Protests Trivial in Face of Terror by Pete Hamill, New York Daily News 02-01-2002 In the morning, a few hundred supporters of the Falun Gong gathered on Park Av. They were divided by 48th St., with half behind barricades in front of J.P. Morgan Chase, the rest in front of the Deutsche Bank. They all wore yellow scarves that looked gorgeous in the gray sodden drizzle. Most were young Asians, protesting against the treatment of their fellow believers by the cruel authorities in China. “We just want our people in China to be free to practice their beliefs,” one of them said. “Not to be thrown in jail.” They described Falun Gong as “a peaceful spiritual practice from ancient China for the mind and body”. This has a New Age vagueness to it, redolent of the canyons of Santa Fe, but has been perceived as a threat by the vaguely Communist state. On this New York morning, the supporters of those imprisoned in China were gathered behind a banner that said “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forebearance” (c.q.) and most had the expressions of people convinced that they had found the way to each of those elusive human goals. Policemen looked on in a bored way. If there would be trouble on this morning, it would not come from the people with the yellow scarves. Across the street was the Waldorf-Astoria, its sidewalks empty, more cops blocking all entrances. The drooping flags of the United States and the World Economic Forum flanked the entrance, but not as signs of welcome. Inside the old hotel -- in the block-long lobby, in restaurants, in conference rooms -- delegates to the WEF were glad-handing, whispering, sipping coffee, in what their opponents say is a conspiracy to control the planet. But the opposition was not yet visible. Up Park Av., past Charles Schwab and the North Fork bank, past Mutual of America and the First Republic Bank and Fidelity Investments and the Bank of New York, all was peaceful. Cops leaned against walls. Barricades were on every corner. Two complete blocks were filled with the satellite trucks of the TV stations and networks, their dishes all aimed south. I heard three different businessmen say the irritated words, “But I work in this building!” The enraged protestors of Seattle and Genoa were nowhere to be seen. For a few hours, at least, it was possible to think that the events of Sept. 11th had shifted the great dialogue about the future. Before that date, the anti-globalization movement was a vague grab-bag united only by its hatred for the spread of multi-national corporations. The Cold War was over, capitalism had won, and here came the Gap and Starbucks to exploit the poor. The anti-globalization movement offered no replacement for capitalism. It was just against it. Their rhetoric was a snarl, and on the streets they indulged too easily in the brainless therapy of violence. Then came Sept. 11th and the understanding by most people that the greatest immediate threat to human life comes from religious lunatics, not peddlers of jeans and over-priced brackish coffee. The WEF, to its credit, has invited to this year’s forum a number of religious leaders -- Christian, Jewish and Muslim -- along with scores of young Arabs, among whom are aid workers, businessmen and parliamentarians. The foreign minister of Iran was due, various Saudi royals, the prime minister of Malaysia. The unstated agenda of their talks with the European, American and Japanese delegates (the majority of the WEF) was almost certain to be fanatical religious extremism. The basic questions are simple. Do some people become fundamentalists because they are poor, or are they poor because they are fundamentalists? Can a human being be a devout Muslim and still take advantage of the technology, skepticism and scientific reasoning of modernity? Can the religious beliefs of the 8th century coincide with the secular realities of the 21st? That kind of dialogue is worth having, and not simply for three days in New York. There are other problems, of course, but after Sept. 11th that’s the most important. It would be marvelous if someone could devise a plan for the rescue of millions of human beings in many African countries from the kleptocrats who rule them. It would be marvelous if every rich country could increase aid to poor countries without fear of it being stolen before it ever reached a starving village. But yesterday, few such issues were being discussed, as the New York police stood out of the rain. At the YMCA around the corner from the Waldorf, a group of anti-globalization people held a joint press conference. They all spoke decently, about things that most decent people would like to see happen in the world. Workshop rules, respect for human rights, guaranteed protection of the environment. They saw the WEF as the enemy, but they certainly couldn’t imagine those delegates standing to applaud the cause of expanded child labor. Above all, they want trans-national corporations to be held responsible for what they do in the name of profit. Fair enough. But they must also know that the violence in Seattle, Genoa and other places did far more harm to the anti-globalization movement than to the capitalists. There was a feeling, walking back into the rain, that they will not try to finish themselves off on the streets of New York. I listened for a while to a speaker from the Falun Gong, then headed to Grand Central. Inside the station, on the way to the subway, there was a small portable wall that showed some of the leaflets posted after Sept. 11. The smiling faces, the names, the jobs they held when the lunatics smashed into the towers. Men and women of all races, all nationalities. Gone missing forever. It would be nice if they would be remembered by all those inside the Waldorf-Astoria and those who come to shout in the streets.