PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Busking for peace . . .
by Andy Horbal Tuesday, Mar. 25, 2003 at 12:44 PM
arh6@pitt.edu Oakland

This is an idea I had for nonviolent protest when I was in Spain . . .

Okay, I haven't really talked about this to anyone but I figured that I would throw it out there and see if anybody thinks it could go anywhere . . .

A fixture of the tourist areas of Paris and Barcelona and other big cities in Europe are those statue-people. They paint themselves, dress themselves up to look like a statue and then remain motionless until someone puts money into their hats, when they lean forward and shake that persons hand. Then they remain motionless again until the next person comes along. It's really cool.

I thought that this might be a cool way to have a more or less constant presence downtown. Interested people could take shifts. From maybe 11-6 every day (if it really took off) we could have three or so people downtown: one person in front of the federal building, one person in market square, etc. Instead of soliciting donations we could have petitions, or flyers, or something.

Is this practical??? I've read posts complaining that we only show up to protest once a week, that if we were really serious we would have a constant presence. Does this do that??? If anyone wants to work on this, of course, I'm definitely interested. I guess we would start by talking to the people from Busk Pittsburgh about permits and the like . . .

Anyway: what do people think???

add your comments