Skip to main content

Informal atmosphere at the Pioneer Day parade in Salt Lake City

By Rajiv Shah 
Currently in Salt Lake City, which hosted Winter Olympics 2002, and will again host them in 2034, it quite a spectacle to watch the Pioneer Day parade just about half a mile from where we currently live. 
The parade marks the foundation day of Utah State of the US, and the city happens to be its capital. 
It was very informal, with people sitting on folding chairs, squatting on ground, many of them underneath the small makeshift canopies they had installed -- all on two sides of the road along a small park and the huge library on the side.
There was virtually no security, I could see no cops pushing people to one or the other side, though there was traffic police at a crossroad nearby to ensure people crossed the road without any difficulty, even as allowing smooth movement of the very has running trams (they call them metro). 
Some people -- mostly families with children -- who perhaps had come from other areas of the State had put up their rents in the garden, and were living in there from the previous night. We stood one the other side along the footpath, clicking photographs on our mobile phone.
Ironically, I couldn't spot any Indian looking person watching the parade. There were, however, four Sardarjis who were distributing  mineral water bottles, telling people, "Hydrate yourself..." This despite the fact that one can spot Indians on streets, though they are still very few of them in the city.

Comments

TRENDING

Civil society at a crossroads: Service delivery vs. rights in the fight for social change

Counterview News   In the latest episode of the podcast Unmute , hosts Gagan Sethi and Minar Pimple convened a profound conversation with two veteran development practitioners to dissect a persistent tension within civil society: the perceived divide between service delivery and the struggle for rights. The episode, titled "Beyond Service Delivery: Civil Society, Rights, and the Politics of Social Change," featured Apoorva Oza , a development practitioner with decades of experience in rural development and institution-building, and Professor Dipa Sinha , a development economist known for her work on food, nutrition, gender, and social policy.

Arrests of Odisha activists raise wider concerns over criminalisation of dissent: CASR

By A Representative   A coalition of civil liberties, human rights, student, labour organisations,  Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), has condemned the arrest of Dr. Randall Sequeira, a doctor providing healthcare in Odisha’s Kalahandi and Rayagada districts, and Laxman Nayak, an activist associated with the Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Manch, and demanded their immediate release.

Bangkok IMF-World Bank meetings: New reports put India's debt, climate, accountability crisis in focus

Counterview News   As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded their Annual Meetings in Bangkok this week, civil society groups and policy experts outside the official proceedings released two critical documents challenging the institutions' legacy and prescriptions for Asia, calling for a fundamental overhaul of the global financial architecture.