Meter jam..!
Robert Clements
Sunday, August 15, 2010 - Fed up with the cheating done by taxi drivers and auto rickshaw men three youngsters organized a boycott in the city of Mumbai of public three wheelers and four wheelers yesterday, and forty thousand people from the city walked, took a bus, or train but did not get into a taxi or rickshaw!
So successful was the boycott, that a worried state home minister called the three over for a meeting: Nothing like people power to move our otherwise indifferent political leaders right? Those three youngsters showed the nation that a good cause with enough conviction and commitment could be fought and won.
Meter jam! Maybe it’s time we did other jams! Politician jam: Yes why not? A corrupt politician, which could mean most of them, is going to address a meeting, boycott it!
“Hey where are the people?”“ “Nobody wanted your money sir!” If three youngsters could make a city walk away from taxis, then I am sure using the media we can do the same with bad politicians! And so with other jams, maybe a product sold by an unscrupulous company, if a million people stop buying that same product that company will soon be forced to shut shop and go away. Jam a book or movie. Yes don’t go about banning books, it only gives the author or artist more publicity, jam it, don’t go near that book or film, in fact don’t enter the bookstores or theatres which keep that book or screen the movie till it is removed, which speaks more about the opinions of the people than a government banning a book or film for votes.
Gandhiji was a good jammer! He boycotted English products and caused ruin to many a manufacturer with his homespun khadi. It’s the most peaceful way to protest, because nobody can force me to get into a taxi when I don’t want to, buy something which I refuse to purchase or enter a book store or theatre if I want to avoid going inside. Meanwhile through this column let me congratulate Jadev Rupani, Rachana Brar and Abhilesh Krishnan for leading the way with their Meter Jam.
I am sure this Independence Day an old man with a stick, who got us our freedom through the same means will smile a victorious smile and say thank you to these three who used his method all over again sixty or more years later. Meter Jam, way to go..!
—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com
So successful was the boycott, that a worried state home minister called the three over for a meeting: Nothing like people power to move our otherwise indifferent political leaders right? Those three youngsters showed the nation that a good cause with enough conviction and commitment could be fought and won.
Meter jam! Maybe it’s time we did other jams! Politician jam: Yes why not? A corrupt politician, which could mean most of them, is going to address a meeting, boycott it!
“Hey where are the people?”“ “Nobody wanted your money sir!” If three youngsters could make a city walk away from taxis, then I am sure using the media we can do the same with bad politicians! And so with other jams, maybe a product sold by an unscrupulous company, if a million people stop buying that same product that company will soon be forced to shut shop and go away. Jam a book or movie. Yes don’t go about banning books, it only gives the author or artist more publicity, jam it, don’t go near that book or film, in fact don’t enter the bookstores or theatres which keep that book or screen the movie till it is removed, which speaks more about the opinions of the people than a government banning a book or film for votes.
Gandhiji was a good jammer! He boycotted English products and caused ruin to many a manufacturer with his homespun khadi. It’s the most peaceful way to protest, because nobody can force me to get into a taxi when I don’t want to, buy something which I refuse to purchase or enter a book store or theatre if I want to avoid going inside. Meanwhile through this column let me congratulate Jadev Rupani, Rachana Brar and Abhilesh Krishnan for leading the way with their Meter Jam.
I am sure this Independence Day an old man with a stick, who got us our freedom through the same means will smile a victorious smile and say thank you to these three who used his method all over again sixty or more years later. Meter Jam, way to go..!
—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com
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