Aug 30 Rally blows away expectations

I just got back from the Aug 30th rally marking Ma Ying-jeou's first 100 days as President, where I walked with thousands of Taiwanese dissatisfied with the direction of the nation.

First, the media distortion. The Green media is reporting as many as 300,000, though some are reporting a more reasonable 150,000. The pan-Blue media hilariously is reporting 40,000. On this planet, there were 150,000 or so (more on that later).

Let's put that in perspective: the DPP thought 100,000 might turn out, if things went well, I didn't expect more than 20,000.

We got 150,000.

150,000 raucous, energized, Taiwan-loving, I'm-mad-as-hell-and-I-won't-take-it-anymore, economically suffering, politically marginalized, ornery, sweaty, crowded, salt-of-the-earth Taiwanese with the power of righteousness like a lightning strike in every line and crack of their sun-baked faces. They were trading names and butting heads. They were rowdy. They were screaming and yelling and singing and shouting and the walls of Jericho would have melted before them like sea-foam in sunlight. They were the people of Taiwan.

Folks, I got religion. I went to the election rallies in January and in March, and felt like they were going through the motions. I didn't get religion; I returned home empty and afraid. I went today and I was with people who believed. Who spent the hours saying Ma Ying-jeou's name like a swear word. Who made sardonic jokes and jogged each other in the ribs and shoved each other out of the way. Who left Chen Shui-bian behind and looked to the present and especially, the future. Who hadn't given up on Taiwan even though the mighty in their halls of power had given up on them, repeatedly.

Awesome. They are the future of Taiwan. Maybe they will acquiesce to the coming sell out, sullen, inarticulate, and impotent. But maybe they will rise and smash the pillars of the mighty with a grunt and a heave like Samson at his last banquet.

Enough preaching already. On to the pics!

The first hint that today was going to explode my pessimistic expectations was in the metro. We got there early but it was already packed.

It was obvious as we walked out of the metro into the light what today was going to be like.

An absolute sea of people.

Banners everywhere.

Lots of parents with children.

And the Taiwan media was there, children without parents.

My children, citizens of Taiwan, were there too.

The crowds lined all the nearby streets and filled the temple and the metro area.

We tried to find paraphenalia but it had all been given away or sold. I got the last hat from one of the vendors in the crowd.

Sound trucks everywhere.

The crowd lines up to march.

Hoping for a better future?

One of the banner carriers.

Always a bright Taiwan smile for visitors.

Exhorting the crowd.

Pretty faces with welcoming smiles.

At last we got moving. The sea of banners contained numerous economic complaints, an important advance. The DPP has never focused on economic issues like this.

A vendor watches the crowd.

Ok, so not everyone had a welcoming smile.

The crowd filled the street. I carefully sectioned it off based on what I learned in the TVBS protest last year, counted, then extrapolated. I got off to side where I could see the crowd stretching back and ahead for several blocks. I figure at least 50,000 people must have been in the actual march with me in that area.

Colorful signs everywhere.

Marchers not only filled the street but marched along by the stores on both sides as well.

The police did their usual excellent crowd control work. Here the crowd is halted to permit the traffic to go by.

A leftover political ad from the legislative election.

Observers bang pots and pans to encourage the crowd.

People were screaming at us everywhere along the route.

Carrying the banners.

At this point we've been walking for about 45 minutes but the crowd has only thinned a little, and stretched out for a long way along either side of me (I started out within 20 meters of the lead truck).

A sticker distributed to marchers complains of economic pain.

Lots of people stopped to watch and take photographs.

This picture is here for historical purposes only.

A lovely politician from Pingtung Tainan leads cheers.

Greeting the sound trucks.

In between the concrete canyons.

A sign holder smiles for a picture.

Thankfully, the police were bored stiff.

Hu and his boy, Ma Ying-jeou.

As we reached the stretch of road in front of the Presidential Palace, the crowd reached a crescendo of density. It was absolutely packed from the Presidential Palace to the South gate.

A large banner.

The crowd waits for the speakers.

This shot and the previous shot were taken by a kind fellow to whom I passed my camera.

A sea of signs and banners.

I walked around the crowd and headed over to the Dead Dictator Memorial Hall.

As you can see, the crowds have arrived, but the roads around the Memorial were empty. Plenty of people here resting but they don't fill the road. Since it would take about 200,000 at least to fill this area, I figure somewhere around 150,000 showed, enough to pack the stretch of Aiguo and Chungshan Road by the ministries and then splinter off down these roads.

Jerome Keating and his wife Monica were waiting for us.

This photo is here purely as a historical and cultural datum. I would never ever put a picture here merely because it contained several cute young women.

The great gate of Nameinflux hall.

The vendors were making hay while the sun shone.

Green babes: my friend Joyce, my wife, and Avril Lavigne my daughter.

Me in front of Nameinflux Hall. As you can see, there are no more people than would be expected on such a Saturday. The crowd never reached here, clearly indicating it did not come anywhere near 300,000. At the same time, the idea that 40,000 people were there as pan-Blue media organs were claiming is laughable and easily refuted from the photos here.

At evening, herds of buses return south. The DPP apparently chartered 500 buses for the event and I heard that one group even rented a train. But clearly most of the marchers arrived on their own buck.

Lots of marchers complaining about the economy and Ma's cooperation with China. Lots of marchers blowing away the DPP's wildest expectations. It was good to see the DPP use Ma's economic claims against him. Let's hope that DPP Chair Tsai Ing-wen can find a way to translate this energy into momentum for the future...

UPDATE: Spoke to a longtime radio personality here and single mother after the rally. She had marched, her first ever in all the long years of protests. She added that she was not the only one for which this was a first march. Maddog has a long piece with pics of some of the many excellent banners focusing on sunshine laws, the stock market, and other issues, as well as a rip on the media for reporting the falsehood that only 40,000 attended. When I arrived at the gathering point there were thirty or forty thousand at my back, and a like number already there, and more streaming in from the other march. We were well over 100,000 and more were coming. It sucks the way the media uncritically accepts such numbers.

UPDATE: A local photographer caught my kids. This guy rode on one of the trucks and got some excellent pics of the signs and the crowd. Another tale of the rally is here. Reuters has quality video here. The Only Redhead here. Island Republic has a great set of pictures here.

UPDATE (SEPT 5): Paul Lin in the Taipei Times observes what an electrifying effect the rally had on DPP morale.

[Taiwan]