This year, like last few years, I’m selling candles and other knick-knacks for Amnesty International. I’ve had a sort of lateral promotion into the Amnesty world: last few years i’ve stood in stations and metro stops, which was cold to very cold and wet. This year I’m part of a local group, and we sell candles in supermarkets. Definitely more comfortable.

It’s fun, in a queer way: a study of human nature. In fact, the only people who buy anything are people who already wanted to. This represents about 10% of passers-by. The rest:

• speed up
• avert their eyes and appear engrossed in a poster advertising a promotion for canned soup
• say, with righteous anger, that they don’t agree with Amnesty, and then run away
• mention they already have 20 candles at home
• poke around for a while, say they don’t have small change, and leave

The ones who buy are rarely the ones you would expect. And you cannot categorize them either, you have all kinds of people from all classes of the population.

Amnesty doesn’t accept any subsidy or funding from governments, to stay as independent as possible. As a consequence it needs to get money elsewhere, from donations, but also from misc sales.

This year it’s the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. I’ll happily pay money to other NGO’s who combat hunger, disease, commercial exploitation. But the freedom to express an opinion, to gather, and to do what is necesary, is the first requirement for anything to change.

And i’m starting to sound like a neo-hippie. So be it