Two minutes captured during a General Assembly meeting on Monday the 17th of October.
Tag Archives: protest
Not Yet A Report from OccupyAmsterdam
I’m reluctant to write anything yet about the #occupy movement, specifically my local occupy Amsterdam. On the one hand it seems like everyone has already heard about the actions nearest to where they live, in the US, Europe, Asia, South America…. all over the world. Which makes me think perhaps all the minds have already been made up. One role I don’t want to have when it comes to “occupy” is the one where I try to convince people of something and they try to argue counterpoints against me. I don’t want to convince anyone to follow along, come on down, or anything like that. Yet each day I still run into friends and strangers who have no idea what occupy wall street is, or here in our own city, what occupy Amsterdam is. So I write, or at least, start to write, even if I’m not actually ready to write about everything I’ve seen and think from daily visits to this burgeoning community nestled on the former financial center of this city so famous for international trade.
We live in a world of categories. On websites. On forms. In our minds. You fit here, you fit there. Don’t fit, we’ll make you a new box if you’re lucky. Even with alot of disorganization among us, we try to organize. You’re either this kind of person or that kind of person. Your action is either good or bad, in between is confusing and hard to process. And when it comes to our protest activities, when it is about using or not using time, energy and resources towards a certain goal… the public tends to evaluate as quickly as possible and render their verdict if the cause is worth it.
Enter the occupy wall street actions- which are taking place all over the world. The average person looks, reads/watches briefly, and makes their decision. Few visit, but many write or talk about it. Based on images, sounds, text and other material coming from these epicenters, people make their judgement. They condemn, they approve, they ignore or something in between all these. We still live in a world where you can ignore a lot and keep going about your life; war, corruption, injustice, the environment… few of these topics have stopped the general public, so it should come as no surprise that sustained demonstrations against the status quo would be any different.
And still they are out there, building something together. People ask “Are there still people down there?” They’d probably not believe me if I told them the truth – there are more everyday.
“But what do they want!?” – I knew you’d ask that.
The Battle of Athens
It is neither the first nor the last battle on the streets of Athens this year. But today is the day the public has surrounded parliament as the government tries to pass more measures to cut costs, jobs, services, etc, in order to address the mind-blowing debt the country has. Surely there are more details and larger discussions to have around these issues, but right now it all pales in comparison to what is happening on the streets.
To get updates from Syntagma Square, journalists and frequent guests on citizenreporter, Max and Stacy are on the scene. Of course Al Jazeera also has the streaming images and people in the crowds.
Police in Spain Terrorize Protesters
As I travel around the Northeast of the United States, I am also struggling to keep up with events unfolding in Spain. Disturbing events as protesters throughout the country suffer the wrath of a police force out of control. While millions throughout the country assemble in city squares demanding political and social reform, their story goes mostly unreported and downplayed by many international media outlets. What is going on in Spain? On today’s podcast I talk about the situation, while also giving an update to several themes from recent podcasts.
Clinical Protest
“…if you live in a state institution and you’re diagnosed with schizophrenia in the United States in the present day, the chances are exponentially greater that you are going to be in a prison than in a hospital…” – Jonathan Metzl on All in the Mind.
A recent edition of All in the Mind, ABC Radio National’s Mental Health radio program, looked at historical connections between protest and mental illness. One of the main points of the program is to point out that historically, those active in protest movements of various kinds, have often been said to be or officially diagnosed as mentally ill. In this way their goals or grievances with social structures and practices are seen as not worthy of being taken seriously, as they are brought on by a sickness.
The main interviewee on the program was Associate Professor Jonathan Metzl, author of the book The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia became a Black Disease, published by Beacon Books. Through his work Metzl explains a long list of cases where black people active in the civil rights struggle in the US were in incarcerated and while in prison diagnosed as schizophrenic or psychotic, then having their sentences extended and the array of treatments and medications expanded til the point that even if they had never been mentally ill before, they would become so.
From the era of slavery to the days of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr, the discussion is a very interesting one that still has a big impact today in how we look at people in mental institutions, prison, and protest movements.
Highly recommended listening, full transcript is also available.
bmtv106 Student Revolt in the US
After the mass student uprising all across Europe in late 2009, the movement has awoken all across the United States this month. Students, faculty, and staff began walking out of their classes and holding marches and rallies at University campuses across the nation. With the lack of support and resources from the federal government, tuition hikes, staff layoffs, and massive budget cuts from state governments, millions of people are making their voices heard and refusing to go about their business as if nothing is wrong.
I was particularly excited and proud to have seen video footage (included in this video entry) from the school I graduated from in 2001, William Paterson University of New Jersey. As you can see from the images, that spirit of resistance and dedication to a cause is alive and well at my alma mater. It is particularly wonderful to see the familiar faces and hear the passionate voices of faculty members who played and continue to play a big role in helping me find my voice and choose my path as an activist-journalist.