The signs were held mostly by students from American University, though they told me that Bahraini students had come from other schools. One young man wearing a "Jordan" t-shirt said he had come with his AU friends.
Off to the side I saw two young women holding a large poster with photographs on it that said "We Met Them with Flowers. They Met Us With Death." It was their distance from the other Bahrainis more than the clarity of their poster that signified that they were anti-government.
One told me that they had come down from New York City when they read on Facebook that the Embassy of Bahrain was organizing a support demo. That one sign was all they could get together on short notice. They said students who had been identified in anti-government demonstrations had lost their fellowships. That obviously wasn’t going to happen to the students holding Bahraini flags and signs that said "We Love our Government."
The AU students wouldn’t confirm that they had been mobilized by their embassy, but the sheer number of full-size flags, freshly printed t-shirts and caps told me that this was more than a spontaneous student demonstration.
In between the Middle East demos were another three dozen demonstrators that I initially couldn’t figure out. Their two large banners said "Stop Selling Unlabeled GMOs" and "GMO’S Don’t Buy Them. Don’t Sell Them. Don’t Grow Them." What, I asked myself, is a GMO? The only thing that clued me in was a logo on both banners that said "Millions Against Monsanto." I knew Monsanto was a food processor, so GM must mean Genetically Modified. But "O"?
I looked for a flyer for an explanation and saw three people holding handfuls, but they weren’t giving them out. I asked for one and also asked her what "O" stood for. She didn’t know; she told me to look it up online.
Fortunately the back of the leaflet told me that "O" stood for Organism, but the front only asked "What You Can Do TODAY to Avoid Monsanto’s GMO.s"
The banners and the signs were photogenic if not edifying, but those holding the former let them droop. Even when they staged a photo-op with the White house in the background (good idea) they spoiled it with the droopy banner and turning their heads to chat with each other rather than facing the cameras.
ANSWER almost qualifies as a "usual suspect" since they demonstrate all the time. Their experience shows. About 20 of them staked out a prime spot on the street right next to the sidewalk and faced north so photographers could shoot their signs with the White House in the background. The chant leader with the microphone also held a sign and faced north so she didn’t mess up the photo-op with a view of her backside.
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