:00 AM:
Hi,
I'm Irish, and would like to point out that the photo from Dublin is of a foreign national. Can I please ask your blogs readers to not associate the opinions or orientation of the indigenous Irish with the political rantings/writings of this immigrant.
The Irish are quite well educated and thoughtful, and usually open to diplomatic discourse. We are, generally, loath to have a foreigner held up as an example of the calibre of this country's inhabitants. If it is to be associated with 'Dublin' or 'Ireland' or 'Irish', might there be any way to publish the opinion/image of an Irish person instead of an immigrant/asylum seeker?
I simply do not like to see this kind of imagery associated with this beautiful island, and would have liked to see its existence qualified by a local Irish opinion.
Thanks in advance,
Irish Guy
By , at
Mon Jul 31, 03:30:00 PM:
The background picture looks like Ehud Olmert.
By VIPER1, at
Mon Jul 31, 04:21:00 PM:
I cant speculate as to how they got the images to create the design on the banner, although there are numerous sources on the web. The banner however is another story, since I am in the business of printing banners like the one shown(though not for these purposes) I can tell you that it is no simple feat, while it is point and click the printing itself even on the best high speed equipment would take hours to print, the text could have added after the fact which would lead me to believe that the banner was pre-printed for propaganda use.
Its nice work, the subject matter is disgraceful but what do you expect the RoP.
By , at
Mon Jul 31, 10:54:00 PM:
I have often wondered about the videos that are shown at the nightly news of these people in third world countries holding and burning American flags - where did they get the flags? Are the flags that readily available over there? Or - as I suspect - some home-grown anti-American sympathizer supplied the flags for them to burn?
The other option would be that the flags were supplied by the media reporter or photographer at the site to "catch" the "precise moment" these anti-American rantings and flag burnings take place!
Comments?
By , at
Mon Jul 31, 11:23:00 PM:
Viper1-I'm in the banner industry also and I have to disagree with you. That banner looks to me to be about 15'x30'. There are wide-format printers that can print even a bit wider than that and to whatever the length of the roll of material. Modern printers like that are spec'd to print at speeds over 2000 square feet per hour. The banner we're talking about would be 450 square feet or so and even given less than spec'd speeds it would not be difficult for a motivated company with the right equipment to produce it in three or four hours.
1/2 hour to an hour to photoshop it, including the text. An hour to an hour and a half to RIP it (with the right computer). An hour or so to print it. There are companies who do that type of work in Lebanon, but without more specific info on who produced it and what the timelines are I don't think anything can be proven one way or another.
There are a number of things that I think are suspicious with the Qana incident. I wouldn't get too far out there regarding the poster without more info.
By , at
Tue Aug 01, 03:49:00 PM:
I have often wondered about the videos that are shown at the nightly news of these people in third world countries holding and burning American flags - where did they get the flags? Are the flags that readily available over there? Or - as I suspect - some home-grown anti-American sympathizer supplied the flags for them to burn?
The other option would be that the flags were supplied by the media reporter or photographer at the site to "catch" the "precise moment" these anti-American rantings and flag burnings take place!
Comments?
Now THAT'S comedy!
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Aug 01, 11:22:00 PM:
That's journalism...
Just for kicks, I translated the banner. Something like;
"Blood sacrifice of the children is a/the (ambiguous) sin of Qana 2(?).
Policy/gift/offering-sacrifice (seems to be a clever play on words here) [of] Rice!!
(obscured word) the intelligent... the stupid."
