Big orange balloons protest power lines in Canada

Last month, high school students near Vancouver, BC floated large orange helium filled balloons in their neighbourhood to symbolize the intrusive height and size of the powerlines that the local power line company planned to erect.

Residents started filing complaints with the police when the balloons began to mysteriously disappear. There were allegations of men in an unmarked van spotted removing the balloons and the power company finally took responsibility for the theft.

“They may have been floating near the distribution lines and we are responsible for the distribution lines. The risk is just unacceptable to us, not just in terms of the power outages but in the loss of life,” said a spokesperson for the power company.

The power company apparently knows something about latex balloons and power outages that California does not. While I have not been able to confirm the material for the 120ft tether, the balloons themselves were made of rubber.

Black Balloons are the Nakba worldwide

Also in May, black balloons darkened the sky around Jerusalem and other major cities around the world in time for Israel’s 60th anniversary as a country. The black balloons are said to commemorate “the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who either fled or were driven out of their homes during the 1948 war over Israel’s creation. Palestinians call it their “nakba,” Arabic for catastrophe.”

Whether the event is an act of protest or a memorial depends on interpretation and is an issue I am still trying to figure out. If it were a memorial, would not the release coincide with services instead of rallies? And while each balloon may represent a village lost in 1948, is the focus on remembering each village with the release of a balloon or is the focus of the event on filling the sky with balloons. In other words, is the balloon release a talk with the dead or a talk with Israel? Can mourning and protest in a single action bring healing and change?

Red over Rio

Mourning and protest met up again on Friday over the pristine beaches of Rio de Janerio. Here it appears the protest part was separated from the mourning. Some of the balloons were released in memory of those lost, while others were tied to the beach in protest of those lives that will be lost. Actually, I may have it the wrong way round, but there is nothing in English to confirm it.

The situation is grim. 7 500 were murdered last year in Rio. Gang and drug related violence claims the most lives. 4 000 are estimated to lose their life to violence in this one city the latter half of this year. That is around 4/5 of the violence that might be expected in Baghdad for the rest of the year.

In the face of such absurd figures, survivors in Rio turn to balloons. In the void of sense, in the failed attempt of rationalizing action, after the noise of the rally or the mere words of a service, after it all: up there, nearly invisible now, is something to project it all on to, all these attempts at meaning, and to lose.