Friday Home

Page updated 10-Dec-1999

As everybody knows, the talks collapse. Not only do the poor countries disagree with the rich countries, but the rich countries disagree with each other. No agenda for trade talks is finalized. The status quo is preserved. The protesters have one, or at least their side has won, at least temporarily.

The protests remain peaceful. Many continue to revolve around the release of the jailed protesters.

I go to the Vogue Friday night and Ogre tells me his story of the carnage Wednesday. Everything else on the Hill is normal. I go down at 2am to catch the night owl bus and find the 'zone is still partially in effect: Pike St is closed west of Boren. I catch the bus on Denny Way instead. On the bus in front is a guy in a suit, a young European man, and 3-4 other young people, all talking about the collapse and what the different countries had to say. Now that people are no longer in the middle of the war zone, they're able to start talking about the issues in a way that wasn't possible two days ago. I expect next week will be "WTO issues week".

You also see young people taking a concern in world affairs that they never did before. Probably this won't last, but at least it's one good thing to happen this week. And hopefully, though not likely, people will think about the opinions of others, and get out of their 100% good, 100% bad mentality.