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SIMON: And I met him in the entryway of this huge Roman Catholic cathedral on 132nd Street. For the church, where are we in the church? Which church is that again?įRANCK JOCKTANE: So we are in Saint Aloysius Church.įRANCK JOCKTANE: It’s a Catholic Church in - is this Harlem?įRANCK JOCKTANE: Yeah, Saint Aloysius in Harlem.
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SIMON: Do you mind telling me where we are and what we’re doing here? SIMON: The first time I met this group of Gabonese activists was at this annual vigil. SIMON: Well, let me back up a little bit. Because it sent them down this path to creating an alternative reality that crash them straight into the limits of using truth to create political change. SIMON: Finding that this distance was surprisingly empowering, but also perilous. SIMON: Through videos and tweets and Facebook posts, they were fighting a government thousands of miles away. Because while everybody else at the UN that day was trying to get the media or the people around them to take notice, these Gabonese activists were broadcasting directly to the people of Gabon. MALE PROTESTER: Because we live! Africa is watching us. MALE PROTESTER: All right, all right, all right, all right. But one of them always had their phone out. SIMON: And there were only, like, seven of them there. SIMON: You guys expecting more people to show up? SIMON: The best dressed activist of the whole lot! One of them, Joel, was wearing a Gabonese flag as a cape. Anyway, they were this sort of eclectic group. And the reason these Gabonese folks had gathered around the UN, was to protest against their long-time quote-unquote "President," dictator Ali Bongo. It’s a small little country on the west coast of Africa. They were taking a totally different approach, because their audience was actually halfway around the world. SIMON: The group I was there to see, in fact. SIMON: All of the protesters were facing the UN, yelling in that direction, trying to get the attention of the media, or presumably of the diplomats walking in. SIMON: This is a - a buffet of discontentedness. And then smack dab in the middle of all of this chaos are the Falun Gong protesters, probably 100 of them, decked from head to toe in bright yellow, standing like statues perfectly still and silent. there’s an anti-Sisi Egyptian protest going. While just 60 feet away on the other side of the street. SIMON: Chanting in support of President Sisi. I mean, on 47th Street on the far left side of it, you had these Egyptian-Americans just going wild.įEMALE PROTESTER: And for the President Sisi. And so every few steps you'd encounter a different cause. Most groups had their own little 10-foot-by-30-foot area marked by police barricades. SIMON: Anti-Nigerian government, climate change activists. MALE PROTESTER: We're protesting against the Buhari government! MALE PROTESTER: My issue is Palestine-Israel. JAD: Really? So who - wait, who was out there? I mean, you could pick any cause, any issue on the planet that you would like to protest, show up, and there will be at least seven other people. SIMON: Of people shouting, waving flags and shaking placards. SIMON: Okay, and this seems to be Protest Alley. MALE POTESTER: Let’s move! Allez allez! Let's go, let's go, let's go! SIMON: And so I was suddenly thrust into this frothing, technicolor mass. SIMON: Each quadrant occupied by a different protest group yelling at the UN. SIMON: So on this one block, security had divided the street into a dozen or so quadrants.įEMALE PROTESTER: Chinese Communist Party! It’s a mafia! SIMON: I ended up on 47th Street, which is a block that security had designated as a protest corridor.įEMALE PROTESTER: We are here to oppose. And they had cordoned off everything within about a block of the UN building itself. And that morning, the UN General Assembly was in session, so security was super-tight. SIMON: I went down to the United Nations looking for this group of activists. JAD: And a quick warning, if you've got kids listening there are a few curse words in this story, so just be warned. ROBERT: And as you just heard, it comes from our producer Simon Adler. JAD: We’re talking about, what are we talking about? We’re talking about your. All right, we are on the corner of 3rd and 42nd heading east.