Above is a link to a video that shows and explains a few of the techniques used at the Occupy Movement to convey messages across big, open spaces. One of the techniques is the “Human Microphone” where one person who is presenting a point speaks and others who can hear what that person is saying can repeat it back loudly to the other people around them. In this way the message is amplified so that all can hear. They use ‘Mic-check!’ to get the human microphone back onto the [Read More]
Standing in solidarity with a Seattle Union of longshore man who are being subjected to union busting the Occupy movement turns it’s sights to the Ports of Vancouver. “I understand where they are coming from but they just seem like very angry people…kind of blinded and avoid or don’t get into exposing the specific issues. They are still important points but it still feels too general. I’m worried they are loosing support,” Michael Harrhy a concerned Canadian citizen states. The targets of the recent Occupy Ports Protest were terminal operators SSA Marine [Read More]
The call and support for the environment seems to have been forgotten among the demands of the occupiers. In fact it has been noted that those who are part of the Occupy Movement are unaware of the technological gadgets they use while simultaneously waging war on the very corporations who produce them. The irony is certainly palpable. These two clips are to inspire us to remember what it is we risk losing in nature. Financial greed doesn’t only take a toll on people; the environment suffers too. I received this second [Read More]
I am shocked to see how many people do not seem to support the Occupy Movement. Many of my classmates, and indeed some of my close friends continue to find fault with some aspect of it. While there are some characteristics that I myself question, as a whole, I support the movement, and I believe in it. Some faction of society has criticized every great movement when it began. Think of the movement to end slavery, or the movement for women’s rights. This doesn’t mean that it will [Read More]
I first met Joel Bellenson in my Commercial Drive neighborhood when I was working at a café where he was a regular. I overheard him on more than one occasion talking about hydroponics and I knew that he was a scientist and geneticist. So when it came time for me to write about food systems and the Occupy Movement I knew Bellenson would have some interesting insights for me. Originally from a very conservative suburb of LA, Bellenson was a computer programmer as a child. He went to Stanford University [Read More]
The Occupy Movement has captured the eyes of the world. Starting on September 17th outside of the New York Stock Exchange, I vividly remember having a heated debate with friends on simply this: “Do you support the OWS movement?” We all threw around our bold opinions, with no real idea of what we were talking about, but it sparked passion, interest, concern, and it just simply got us talking about a movement that was bringing critical issues of inequality to the table. It was evident that there were messages that needed [Read More]
The following is taken from a class discussion that was held by our Ecological Anthropology 360 class (the creators of this blog). We thought it important to have a group discussion about the Occupy Movement to get a sense of people’s thoughts, and share our ideas with each other. We had previously spent weeks researching what others thought and said about the movement and hadn’t had a chance to find out what our own thoughts were as a class. We opened with a very general question: Do you [Read More]
Generation WE: The Movement Begins.. IMPORTANT: CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK TO WATCH THIS VIDEO. This video comes from http://www.gen-we.com/ . Generation We is a movement to encourage youth born between 1978 and 2000 to step up and vote, because the total population is greater than their parents. It encourages this generation to promote change, to curb consumerism and find solutions to environmental problems. It highlights the need to revolutionalize the economy and to support medical research. It is essentially stating that system change is within this generation. We just have [Read More]
The United States Congress is considering passing a bill that would severely restrict internet freedom (see http://campusprogress.org/articles/the_terrible_horrible_no-good_very_bad_internet_censorship_bills1/). While its stated intent is to prevent the illegal uploading and downloading of copyrighted materials, the bill itself is considered by many to be too broad and general: with its current format, it would fail to reach its stated intent but manage to confine the internet to specific patterns of use (for more information, see http://www.tehelka.com/story_main51.asp?filename=Op171211proscons.asp). The internet has become a key component in how the world functions day-to-day. As a widely used [Read More]
In A Short History of Progress, Wright (2005) describes that repeatedly throughout history; societies have sought progress only to collapse as a result of unsustainable goals. In the book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Professor Umbridge states: “…for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. There again, progress for progress’s sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering. A balance, then, between old and new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation because some changes will be for the [Read More]
The Occupy Movement should be looking to find a new socioeconomic system after this one collapses, rather than trying to change it right now. After the inevitable collapse will be the time to restructure our society in a better way and to implement new socioeconomic systems. Right now we should look into how we can do this restructuring and implementation once collapse occurs and create new socioeconomic systems to implement for afterwards as well. To learn more about why I think that we need to allow the system to collapse [Read More]
Many of us have been in a messy breakup, prolonging the agony, thinking that perhaps this time if we make this change it will be better, but in the back of your mind all along you knew you needed to end it and start anew. Unfortunately, by the time the inevitable breakup decision finally arrived, you or your partner or both of you were so very emotional broken. You should have ended it sooner. You should have stopped trying to fix the surface problems of your relationship when the real [Read More]
Dear Past, I remember you used to tell Rebecca and I stories about when you were younger. You told us about traveling around the world when you were the age I am now. The sights of the mountains you climbed in Switzerland, the deserts that you became thirsty in, in Morocco, the tall Eucalyptus forests you smelt and walked though in Australia. Rebecca and I remember every detail of every taste, smell, feeling and sight you experienced. I think you told us over and over again to make sure those [Read More]
Dear Grandpa, I was reflecting on your generation’s insistence on having kids. Whenever someone from your generation would talk about procreating it was always having kids not kid. It confuses me because even in your time people began to realize that the human population of Earth was getting terribly out of hand yet people of your generation selfishly had multiple children. In our time, people have begun to both speak and act in a manner that protects what natural environment we have left. A large part of that is limiting [Read More]
Lisa’s letter has inspired me to take a broad perspective in our society and look at what it is that is leading us to forget the future. Judging from the recent popular movies on apocalyptic scenarios of collapse and destruction, people in our society seem to really believe we are heading towards the end, or something like it. Alternatives and options are not contemplated much (see Zizek). Perhaps, the centuries of Christian faith have truly instilled in us the prophecy of apocalypse. But now, instead of praying we consume, [Read More]
The Occupy movement can be characterized as movement to alter the course of society. Predicting dire circumstances in the future (economic and environmental), individuals are consciously attempting to change the path that our system is on. Perhaps this is all for not though. When we look at classic adaptive model used in resilience theory, comprehensive reorganization only occurs when the system has completely collapsed. The protests and the changing that they want to see implemented in my opinion will prevent or at very least postpone the eventual collapse that [Read More]
The Occupy Vancouver movement is both a global and local movement and shows how the clashing of cultural values and a desire for a change in the system reveals the various ways in which people observe and perceive their surroundings. Newspapers are a media which provides people with a way to go about conceiving of their surroundings. Most of my understanding of this movement has come from the newspaper I read, The Vancouver Sun and our class’ blog and trying to understand it from an ecological anthropological perspective. The movement [Read More]
Looking at the Occupy Vancouver list of demands, one gets the feeling that the Occupy “movement” is not a single unified entity but rather a collection of people with distinct agendas. Their demands touch everything from bank interest rates to the use of pesticides. While the demands do represent legitimate problems that Canadian society faces, the list as a whole does not represent a single movement. What began on Wall Street as a protest against economic policy has morphed into a society-wide set of movements that have been grouped [Read More]
This post has been produced by Sharlene and Michele. In the many and diverse voices that I hear coming out of the 99% the loudest one is calling for “more equality!” How catchy, just and noble! …But lets step aside from all these voices, take a deep breath and ponder about our position in the world… As part of the 99%, are we really so worse off? The 99%! …and the 99TH% WE don’t have to go too far to realize how lucky we are and how well off we [Read More]
At the time that I have posted this, the most commonly used tag in this blog has certainly been “food systems.” While it is important to recognize how conventional food production has altered the way that human societies have subsided on and related to their land, there is another major way in which humans interact with their landscapes. We inhabit them. Now, though it is no secret that the bursting of the housing bubble and the following waves of foreclosures was tightly linked to the same financial institutions which have [Read More]