Saturday 5 February 2011

Today in Mayfair

Mayfair carpet shop
When I came out of the cinema, late afternoon, a few hundred people were walking through Mayfair, shouting Mubarak, out! There were many old Egyptians, as well as young - white beards and arm-in-arm, head-scarved girls, and the usual British back-up: Green Left, Stop the War... Waiters (mostly Middle-Eastern around there) emerged from the back doors of restaurants to watch them pass. At the front of this very unaggressive crowd was a tight rank of motor-cycle cops and at the back four large police vans with flashing lights, while armed guards swaggered prominently outside the embassies - an uncomfortable reminder of the limits on our freedoms.

3 comments:

marja-leena said...

Such a lovely image with that carpet looking like gold fret work. I am reminded of the day we were in Brighton in May 2008 where there some peaceful political protests happening here and there, small groups really. We were rather shocked by police vans and mounted police in full armour rounding them up! And what happened in last year's G20 in Toronto - shocking!

Anonymous said...

The photo is beautiful, and I was thinking of Toronto, too.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

How exquisitely beautiful this image is!
And your seeing of it.