Occupy Wall Street

Good morning everybody!

Have you heard about Occupy Wall Street, the movement that began two months ago in New York City? I heard a lot about this movement but I didn’t really understand what was happening so I did some research to learn a little bit about it. Here is a little summary of what I found:

On last September 17^th, the protests took place in Zuccotti Park in the financial district of New York. At the beginning, it’s Adbusters Foundation, a Canadian organization, who proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest a growing disparity in wealth, the absence of legal repercussions behind the recent global financial crisis and corporate influence on democracy. All what they ask for is a presidential commission to separate money from politics. Obviously, they didn’t control the movement for a long time. The first day, approximately 1000 people were there to protest. Every day, more people came to camp in Zuccotti Park. After October 9^th, there were manifestations in 70 metropolis and 600 communities of the USA. On October 15^th, the movement became international and took place in 1500 cities of 82 different countries. Even in Rimouski, we have an Occupy site on a park. In the night between November 14^th and 15^th, the police of New York expelled people of Zuccotti Park and nobody has the right to camp there since this night. In Montreal, people who protest for it support people of New York and want them to come in our parks to stay in the movement and to have a new place to camp.

Personally, I don’t really have an opinion about the situation. I’m not for it, but I’m not against it either. I understand why people protest for it, and I think they have the right to do it. I feel like it’s a good way to express their opinion and to try to change things that affect the society. In the other hand, I don’t know if all those manifestations will really change something. We all know that this type of protestation never works. For example, when people protested for increase in tuition, all what we saw on TV and everywhere was about them, but two weeks later, it was done. I know it is not the same situation but… I don’t know… I have the feeling that police will expel people in all the cities where there are manifestations and camps. For the moment, I don’t want to take a side because it doesn’t really affect me and I don’t know if it will change something in my life. Also, I understand the situation but I don’t know all about it and I don’t want to have an opinion on something big like that when I didn’t take a time to understand the entire problem and the two sides.

What do you think about Occupy Wall Street? Are you for it or against it? Do you think it will really change something?

Have a good day J!