UK Daily Mail: Hawaiian musician with ‘Occupy with Aloha’ T-shirt plays 45-minute protest song for Obama at summit… and no one notices
- Makana voices support for 'Occupy' movements at dinner of world leaders
- Pulled open jacket to reveal T-shirt and sang new track over and over...
- ... but President Obama was too occupied with guests to realise
- Meanwhile, 400 anti-globalisation protestors marched towards dinner, but were turned back by security
A popular Hawaiian singer used his performance at a dinner of world leaders hosted by President Barack Obama to voice his support for the 'Occupy' movement.
Makana was enlisted to play a luau, or Hawaiian feast, for members of the Pacific Rim who had gathered in Obama's birthplace Honolulu for an annual summit formulating plans for a Pacific free-trade pact.
During the meal on the resort strip Waikiki Beach, he proudly pulled open his jacket to reveal a T-shirt which read 'Occupy with Aloha' - using the Hawaiian word whose include love and peace.
He went on to sing a 45-minute version of his new song We Are The Many, which features the refrain: 'We'll occupy the streets, we'll occupy the courts, we'll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few.'
Makana, who was born Matthew Swalinkavich said the song prompted awkward stares from a few in the audience, but the Obamas appeared too engrossed with their guests to even notice what was happening….
After the performance, Makana, 33, said: 'I was pretty nervous. In fact I was terrified. I kept thinking 'what are the consequences going to be?' (Consequences? The hand-wringing liberal elite will treat you like a hero. The future is here and now the go-along-to-get-along crowd can all be heroes for 15 minutes. Adverse 'consequences' are reserved for those who oppose socialism, not those who join it. There won't even be 'consequences' for performing 45 minutes 'unnoticed.')
The performance occurred at a dinner on Saturday night for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit participants from 21 economies around the Asia-Pacific, including Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, amid a security lockdown in Waikiki.
Read … Makana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H-M07v8N_eU#t=0s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VegV-8vu7go#t=0s
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