Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Kristin Hall: Bored? Just start a protest movement

By Kristin Hall
Rotorua Daily Post·
3 Dec, 2011 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

They came, they saw, and most of them still haven't left. Well, not the hairier ones anyway.

More than two months it's been going now.

While middling masses persist with the steady hum of lawful, systematic life, pockets of society around the world have been refusing to accept what has been an unfortunate reality since the beginning of time: Some of us are rich and most of us are not.

Well they're not standing for it.

Or at least, that's what they think they're not standing for. Ask them ...

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

They haven't really decided yet.

Oc-cu-py. It's three simple syllables that have haunted the consciousness of the global financial elite since September.

As the white collared and shiny-shoed hustle their way to 9am briefing, city-dwellers from Sweden to South Africa have a veritable obstacle course of tents, amateur signage and dirty, outspoken hippies to dodge before they even reach the elevator.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It's unorthodox, dangerously arbitrary and fiscal superiority aside, being told you're a soul-sucking corporate vehicle of Satan can't be doing any good for company morale either. But who's to judge? For a crusade against a millennia-long way of life, the Occupy movement's not doing too badly.

In the latest Auckland-based instalment of the saga, the council sought an eviction for the great unhoused, hoping to eventually oust them from Aotea Square and into wherever they wouldn't dry the grass out.

The bureaucrats were happy, the media weren't surprised, and the sparrows were just chuffed to have their grass back.

Alas, the eviction was not to be and, in a rare moment of sticking up for the hemp-scented underdog, Judge Dave Wilson decided to keep the flag-waving fiends there just a little longer. The reason? To give protesters some time to "gather their argument".

It's a grant not uncalled for. As the Occupy movement has proved, there is an inherent flaw in trying to stage a protest against "a range of things".

In a bizarre chicken or the egg situation, the somewhat uncertain focus of the Occupy movement has seen it being used as a passive weapon against everything from extreme wealth (the supposed intended focus of the whole palaver) to the execution of the male sex (God bless America).

Thanks to an alarmingly ingrained fear of missing out, extremists from all walks of mental instability have jumped on the Occupy bandwagon, leading not only to violence, rioting and complete misunderstanding, but an almost complete lack of credibility on behalf of the protesters.

Whether it's the lack of administrative support bringing in the crazies, or the crazies pre-empting their own demise we'll never know. Either way, it's a bit of a bloody pickle. It's hard to tell what will happen when the eviction notice finally does come in a week's time though.

With moving plans foggy at best, the controlling 1 per cent now not only have the imposed guilt factor to deal with, like all true members of the ruling class, they've hit back not with fists but a touch screen, social media and a larger than average vocabulary.

Some are wry, some witty, some even manage to cast a fair and unpompous sounding point.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Yet, the anarchist in me says if you don't like it, protest back.

Despite scepticism from all corners of the globe, Judge Wilson's Wednesday decision has shown that persistent activism can do at least a sliver of good.

It is nearing the end of the year, the end of the school for many, university, work. Decisions. Or indecisions.

It is a time when a little bit of lawlessness is good for us.

A time when it's comforting to look at a rainbow banner that reads "Everybody love everyone. Believe things. Explore!" and know it actually makes sense to somebody.

Ultimately, it's a time when it's good to know that sometimes it's okay to have no idea what you want.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Bored with life this festive season?

Find a cause, get your misguided mates on board, and let loose. It might just work out for you.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Survivor of triple-fatal crash on learning to walk with a prosthetic leg

21 Jun 10:00 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

'Lit a flame inside me': Programme receives boost to support local men

21 Jun 05:00 PM
Rotorua Daily Post

'Never came home': Runner plans marathon for women murdered on runs

21 Jun 05:00 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Survivor of triple-fatal crash on learning to walk with a prosthetic leg

Survivor of triple-fatal crash on learning to walk with a prosthetic leg

21 Jun 10:00 PM

He lost an arm and a leg in a crash that killed three friends.

'Lit a flame inside me': Programme receives boost to support local men

'Lit a flame inside me': Programme receives boost to support local men

21 Jun 05:00 PM
'Never came home': Runner plans marathon for women murdered on runs

'Never came home': Runner plans marathon for women murdered on runs

21 Jun 05:00 PM
Premium
'It was my calling': Inside the Taupō farm taming wild horses

'It was my calling': Inside the Taupō farm taming wild horses

20 Jun 10:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP