When I was in Ann Arbor, I took pleasure in spotting symbols all around campus. Many of them were political in nature while others were simply pranks. For instance, the math building was scarred with small black hammer and sickle. By the Diag, there was a drawing of a sad primate standing behind bars while one of the more amusing ones is this:



The weirdest however is Gnome Liberation Front (GLF). A mark of GLF's guerrila campaigning could be seen near the C.C. Little building bus stop, if it's still there.

When I first noticed the mark, I thought it was a joke. After all, college is the meeting place of weirder of the weirdest. Controlling for population size, unless you're in Japan, I dare bet that the probability of seeing or hearing something totally out of place is higher in college than anywhere else. Almost nowhere else in the world where one could find a naked person running in the snow in the middle of the night or wearing a complete set of scuba accessories minus the tank while sitting for an exam (while, it was Halloween). Or, a couple students assaulting police officers with snowballs and almost got charged with felony. Or even an open worshipper of Flying Spaghetti Monster. Or, hell, rioting merely because of football, winning or losing, regardless. Know who they are, you do.

GLF craved a smile on my face but I really didn't know what the supposedly-joke was about. At the same time, I'm familiar with Earth Liberation Front, an organization with a cute acronym - ELF. Those that are unfamiliar with ELF might mistaken it as a docile organization. On the contrary, ELF is one of the few known active and elusive ecoterrorist groups (heh, FBI is having a hard time tracing them - it's easier to trace Al-Qaeda than ELF. Hell, ELF members don't even know each other. Ops...). I remember during one May near Ann Arbor, an luxury house was burnt down to the ground and ELF claimed responsibility. A better known arson case is the of burning Hummers in California. So, I thought, GLF was a parody of ELF.

Well, guess what?

Gnome Liberation Front is a legit political movement aimed at freeing all gnomes from slavery. At first, I thought that this was an elaborate hoax but no - it's a serious movement. As serious as PAS could be.

What GLF Front does is simply this: kidnap stone gnomes from gardens and then break them up in order to release these gnomes (their souls I presume) into gnomes' natural habitat. This still couldn't accept the rationale behind the movement upon learning this. It seemed that this was simply a lame excuse for vandalism.

The final twist however made me gives up and accepts it as it is. Why? According to Wikipedia further, on gnomes, legend has it that "the sun's rays turn them into stone."

Interestingly enough, the largest movement happens to operate in France under the name Mouvement d'Émancipation des Nains de Jardin, or, MENJ. What? Oh. Yeah, I know. A whole new perceptive, isn't it? Those French...

Now, I'm a green yes. There are a lot of not-so-mainstream political beliefs that I hold to but I've my own benchmark of what is ridiculous. GLF is one of those that fall into my I-thought-this-was-a-joke list.

p/s - ladies and gentlemen, the first ever vblog to make it into the __earthinc's blogroll. Presenting to you, MobuzzTV. Karina, I wanna have your babies!!!