Minimum Wage and Miniskirts: Protests Run Gamut
Hobbits, nuclear waste and miniskirts. No, it's not an alternative rock band. It's actually just a few of the reasons that thousands of people hit the streets in protest worldwide on Monday.
Sure, there were the usual instigators of unrest (war, injustice, minimum wage) but there were also other less weighty issues weighing on people's minds. In Italy alone, protesters came out to voice their outrage over garbage dumps and soccer kickoff times.
A sampling of just some of the protests in the past 24 hours:
Italy: A handful of local female politicians protested after the mayor of an Italian seaside town got his way when the city council approved a ban on football games in public parks and squares, blasphemy out loud, and "very skimpy clothes," the ANSA news agency reported. Conservative Mayor Luigi Bobbio said that miniskirts and other provocative outfits will still be allowed as long as they are not too revealing. "It's a matter of common sense, of common decency," he told The Associated Press.
Israel: Hundreds participated in a demonstration of disabled people opposite the Finance Ministry and Social Affairs Ministry offices in Jerusalem, demanding that their disability benefits be increased to the level of the minimum wage, according to Haaretz. Protesters clashed with police officers and security guards.
New York: Business owners and residents rallied Sunday against the MTA's Second Avenue Subway construction, saying the project has negatively affected them. The protesters, facing a drop in revenues and reduced foot traffic due to potential patrons avoiding the construction, said it wasn't enough for the MTA to promise what they called superficial improvements.
Afghanistan: A losing parliamentary candidate and his supporters blocked a major transit route in eastern Afghanistan for a third straight day Monday, threatening to keep the road closed until election officials reinstate ballots for him that were thrown out for fraud. The move by Pacha Khan Zadran of Paktia province is the latest indication that a decision by Afghan election officials to discard 1.3 million, or nearly a quarter, of all ballots from a Sept. 18 poll as illegitimate may cause as much upset in the country as if the ballots had been included. Zadran first shut down the road Saturday and officials said his supporters were still blocking it Monday.
China: China's authoritarian leaders are scrambling to contain anti-Japan protests that flared in at least a half-dozen cities over the weekend, with more planned for Tuesday despite attempts to kill discussion of the rallies online. The protests were sparked by a collision last month between a Chinese fishing boat and Japanese government patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands - which set off a diplomatic tussle between the two Asian powers that has now subsided. But street demonstrations have continued, and have begun to attract domestic causes as well, ranging from freedom of speech to high housing prices, and even in one case, a call for multiparty democracy a direct challenge to Communist Party rule.
France:
