Taking the Car out of Carbon

Civil disobedience and public-transportation

My friend Heather Ferguson of Chicago Transit Authority circulated a picture from Chicago Tribune, a couple of days ago. To illustrate how taxing the previous week had been for her thanks to the NATO summit in Chicago. Protesters and police came together - although not to make peace - on or around public transportation.

Which got me thinking. Growing up in India, I was always confronted with images in the newspapers, and sometimes within the field of vision, of buses burning. Burnt, because they represented a state the the protestors were protesting against. Which is funny. I am all for protesting. But, public transportation should not be an object of hatred, especially not for mass-movements. Because they provide mass-movement. Even in the most dysfunctional states, public transportation is usually a sign of the state doing some good for the bulk of its citizenry.

I was, unfortunately, able to find endless pictures of people’s wrath being focused on public transportation. Of the state taking safe-guarding measures, as they feared destruction of public-transportation by angry citizens.

So here is a selection of images of one kind or another - i.e. public transportation being vandalized by angry, may I say unthinking, mobs and entire strength of the law and order machine  being brought to bear to protect transit. Images are from Chicago, of course, Teheran, Karachi, Bangkok and Indian Kashmir.