|
In Occupied America!
Sunday November 13, 2011 11:57:10 PM,
Arun Kumar, IANS
|
|
Washington: America is
occupied today! The occupiers, a unique group of protesters, who
have pitched tents and tarps in parks across America, from the
Wall Street in the Big Apple to the nation's capital steeped in
politics to the most Ivy of the Ivy Leaguers, Harvard.
The unique movement is leaderless given the protesters' disdain
for all authority, yet the occupiers have run the makeshift
colonies with a system of their own for 58 days in New York, where
the Occupy Wall Street movement started, 44 in Washington and for
the fifth day today in Harvard.
In Washington, the occupiers have taken over the Freedom Plaza and
McPherson Square, one South of the White House and the other to
North, with some 17 committees of volunteers looking after
numerous tasks from action to food to sanitation to winterisation.
The groups even bring out their separate newspapers - "The
Occupied Washington Times" and "The Occupied Washington Post" to
articulate their demands like higher taxes on the wealthy, cuts in
defence budget and reform of campaign finance laws.
There are no formal rules, yet the occupiers have pitched their
tents of various shapes, sizes and hues in separate zones with a
kitchen, an information booth, a library and a medical post
separated from the living quarters.
"Avenues" between the rows of tents have been named after Gandhi,
Martin Luther King, Che Guevara, Harvey Milk and Malcolm X. The
"General Assembly" meets in a large open field in another part at
six every evening to take decisions with a variety of hand
signals.
Basant Khalsa, a 29-year old Sikh trucker from Northern
California, came to the capital to attend the dedication of the
Martin Luther King memorial, but has stayed on to run the kitchen.
He works 16 to 17 hours a day to dish out three meals a day to 100
to 200 protesters because he "likes to help people."
Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, the nerve centre of OWS has become a
tourist attraction. Here too working withy the same "horizontal
hierarchy" style of leadership decisions are taken and plans made
using an Occupy only technique called "mike check" for
communicating.
From Atlanta to Orlando in 70 major cities and over 600
communities across the US protesters are spreading their message
with a 'mike' being passed on with just a shout of "mike check"
and the crowd repeating the words of a speaker like a chant.
Along the way, the movement claiming to represent the 99 percent
underdogs has picked up other causes from peace to saving the
environment.
Finally last Wednesday it arrived at Harvard University, which as
one activist put it ironically produces the very one percent they
are protesting against, with students pitching two dozen tents in
Harvard yard with signs proclaiming "HARVARD IS THE 99%".
Whether this amazing Occupy movement would keep growing or fizzle
out, only time will tell. But for now it has occupied the minds of
America.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
|
|
|
|
Home |
Top of the Page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top Stories |
|
Trial starts in high-profile telecom airwaves
case
Over seven months after the first set
of charges were framed in the second generation (2G) spectrum
case, the trial began Friday despite the prime accused, former
telecom minister A. Raja, refusing to query witnesses pending
»
What is
the 2G spectrum scam about?
Spectrum of charges against Raja, 13 accused in 2G case
|
|
|
|
Most Read |
|
Losing opportunities for reparations in Malegaon
The media representation of Malegaon
provides a metaphorical description of all that is bad for a
civilised society, whether it is the communal – terror tag,
backwardness and religious conservatism. While
»
|
|
Can Kashmir afford Omar-army confrontation?
Thanks to
the open confrontation between the state government and the army
over the revocation of the controversial Armed Forces Special
Powers Act (AFSPA), the sensitive issue of security has been
»
Kashmir's Unified Command can decide on AFSPA: Antony
|
|
|
|
News Pick |
|
Type 2 diabetes rising among kids: Experts
Type 2
diabetes, the most common form of the illness, is on the rise
among children under 15-years-old, with altered lifestyles and bad
food habits increasing their vulnerability to the ailment, experts
say. "Type 2 diabetes which
»
|
|
Arab Sting: The West is bitten and sly
You might want to laugh if you see another cartoon
of the Prophet in standard beard and white turban on the cover of
a magazine with a comic bubble saying, “A hundred lashes if you
don't die of laughter." In a world where
»
|
|
'1971
war not aptly projected in Bangladesh'
The political
significance of the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war was never aptly
projected among the country's youth and the nation has failed to
become what it hoped to be, says Bangladeshi filmmaker Nasiruddin
Yousuff.
»
|
|
|
|
Picture of the Day |
|
 |
|
More than 2.5mn people from all
across the world have gathered in Makkah for Haj which starts
November 05, 2011 this year. Haj, the fifth pillar of Islam is
a religious journey to the House of Allah in Makkah. This is
in response to the call of Prophet Abraham when Allah
commanded him to call mankind to perform Haj. Haj is the
largest gathering of Muslims as about three million Muslims
from all over the world meet to worship their Lord. All
barriers including language, color, class and race are broken.
(Photo:
Arab News/Ahmad Hashad) |
|
|
|
|
Comments
|
Quick links