Occupy Vancouver

The distinct, pungent smell of marijuana is in the air, cut with wafting, homemade aromas from the open kitchen.  The air is brisk for this time of year, so the few people standing under the tarpaulins hide under toques and hoods, stuffing their hands deeper into their pockets.  They chat quietly among themselves, occasionally pawing at the ground with their feet.

In the hands of participants, the onion-rich Greek salad being doled out in the food tent makes its way to the open area where the majority of protestors have congregated.  They’re standing in a wide circle, two or three people deep.  Instead of waving signs and chanting slogans, these dissidents are taking orderly turns talking.  When something agreeable is said, outstretched fingers mime the actions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Disagreement is also silently voiced, this time with the classic thumbs down gesture.  Other signals appear less frequently, including, among others, those indicating a point of process or an irresolvable contention.

The group is varied; twenty and thirty-somethings in pea coats and black leather shoes stand along side those in beards and dreadlocks.  Despite the cold, almost everyone is focused on the discussions taking place.  This is the General Assembly at Occupy Vancouver, a movement that stands in solidarity with the original Occupy Wall Street protest in New York.  With a free library, food tent, workshop areas, family tent site, and lots of open discussion, this is unlike any protest Vancouver has seen, having more in common with the Habitat ’76 meetings at Jericho Beach than the Stanley Cup riots of 1994 and 2011. 

As the Occupy Vancouver protests enters its third week, it will be interesting to see how things progress.  Will the occupation lose its appeal and novelty, or will Mayor Gregor Robertson bow to pressure to clear out the tent city?  Will it end with not a bang, but a whimper?  Or will it keep going strong, and become a tourist attraction like the New York edition?   It doesn't matter what happens with it now, since it stands to be a success in that it will very likely influence policy with the mayoral elections upon us.  And people will continue to congregate in front of the Art Gallery.  After all, they do have free food and books to borrow!

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 This entry started as an assignment in a writing class I'm taking.  The point of the exercise was to describe a scene, but not to include ourselves in it.  We were encouraged to make our scenes strong by using smells, textures, sounds, and feelings to appeal to the reader's senses.  Doing this engages the reader and makes the writing more interesting.