An eye-opener

Post 89 Demonstration for the least expected reason

In 1991 I was at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada for a short post-graduate course. I learnt a lesson on what could be considered to be an issue warranting a placard demonstration by students while having lunch one day at the dining hall of the university.

There was a group of about 30 undergraduates who walked into the dining hall carrying placards. The students were not satisfied with the ventilation system in the university and demanded that action be taken to rectify it. It was just a small scale peaceful demonstration asking for more fresh air in the building. The protesters wanted their voices heard.

This incident reminded me of the many demonstrations happened in the USA in the
1960s. The young generation at that time protested over other issues in their campuses at a time of social unrest. It was a decade that saw many Civil Rights and Anti- Vietnam War demonstrations; and changes in social norms that were against traditional moral values with the introduction of contraceptive pills. It was the Swinging Sixties of pop music and mini-skirts that swept the world and the placard carriers at Toronto were not born yet.

The Toronto experience was an eye-opener to me. It was never expected of me that stale air in campus building could also trigger off a demonstration!

5 April 2011