Hundreds of Thai protesters sang a Japanese cartoon jingle on Sunday with lyrics mocking the government as hungry hamsters feasting on taxpayer cash, part of a new protest movement by youth who say they are using whimsical tactics for serious ends.
Thai youths have been defying a coronavirus ban on gatherings to hold rallies almost daily since last week. The first rally, by a group called the Free Youth Movement, drew more than 2,000 activists, one of the biggest anti-government protests since a coup in 2014.
At Sunday’s demonstration, protesters sang new lyrics to the theme song for “Hamtaro”, a Japanese cartoon about a hamster who loves sunflower seeds. They ran in circles around Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, like hamsters running in a wheel.
“The most delicious food is taxpayers’ money,” they sang. “Dissolve the parliament! Dissolve the parliament! Dissolve the parliament!”
Leaders of the Free Youth Movement have said they will return to the streets for another large-scale demonstration next week if their demands are not met, including dissolving parliament, revising a constitution written by the military and ending the harassment of government critics.
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Rescue forces in action after an ultralight aircraft crashed into a house in Wesel, Germany
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Fire burns near the village of Galataki as authorities evacuate the place near Corinth, Greece. More than 250 firefighters, backed by water-dropping aircraft, were struggling Wednesday to contain a large wildfire fanned by strong winds that has forced the evacuation of five settlements in southern Greece
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AFP via Getty
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Revellers take part in the annual Gay Pride parade, also called Christopher Street Day in Frankfurt
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AFP via Getty
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Second Republican infantry guard regiment take part in the annual Bastille Day military ceremony on the Place de la Concorde in Paris
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People covered with coloured powder enjoy music during the Holi festival in Minsk, Belarus
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Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty
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Tengger tribe people make their way to the summit of Mount Bromo volcano to make offerings in Probolinggo, as part of the Yadnya Kasada Festival. The Tenggerese climb the active volcano to seek the blessing from the main deity by presenting offerings of rice, fruit, livestock and other items
AFP via Getty
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A surfer jumps clear of his board while enjoying winter waves at New Brighton Beach in Christchurch, New Zealand
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A man is detained by riot police during a demonstration in Hong Kong. China imposed a new national security law which has faced international condemnation
Getty
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A man smokes a pipe while wearing a face mask during a demonstration in Nantes, as part of a nationwide day of protests to demand better working conditions for health workers in France
AFP via Getty
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Lawmakers from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party scuffle with people from the main opposition Kuomintang party, who have been occupying the Legislature Yuan, in Taipei
Reuters
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Protester holds crosses during a demonstration in honour of the victims of coronavirus in front of Brazil’s National Congress
Getty
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A demonstrator wearing a face mask holds a sign during a protest against police brutality and racial inequality in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, at the Victory column in Berlin
Reuters
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Hygienists inside a decontamination area in a coronavirus treatment centre that cares for positive patients that show little or no symptoms in Dakar
AFP via Getty
31/52 25 June 2020
A seagull snatches a croissant from a buffet during a press conference at the headquarters of AP Moeller – Maersk in Copenhagen, Denmark
Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty
32/52 24 June 2020
A volunteer receives an injection from a medical worker during the country’s first human clinical trial for a potential vaccine against coronavirus, at the Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, South Africa
Reuters
33/52 23 June 2020
Swiss acrobat Ramon Kathriner performs during the “Glacier 3000” Air show, an event marking the reopening of the Alpine facilities above Les Diablerets
AFP via Getty
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A worker cleans volcanic ash off the stupas at the Borobudur temple in Indonesia, a day after Mount Merapi erupted in nearby Sleman, sending a plume of ash into the sky
AFP via Getty
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Aerial view of a burial at the Vila Formosa cemetery during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 21, 2020. – The novel coronavirus has killed at least 464,423 people worldwide since the outbreak began in China last December, being Brazil Latin America’s worsthit country with 49,976 deaths from 1,067,579 cases.
AFP via Getty
36/52 20 June 2020
National Guards form a line in front of “Black Lives Matter” protestors in Tulsa, Oklahoma where Donald Trump was holding a campaign rally
AFP via Getty
37/52 19 June 2020
Nurses, doctors, midwives and health care workers attend the fourth Zumba dance session organised by the Nursing Council of Kenya at Kenyatta stadium where screening booths and an isolation field hospital have been installed. The dance sessions have been organised to re-energise and uplift health care providers sprits during this pandemic
AFP via Getty
38/52 18 June 2020
Alpha jets from the French Air Force Patrouille de France and the Royal Air Force Red Arrows perform a flypast over the statue of Charles de Gaulle on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris to celebrate the 80th anniversary of wartime leader’s appeal to the French people to resist the Nazi occupation, broadcast from London
Reuters
39/52 17 June 2020
Activists from the Extinction Rebellion movement block a street outside the German Automobile industry association during a protest in Berlin
AFP via Getty
40/52 16 June 2020
Barbers wearing protective suits and face masks inside a salon in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Reuters
41/52 15 June 2020
Siegfried White raises his hand as he protests outside a burned Wendy’s restaurant on the third day following Rayshard Brooks death. The black man was shot by police in the car park in Atlanta. The mayor ordered immediate police reforms on Monday after the fatal shooting by a white officer
AFP via Getty
42/52 14 June 2020
People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest march in central Tokyo
AFP via Getty
43/52 13 June 2020
Protesters raise their fists during a demonstration against police brutality and racism in Paris, France. The march was organised by supporters of Assa Traore, whose brother Adama died in police custody in 2016, in circumstances that remain unclear
EPA
44/52 12 June 2020
A pro-democracy supporter shouts at riot police during an anti-national security law rally in Mongkok district in Hong Kong, China. Protesters heeded online calls to gather as the city marks the one-year anniversary of the major clashes between police and pro-democracy demonstrators over the controversial extradition bill
Getty
45/52 11 June 2020
A section of the River Spree next to the Reichstag building coloured green by activists from “Extinction Rebellion” to protest the German government’s coal policies in Berlin
AFP via Getty
46/52 10 June 2020
A woman poses in front of a decapitated statue of Christopher Columbus at Christopher Columbus Park in Boston Massachusetts. The statue’s head, damaged overnight, was recovered by the Boston Police Department, as a movement to remove statues commemorating slavers and colonisers continues to sweep across the US
AFP via Getty
47/52 9 June 2020
Ivy McGregor, left, reads a resolution during the funeral for George Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston. George Floyd is being laid to rest in his hometown, the culmination of a long farewell to the 46-year-old African American whose death in custody ignited global protests against police brutality and racism
AFP via Getty
48/52 8 June 2020
People raise their fist and stand on their knees as they demonstrate in Nantes, during a Black Lives Matter protest
AFP via Getty
49/52 7 June 2020
A woman looks on during a protest against the killing of George Floyd in Osaka city, western Japan
EPA
50/52 6 June 2020
Demonstrator raise their fists at the Lincoln Memorial during a protest against police brutality and racism in Washington, DC. Demonstrations are being held across the US following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, while being arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota
AFP via Getty
51/52 5 June 2020
A handout photo made available by 2020 Planet Labs shows an aerial view of the large diesel spill in the Ambarnaya River outside Norilsk in the Arctic. Russia has managed to contain a massive diesel spill into a river in the Arctic, a spokeswoman for the emergencies ministry told AFP. Environmentalists said the oil spill, which took place last May 29, was the worst such accident ever in the Arctic region
Planet Labs Inc./AFP via Getty
52/52 4 June 2020
Activists hold a candlelit remembrance outside Victoria Park in Hong Kong, after the annual vigil, that traditionally takes place in the park to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, was banned on public health grounds because coronavirus
AFP via Getty
Some of the protests have been whimsical in tone, but the protesters say their political aims are serious.
“The adults may think because we’re doing this, they can’t take us seriously. But this is the way for the new generation,” said a 20-year-old protester who gave her name as Fah. “We are doing this differently in hope that something will change.”
Reuters
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