The Sit-in Continues

The Occupy movement having gone global is now 1 week old in London on the outskirts of the financial district at St Paul's Cathedral and is moving from strength to strength, even as I type the evolution (as I like to call it) has spread to another part of the city, Finsbury Square.

After the initial disorder of the first day there is now an orderly chaos amongst the protestors who have come together in a show of solidarity of the human spirit that is encouraging in these times where mainstream media strives to divide us. The entire court yard has become a city, within a city, within a city. A first I am sure, if you discount the farce in Israel. Anyone that has seen The Matrix will agree the tent city has a feel of Zion about it.

Generators chug on throughout the day and night powering the information centre, medical centre and catering arena with volunteers coming to the aide of others to provide whatever assistance is required for the men, women and children of all ages present here. There is even a mini cinema centre supplied where a series of informational DVDs are played to educate people on alternative energy solutions, education and of course the Zeitgeist documentaries made by Peter Joseph. One tent had gone one step further and is supplying it's power through solar panels. A nice touch. Other entertainment includes your usual selection of bongos, plastic buckets and acoustic guitars. A new addition for protests however was the site of a piano at the footsteps of the cathedral where renditions of David Bowie played on late into the twilight hours.

All this once again serves to answer the debate on human nature vs human nurture as people donate their time, effort and labour for free, towards a common goal for all.

My return to the courtyard was met with a frosty reception from the local security firm employed by the finical district (City of London Police) who found a particular piece of art work offensive due to the nature of the language on it and the fact that children were present on camp. I should have asked if they thought the children would be more, or less, affected by the site of my poster or the site of Colnel Gaddafi being dragged and beaten to a bloody pulp before being shown dead at 0800 in the morning on the BBC whilst they eat their cornflakes, getting ready for a day at school but I digress. The sheer amount of art on display in the court yard is impressive, thought and effort has gone into it and I believe Banksy would be proud of some of the stuff on display himself.

The media blackout being spun by local media is interesting, or media spin should I say. Throughout the week I have kept an eye on certain media outlets and of the 21 or so people interviewed (out of the thousands that have been here during this time) they managed to select the unemployed student, student or made redundant humans that are protesting their point. The reality of the matter is that there are all types of people here. Parents and grandparents with children that are protesting for their children's future, public sector workers from all areas, business people that are on the sharp end of the banking corporations stick. The moral of the story I guess is to not believe everything that the Rupert Murdoch or Government controlled news outlets tell you. Ask more questions and research your news from a wider range of sources, make use of the Internet before it is too late.