Photography: Harlem etc

Harlem etc, a set on Flickr.

When I moved to NYC 7 years ago it was the first time I had ever set foot in the city. After a short-lived sublet on the Lower East Side I found a much more affordable sublet in Spanish Harlem, on First Ave, between 119th and 120th. The first time I was actually living alone, without roommates, my own tiny one bedroom with a little concrete backyard. At the time it was still pretty much affordable, albeit not the safest neighbourhood in the city. I never had a problem though, the guys who were always hanging out on my stoop looked out for me, the deli next door picked up my deliveries and the only time the walk to the subway was a problem was after my first NYC blizzard during the Winter Olympics in 2006.
Needless to say, I ended up moving to a much more expensive tiny box studio in the West Village 10 months later, and never really went back up there to visit. I decided to make the most of the beautiful weather today and made my way up to 125th Street to take some photos...
The place has changed a lot, but is still so similar at the same time... There are new shops, a couple of Starbucks, a Target and a TD Bank; but it's still as loud, interesting and diverse as it used to be. Nowhere else have I seen a car rushing down the street with a guy holding a megaphone and blasting music, making the whole street stop, clap and start dancing. I suppose it's cleaner and safer, but still as energetic and colourful. I wonder how much small one bedroom apartments go for up there now...

I then made my way downtown and took a few shots of the new Occupy Wall St terrain in Union Sq, and my favourite church, Grace Church, on Broadway and 11th St.

Occupy Wall Street occupies Times Square

Occupy Wall St to Times Sq, a set on Flickr.

I left Times Square sometime after 6pm, as I was beginning to feel faint and nauseous due to the sheer amount of people crammed into a small space. The NYPD cordoned off most of the area and basically herded all of us into a confined area. I don't know what the tactics were with this, but wouldn't that logical create a more dangerous environment? If they had left us alone we would have left space for people to pass through and the area would have been occupied peacefully. In any case, it was. I have never seen such a display of community and solidarity coupled with complete adherence to the demonstration rules that were set 9yes, we all kept to the sidewalks, all how many thousands of us that happened to have joined the march).
Anyway, I was able to make my way out and I have not looked at any media portraying today's events before writing this. These are just my own images, thoughts and feelings, mainly captured with my camera. I feel that these photos that portray the entire movement: people of all ages and backgrounds and opinions coming together to display a communal request for CHANGE.

I heard a few people tell us to "Get a job" when we walked past. I think we all have jobs Mr or Mrs I-Don't-Think-The-System-Affects-Me, actually some of us have 2 or 3 jobs to actually make ends meet. I am lucky because I was educated in a country where education is free, yes, FREE, and I will not be paying off student loans for most of my adult life, unlike many of my friends, but what would I have done if I had? I wouldn't have been able to go to university, it's as simple as that. None of my family could have afforded to pay for my tuition and I doubt that I would have got the loans that I would have needed... Anyway, OWS is about this and so much more. I'll probably have more to say tomorrow, once I have read all of the different media reports on today, but I am going to bed now.

Join in - this affects everyone.

Occupy Wall Street - some more opinions

I was chatting to a friend about the whole Occupy Wall Street movement last night and he said the following to me: "I will go there tomorrow, when all of the non-professional protesters have gone home.". Professional VS non-professional protesters? The whole point of a social uprising is that a large portion of the population is complaining that it is unhappy and that people want change, no matter where you come from, what colour your skin is, what you earn and where you earn it. It's about coming together as a group with one message.
Elitist protesting? That's about as hypocritical as it gets, no?
Yes, there are people who started the movement, and who have been there since Day 1. These people may or may not make political actions and protesting part of their daily life. There are also people who have joined halfway and are getting involved and helping. But there are also people who are hanging out on the fringes, trying to understand what is going on, interested but a little scared. This is NORMAL. There is always going to be a mix of people with different attitudes, characters, goals and faces, but in the end, the more people who come, the more people who join and the more people who state their interest make for a larger and more popular movement. The more people, the louder the voice.

Last night I was reading this blog post HERE. There is only one point that I slightly agree with (the need for a goal), but I completely disagree with the rest of the points. I know that I am further left than most people I know, but I really wouldn't consider demonstrations without permits, occupying a space to protest, not resisting arrest and being non-violent "anarchist". Far from it, it's actually organised and super smart! And... Democratic. I feel that people tend to label others as anarchists or communists way too easily in this country. That said, I do not want to bash the person who wrote the blog I mentioned - she has her ideas and is very eloquent in providing her opinions and thoughts. It was good to read something that helped me confirm my own opinions even more.

Discuss. Or just go down to Wall Street to see what is happening.

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall St , a set on Flickr.

I grew up in a country where protests are the norm: you aren't happy with the the amount of hours you are working? Get out into the streets and protest! The government is too right-wing? Set up a demonstration down the main streets of the city. You aren't getting paid enough? Go on strike! I, for one, completely agree with popular uprising. If your voice is too quiet to be heard, then group together and shout louder together. I've always been lucky enough to live in countries where I am allowed to voice my opinion and go out onto the streets and demonstrate if I want to. And if I don't feel like demonstrating outside on the streets, there are other ways to do it nowadays: blogging, Facebook, Twitter... We don't need to wait for the main media sources to come in and start talking about it.
But (and there is always a but), in France, strikes, protests and demonstrations had become the norm so much, that they started to become a running joke in other countries. It was as if no one took popular uprisings seriously anymore. And then they started to become violent. Demonstrations became coupled with burning cars and police using tear gas, peaceful protests became riots and so forth, bringing up a multitude of questions on why there was such underlying anger and violence in today's youth, why the need to destroy and hurt, rather than build and grow? Look at what started in London and spread to other places in England just this last August. Once the riots were over, the kids were jailed and something more important happened in the world (maybe George W Bush choked on a pretzel again or something), the story disappeared. So what happens next? We just clamp it down to a few shitty days in England, and continue to move forward in the same way that we were before the riots happened? I cannot stand violence, and do not think it is in any way or form a way to make anything better, but come on, it happened for a reason, and if the root cause isn't dug up, analyzed and then destroyed, how can we stop it happening again in the future? No wonder the kids of today are disgruntled: nobody cares about what they have to say!
Violence is definitely not the answer, so this is why I am becoming more and more interested in the Occupy Wall Street movement that started about 3 weeks ago, and is growing rapidly (not just in NYC, but all around the country). For a few weeks there was no media coverage on the movement, only Twitter and Facebook posts from different people involved and bystanders. Without smart phones and portable video cameras we would not have seen the images of the women being fenced in by the police and maced for no reason apart from the fact that they were part of a demonstration. Peaceful demonstration may I add. Or how about the 700 or so people who were arrested walking over the Brooklyn Bridge last week. What did they do wrong? There has still not been ONE incident of violence or intent to riot, the only violence that seems to have happened comes from the police trying to police the demonstrations. I am not going to bash the police on the streets right now, they are obviously following orders from above, but come on, spraying mace on a group of screaming girls?!
In any case, the movement is growing, and doesn't seem ready to disappear just yet. I finally made it to a gathering yesterday, and am glad I did. The General Assembly was held in Washington Square Park at 3pm. People gathered there, and others marched up from Zuccotti Park (renamed Liberty Park). The park was full of people, groups sitting down in front of the speakers and everyone else standing behind them. The speakers are not allowed to use microphones, so the crowd repeats each sentence in waves so that everyone can hear what each speaker has to say. Different groups introduced themselves, and explained what their role was and where to find them, and then a speaker called Mohamed from Egypt said a few words. He actually brought tears to my eyes, just because he was passionate and inspirational. I know that the movement here is not the same as the Arab Spring uprisings, but in the end the message is the same: WE WANT CHANGE.
So this brings me to my only real concern: we know what the message is, and it's coming across loud and clear. But without a concrete list of what needs to change I worry that the message will get lost in the melee and people will lose interest. A revolution needs to start small, gain momentum and bring actual change. What do you want from this? The same as what I do: to live in a world that is a better place for all of us. How can WE make that change? This is the message that we need to get across to the government and anyone in charge. The voices are finally being shown by the media, so now is the time to get the real points across to those who aren't listening.
And this is exactly why I will be going back again. Because I HAVE a list of things that I KNOW need to change, and I want to talk about them to a group of like-minded people.

For more information please grab an Occupy newspaper at one of the gatherings (available in English and Spanish) or visit the following websites:
www.nycga.net
www.occupywallst.org
www.takethesquare.net
wwwoccupytogether.org
wearethe99percent.tumblr.com

This is not the last post I will be writing on this subject. I need to limit myself otherwise I will literally write all day.