I took Helen on her first demonstration today, a rally in central Oxford in support of refugees. It was a positive and trouble-free event, but there were more people than I expected, so parking the bike was difficult and it took some time to work my way from the Clarendon Building through the crowd to the bridge over New College Lane to meet my sister Jenny. (Fortunately Helen, presumably looking at other children in the crowd, immediately suggested I put her on my shoulders, which is not something she regularly does.) I also ran into two of the families from our parents' group, staying back out of the crowd (one of them was eight days overdue with her third child, so that seemed eminently sensible). Helen was quite taken by the crowd, and when I came out for a break at one point she insisted she wanted to go back into it.
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The crowd was up towards 2000 (this BBC report estimates 1500) and had a lot of children in it, presumably because of the events that sparked this series of demonstrations. (I tried to explain to Helen that it was about "sharing", though I'm not entirely sure about her rationales for that.)
the northern end of the crowd
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looking down Catte St
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Teaching your child well. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
This is 申張正義. another Chinese saying. This saying is understood in every regional tongue. It implies asserting or fighting for justice. Chinese is a language par excellence citing existing quotable quotes, proverbs, adages etc.
為民請命 perhaps is more apt an adage for the plight of the Syrian refugees. It means pleading for the life of....