Occupy 2.0 cleans up Pouawa Beach for freedom camping.
Thursday 29 December 2011, 12:59PM
By Occupy 2.0
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Occupy 2.0 cleans up beaches for freedom camping.
Occupy Wellington has moved onto the next phase: Occupy 2.0. Part of this is to spread the message and create awareness of the structural problems of our current systems.
Driving around Gisborne and some of the bays further north we saw FREEDOM camping. Setup the tent and started enjoying the ocean. Withing a few hours a gentleman came over to asking for camping permits. He didn't really know why FREEDOM camping is not FREE, he said: "I'm just doing my job.".
Looking around the beach, you notice a lot of rubbish, laying everywhere; in the bushes, on the beach, floating in the ocean, etc. Occupy 2.0, to me, is about making connections locally and creating awareness where I can. So I did.
I collected 20 kids and asked them if they liked games. And If they liked to win a price? They all got excited. Occupy 2.0 in action!
The game? Collect as much rubbish as you can find in 5 hours. Also finding blue bags (as they only accept blue bags, which you need to buy for $3, to make sure you don't get a $40 - $400 fine) was part of the game.
The price? A dreamcatcher, made from stuff found at the beach and some "rubbish". I make them myself.
The game was very interesting. The kids we're very good! In the end they found, 17 completely FULL bags. The parent all agreed that this was a good way to keep the beach clean, give their kids something to do and to create awareness. Awareness?
Well, its easy to complain about having to pay for a campspot at the beach, but I recon the council needs to clean up after summer and that will cost money. A woman on site: "At the moment, we are not motivated to pick up someone elses rubbish, because we pay council to do it for us.". I think that if we all keep the beaches clean this year, we should be able to camp out for free again next year.
And for now I hope that this action will pay for my "FREEDOM CAMPING" permit.
Yours Trully,
Ruben
Occupy Wellington (Communications Team)
Occupy 2.0