Student Elections and the Protest That Went Off on a Tangent

In the weeks since my last post about university, I've been sleep-deprived and overwhelmed, but it's still a far better semester than my last.

The Eurovision Song Contest, a musical flashmob for peace in Middle Eastern politics, an Italian-language lecture about an archaeological site in Italy where many villas have been excavated (no, it's not Pompeii) took up part of my time throughout the month of May.

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Then in the first week of June I was given a chance to earn money again, as an election helper for my university's student parliament. It was intense, although the earnings were good and we were showered with snacks to feed us through the 6- and 3-hour shifts. Besides it was worthwhile (as I'd hoped when applying for the job) to learn the rigorous procedures, because they are reasonably close I think to elections outside of the ivory tower as well.

It was also a happily bizarre experience. Two fellow students and I were set up in a hallway with large glass façades, doors leading to lecture halls for over 120 people, but barely any foot traffic except for the same librarians and office staff ... opposite a horse skeleton to celebrate the building's second function as home to Veterinary Medicine. I'd thought at first that it was a prehistoric animal, but something felt off (i.e., in retrospect, that prehistoric horses were actually smaller). Instead, it was the skeleton of Prussia's King Frederick II's favourite horse, as I discovered the second day of elections.

For hours I did homework, read a book by Isabel Allende, and chatted with the fellow election helpers. Of course I also helped people to vote, but if we averaged out the daily tally, only about 6 people voted per hour, which left a whole lot of time for lollygagging.

On Day Two, I went over to photograph the horse skeleton. But the glass vitrine and lights made for awkward reflections. Then, an hour or so later, a mildly nervous-looking university staffer turned up with a photographer. He tried a few shots of the horse skeleton with his analogue camera, then profanely pronounced the lighting conditions 'Sch*e.' (It felt validating, as it implied that my technique was not at fault.) He took a few last shots with his smartphone 'to give the client a variety to choose from,' and then left.

It felt again weirdly like I  'mesh' with far more experienced photographers, despite my own lack of experience. I'd suggested removing an election banner that might be in the way of his shots, and it turned out to be exactly what the man had needed.

But in general the vote-counting work was, like the work at the ballot boxes, a mixture of intense activity that alternated with a cosmically nihilist absence of purpose: sometimes as I sat around uselessly, I worried that I wasn't earning the very generous €16+ hour.

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It's been busy after that as well, but I'm not sure how much to ramble on about it. A university budget cut protest on June 4 turned into a pro-Palestinian protest mixed with a little bit of the original protest, culminating in about 400 people howling at the university president's building for him to come out and show himself, as a serried line of fluorescent-yellow-and-black riot police stood in front of the entrance. The speakers felt inter alia that the university should drop charges against the handful of activists who — a few months ago — had armed themselves with axes etc. and broken into the building...

Regardless of my thoughts about this 'interesting' interpretation of how to help Palestinians, some of the police activity earlier had seemed pretty ridiculous to me. 3 to 5 people had unfurled a Gaza banner from an upper level of a different university building, one of them had a Palestinian scarf swathed around his or her face like a babushka, and someone waved a huge Palestinian flag. (I still figure that if you think your actions are right, you won't hide any part of your face; but either way I didn't feel threatened.) In response, however, a police officer, down on the street where I was, started running a few feet toward the 'scene' and excitedly reporting into his walkie-talkie about 'vermummte Personen auf dem Dach.'

I haven't kept up to date with Berlin's pro-Palestinian protests enough to say so with certainty. But generally it seems to me like Berlin's police's guidelines have shifted, and even things like scarves or flags that have not been ruled unconstitutional by any German court are being considered unwanted at protests. And I think it's a bad development. Public relations and convenience are not enshrined in Germany's basic law, while freedom of speech (even if I would never use it that way) is.

Anyway, the howling at the protest sounds entertaining now that it's written down, but I wasn't in the right frame of mind to appreciate it at the time.