Much of the city shut down today to accommodate marches and demonstrations in support of International Women’s Day. “International” in the sense that it’s a huge deal in almost every country, but not in the U.S. because in our country women already have all the rights they could possibly want.
In a time-honored tradition of liberal politics worldwide, the two main women’s rights organizations in Barcelona couldn’t agree on a common platform so there were two large marches, each starting and ending in different places, and concluding with fiery speeches by women’s advocates promoting slightly different messages. Lucky for me, the more inclusive group started its march much closer to my apartment. Along the way there were signs, songs and speakers advocating not only for women’s rights, but also for Palestine, affordable housing and trans rights, and against racism, colonialism, capitalism and war in general. I guess they figured since we were all there anyway, why not cover all the main topics.
But almost as important as racism, sexism and war, the sun reappeared for the first time in almost a week. The difference in terms of how the city feels is, both literally and figuratively, like night and day.
Here’s what happened yesterday on my street. One observation is that this person will probably never park their motorbike illegally again. Another is that this same thing happens right here every single afternoon, so why people keep parking here during rush hour is kind of a mystery.
Those white lines on the street look like parking spots for motorcycles.
ReplyDeleteYes, they are parking spots for motorcycles. But not during rush hour. You, like the people who own the motorcycles, didn't read the signs.
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