Occupy Nova Scotia tested

Day 4 at Occupy NS was kind of epic; where nearly every system and individual had a breakdown, including myself, and I don't even live there! Part of last night was spent in consoling weeping friends. The General Meeting included a special subsection for the airing of grievances.

My grievances were not in fact any more serious than those from the first day. On the bright side, sawdust was being used appropriately and we were no longer carting sloshing buckets of straight-up urine. My one remaining volunteer and I were feeling burnt out, but members from the camp had taken transportation upon themselves. That having been said, I gather at the meeting it was brought up that it was unacceptable that kitchen staff should be taking on this responsibility as well, because of the risk of cross-contamination.

The upshot is that I will no longer be hauling, but will continue to try to secure future composting sites, donating a bike cart to the effort and organizing volunteers. I haven't been down there today yet but I hope that other systems will have been reforged into more sustainable forms, in terms of workability for the protesters.

The Man turns a blind eye, again

An interesting day at the camp:
self-organisation of humanure hauling is going quite well. I hear that city waste water treatment and environmental services visited the camp and were pleased with how clean it was. Crime levels have also gone down since the occupation began. In their well-meaning efforts they contributed disposable gloves and clear garbage bags for handling the compost. I've been calling volunteers to say that while this equipment is optional, it is certainly not necessary. On the upshot, city waste water did not go around arresting people or calling them names, or telling anyone else to arrest them. Yet.