New Technologies

Russians have resorted to various guerrilla tactics in protesting the corruption and incompetence of their government, including a sixty-five-metre phallus painted on a St Petersburg drawbridge which, when raised, faced FSB headquarters. Police in Siberia are attempting valiantly to deal with an infraction on a smaller scale, consisting of various toy figures brandishing subversive placards. Much mirth was occasioned among the unenlightened public, but officers of the local constabulary subjected the display to a detailed examination and sedulously copied down all the slogans in case one of the toys should make a run for it. "Political opposition forces are using new technologies to carry out public events, using toys with placards at mini-protests," complained Andrei Mulintsev, the deputy police chief. New technologies are the bane of many a democracy enforcement official the world over; but Andrei Mulintsev appears rather an extreme case. Our own Metropolitan Headbangers, Firearms and Venus Trap Club is famous for its difficulties in coping with such innovations as digital cameras, mobiles and people with cerebral palsy; but dolls were known in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and people have been making figurines since at least the Neolithic.