Occupy Wall Street Amsterdam
I haven't read much into it, #OWS (Occupy Wall Street), most likely because it hasn't been in my face. ...until today. In the city center in front of the Amsterdam stock exchange (AEX Index) building, Beurs van Berlage and across the street from where I first started working when I moved to Amsterdam, I spotted the Wall Street protest. Here's some photos to share, which for me, kinda gives a little more reason for me to read more into this event. [nggallery id=4] If you go to the website of Occupy Wall Street http://occupywallst.org/ you'll find their mantra. A couple things I found very interesting right off the get go:
- Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement
- using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.
Occupy Amsterdam: impressie from Myrthe Verweij on Vimeo.
I'm curious what will become of these protest especially being leaderless. And secondly, I found it pretty ironic that Western nations are following tactics recently seen in the Middle East....maybe this is a reason why I don't see so much news media on this topic? A slant maybe? Anyway, there's a pretty active forum and I found this I protest because... post on why people protest. The responses are all over the place but it's a good place to start and understand what is becoming of this protest. Some responses:
I protest to get laid by chicks who don't shave their underarms I protest because it is cool and I want my Mac Book Pro paid for by the 1%. i protest because it is my right as an american to stand up when i see my country being sold and polluted and its people dying in the streets. i am tired of injustice. i am tired of pollution. i am tired of poverty. and i am really tired of war. this is the only way i can see to add my voice to the many saying STOP -- i want a better country -- and a better world will follow I protest because I am tired of watching friends and family die because they cannot afford medication or health care. I am sickened by watching the lines at the food bank stretch across the road because people can't afford food. I am disgusted by watching good people who work and try to pay their bills being thrown out on the street because they cannot pay their mortgage payment. I am fed up with people not caring about other people and worrying about their own material gains to the exclusion of all else. I am frustrated by being blocked at every turn trying to get people to listen that we need social, political and economic reform. I realize that I am only one person, I cannot change the way the world thinks alone, but together, people who feel like me can make a difference. We can force laws to change, we can make others aware of the basic human condition and the ways that we can improve it. I add my voice here because maybe with one more voice, people will listen.
