Fuming

Warning: This post is way off topic to my usual Mommy Musings.

As you all know the G20 is going on in Toronto right now and I watched some of the protest coverage yesterday while O was napping. I can't say how angry it makes me to watch those idiots smash in windows, throw rocks and bricks and burn police cars. If you ever had any interest in catching mine, or anyone else's attention for your cause you lost that chance after the first rock was thrown. I'm personally not a fan of the protesting as a way of getting your point across anyway since most of the time you end up with a few extremists who ruin it for everyone. The legitimate groups get thrown in with the thugs and they all lost their ability to do good. But that's just my opinion.

BUT. The outrage that I feel this today isn't technically because of the damage caused. It's the fact that I hear that neither the City of Toronto, the province of Ontario or the federal government are going to help the shop owners who have lost windows and potentially merchandise in all this (The news this morning reported little to no looting going on however so hopefully it's just windows in most cases) And on a grander scale, I'm angry that these governments have chosen to even host this event in the downtown area of Toronto. Having spent over a billion dollars on security and having employed 30,000 (I think was the number) of officers on the streets to police the protesters, they obviously anticipated trouble. Should there not have been a fund put aside for the shop owners who where inevitably going to lose in this deal? Should they have to foot the bill for repairs along with the loss of revenue they are having to endure because they are too afraid to open or they are in the restricted zone so there wouldn't be anybody shopping anyway? 

The waste of money for this event is staggering. I think that billion dollars would have been better spent on the maternal health initiative or meeting the debt reduction goals our government is so anxious to put into motion. Why not have the meetings on an army base as some have suggested? My thought was that Toronto must have a warehouse in the middle of nowhere where they could be contained and easily surrounded for safety. Or what about teleconference. Hell, Skype is free people! and no security required! Ok that's a bit extreme but so is what they've chosen to do.

I'm not sure how eloquent or together my writing is here but I think I get my point out. I sincerely hope today is a much better day than yesterday and the yahoo's decide to stay home but I honestly don't hold out hope for that. Only time will tell.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. Mommy post to follow.