Occupy movement...Did they make their point?

2011 was the year of the protester.... And Occupy movements were set up around the world trying to make the point that the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer..and the middle class are footing the bill.   Well, that was just one of many causes that protesters spoke out about in the Occupy movement.  Most of the protesters were eventually evicted, and told to leave their posts...basically after the government decided enough was enough...and they felt that the protesters had made their point.  Fredericton was one of the last places to finally evict those who were left once the colder weather moved in.  One of the protesters there had actually changed his address to reflect the same one at City Hall which is where the tents were set up.  I drove past the Aberdeen Cultural Centre in Moncton today, which is where our Occupy protesters gathered each day....As far as I know, the movement here has come to an end....and if not...why anyone would want to live in a tent in minus 18 degree temperatures, which is what it has been the last couple of nights, is beyond me......I snapped a couple of pics of what is left..

So for the moment, all is peaceful on the Occupy front...But did they really manage to make their point?  Did the fact that they camped out for days on end, sleeping in tents, change anything?   Maybe for them, it felt like they were doing something...trying to make a difference...hoping that the governments would listen......But was it all for nothing?   Have the governments made ANY changes to reflect what they were fighting for?  And were ALL of them really out there for the cause?  Or in some cities was  it a case of a few  people joining in, PRETENDING to be part of the movement, when all they were really doing was freeloading of the others.    I had also heard that with a few of the protests, not here in New Brunswick, but in other Canadian cities, that there were problems with drugs, and crime on the Occupy sites.....I think that is part of the problem....You get a group of people who mean well...they start an Occupy movement, with the hopes of sending a message...Their intention is for a peaceful protest, with the hopes that someone will listen.....And then a group of....bad apples, shall we say, decides to move in......and then all of the protesters are lumped into one, and are viewed as troublemakers....

I'm  not opposed to protests in general.....To each his own...if you want to make a point, you should have the right to stand up for what you believe in....But I think that after awhile, the message gets old....It's big news at first, but then after the media stops talks about it......the protesters are forgotten..and I think that's when things sometimes escalate into violence...The protesters need to do something to get the attention of the media again..to get back into the limelight....

It will be interesting to see what is to come for this movement in 2012.  A lot of the protesters felt very strongly about the movement...They were dedicated to the cause.......Here in New Brunswick, things were done peacefully...  We were lucky enough not to see anything turn violent, as compared to what happened in other countries....