Demonstration in Gwangju last Saturday.

As seems to happen more often than not, I walked into a demonstration on Chungjang-no on Saturday night. Pardon the cellphone pics, as you can see I'd never make it as a professional photographer because I often find even my little Casio too much to carry around at all times, let alone a big fancy one with a big case. This candlelight rally was, as you can sort of see, made up of a few score old people and students. The busy roads to the left are comprised almost exclusively of hagwon, and the ones to the right are a busy pedestrian shopping district comparable to Myeong-dong in Seoul, hence the ability for the rallies this year and last to attract so many uniformed students and young people. In spite of the role young people have played in political demonstration's in Asia in recent memory, I'm still not convinced that the ones who have gathered these past two years haven't come because they like playing with candles. This one was about holding Lee Myung-bak accountable for the Roh Moo-hyun investigation and subsequent suicide (or "suicide.")