Extract from blog post “The Shields Won’t Go Away”
Whilst we read the narrative of lit candles, national colours and faded flowers, the Maidan punctum for me were in the miners’ helmets and the shields used by the protesters.
There were manufactured aluminium shields with neat lines of holes at the top, others fabricated from heavy steel plate and bearing leather holding straps: and then there were those that were hastily created from chipboard kitchen cupboards and bent plumbing pipe.
These kitchen-table shields have created an image in my mind from which scenarios flow: hammer-flattened shower rod, pairs of pliers, nuts and bolts of various sizes scavenged from toolboxes, the frustration of blunt drill bits, the marking out of the angle to make the handle, the sense of invincibility on first defence, the rush of getting involved because it matters, of doing something, standing up.
I picture the miner’s helmet being lifted and a goodbye on setting out to join with the people.
