PrintThinning the occupier herd
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November 12, 2011
Demanding their rights to free everything, the less than 1% of Americans who are occupiers seem to believe that they have no responsibilities in any sense, including common sense basic hygiene that 99% of the population realizes is essential. But kindergarten lessons such as soap and water, not sharing one's personal grooming items and uhm, toddler potty training are apparently rules imposed on society by Wall Street bankers to advance their soul sapping, capitalistic, profit agenda at the expense of people. And so, the occupiers are ignoring these rules. And surprise!--disease is rampant at various occupier sites.
At occupier central, Zuccotti Park in New York, there is a special hacking cough known as "Zuccotti lung." A representative from New York's tax supported health department issued a statement
"It should go without saying that lots of people sleeping outside in a park as we head toward winter is not an ideal situation for anyone's health,"
Ha! Another capitalist pig linked to Wall Street obviously!
Damp laundry and cardboard signs, left in the rain, have provided fertile ground for mold. Some protesters urinate in bottles, or occasionally a water-cooler jug, to avoid the lines at public restrooms. Food, from orange peels to scrambled eggs, is often discarded outside tents.
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Packing themselves like sardines inside a public plaza, where cigarettes are shared and a good night's sleep remains elusive, may not be conducive to good health.
(snip)
Although condoms are often available on-site, Dr. Tierno said the protest's evolution to private tents, from sleeping out in the open, had raised the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. The site's pounding drum circles, he added, could lead to hearing damage. He compared conditions at Zuccotti Park to those in a hajj -- the pilgrimage to Mecca, in which whole groups of people have come down with respiratory infections in a short time -- and those experienced by the flower children of the 1960s, when, he said, communal living situations created problems with sanitation and sexually transmitted diseases.
Imagine that!
"I'm amazed that in a park full of revolutionaries, there are large contingents that can't throw away their own trash," said Jordan McCarthy, 22, a member of the protesters' sanitation team.
Hey Jordan McCarthy, revolutionaries--your term--like the occupiers expect others to do the work and clean up after them.
Conditions at other occupy sites are not much better. Even in the warmer and less crowded Atlanta encampment there has been an outbreak of tuberculosis--the drug resistant type. With winter weather approaching, if city officials allow the occupiers to remain, others will undoubtedly be afflicted.
Freely available drugs at occupier sites inevitably means some will overdose; there have been two drug deaths already reported in Portland, Oregon.
But some occupiers are concerned about their health and are taking occupier precautions.
Some have spotted shamans walking the premises (snip) Miniature bottles of hand sanitizer have appeared sporadically inside the park, though it is unclear who placed them there. Volunteers at the medical tent also have on-call contacts in acupuncture, chiropractics, massage therapy and psychotherapy, protesters said.
But as an occupier compassionately noted about the unsanitary conditions and the potential for all types of diseases spreading
"It'll definitely thin the herd."
