Occupy Waterford Day 5

I went back down to the camp again today. I wanted to take more pictures and talk to the people about how it was all going and get more information about them themselves. I’ve read a lot of talk on-line about the group positive and negative. I’d like to clear up some speculation about the group. People who say “These people are all on the dole and it should be cut because they are not looking for work” “They’re just littering the place” just negative things about people who probably haven’t even talked to them. I have to say I have never met a more friendlier bunch of people, within a minute of saying hello I was offered tea, coffee, sandwiches and biscuits! They told me the people and local businesses have been very kind donating all sorts like food, drinks, hot water, scarf’s, gloves, blankets, tents, gazebos and even money.

They seem to be very organised with things like incident report books, security rotas and a kitchen! While I was there for the 2 hour period I saw several people come and go who had to go home to their families and would be back again tomorrow. Some of these people had their children with them. Some have jobs and some are doing courses because they can’t find work. It’s not all just “hippies” and “wasters”. They were receiving quite a bit of support from cars beeping while I was there also. So much so a nearby hotel manager has complained about the noise. One of the protesters joked.. “I bet he didn’t complain during tall ships about the noise when he was making a lot of money”. Unfortunately they have had a group of people throwing eggs at their camp during the night out of a car.

I support the whole occupy movement but I hate to be cynical and say it, I really don’t think its going to make any major impacts on the government/banks it’s just way to easy for them just to ignore it. I will continue to support them though by taking these pictures and posting them on-line for people to see.

Anyway here are the pictures from today:

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