Civil Disobedience

Every so often, people just have to express their frustration. We all know the feeling: someone makes you mad, so you stew for awhile, and fume for awhile, and eventually you have to vent.

Since Brussels is the capital of the European Union, we get quite a bit of venting. The Tibetians camped out in front of the Chinese Embassy, which just happens to be down the road from our house, for about two weeks in the spring. I kinda got used to the chanting. Several weeks ago, the Icelandic fisherman burned tires in front of the Parliment, which just happens to be up the road from our house. That was a little less pleasant.
And just last week, the farmers, taxi drivers, and truckers expressed their disapproval of high gas prices by encircling the city on the main roads and parking for several hours. And guess what? One of the main roads runs right by our house! Literally hundreds of farm tractors drove into Brussels about 10 in the morning and parked around Montgomery Circle, one of the major crosspoints in SE Brussels for about 5 hours. The taxi's took over the inner ring, and the truckers parked on the outer ring effectively shutting down the city for the day. Fortunately we were warned several days beforehand so it was a vacation for some and a busy day for the metro.

Of course, everyone had to come out to watch and take pictures, and with the air cannons going off every few minutes and the armored police vehicles everywhere, it was quite a party atmosphere. We are getting even more education than we bargined for here in Europe!