You know a movement is gaining traction when it shows up in Bako, if it shows up at all, and such is the case with "Occupy Wall Street".
It showed up on Friday.
In other cities the protests have focused on centers of power and finance. Here, they settled for the corner of California and Stockdale Highway - hey, you work with what you've got. It's a high traffic, high visibility intersection, although they were competing with the sign spinner from Subway.
I have to give both the protestors and the reporter covering them some credit (sadly, not this link). For the first time I heard a rational explanation of what it's actually all about.
If you've gotten your coverage from the network or cable news, you could be forgiven for not having a clue what it's all about. They always seem to pick the most delusional and incoherent bystanders to explain it and the result usually sounds like the ravings of a homeless person. Which I suppose is to be expected. At it's heart the protest is about corporate greed in general and Wall Street in particular. Since all the major networks are part of various corporate conglomerates, that's not a message they're particularly anxious to promote.
But the memo apparently didn't trickle down to the local stations, and the reporter here in Bako seemed to genuinely look for someone who could explain it all. And she found one in a bookish looking college girl.
The girl succinctly explained what everyone is upset about. She detailed how the banks and Wall Street turned the economy into a casino, and when they found themselves down and out, came hat in hand to the government for a bailout. They took trillions of dollars of taxpayer money and the second they found themselves solvent again, the first thing they did was pat each other on the back and give each other bonuses. They wouldn't start lending again, but they did ramp up foreclosures and recently they've decided to kick everyone in the crotch by imposing fees on everything and anything. She mentioned the airlines pocketing millions of dollars in federal taxes during the recent brief shutdown of the FAA. She mentioned insurance companies doubling their rates as they cut available services. She mentioned drug companies charging Americans four times what they charge the rest of the world for essential medicine. In under a minute, she pretty much boiled down all the seething anger into easily digestible bullet points.
The Masters of the Universe are, I'm sure, hoping word doesn't spread. And to that end, I noticed the actual video of this interview has evidently disappeared down the memory hole.
