At 3am the rain came down so hard it woke me up, and I felt for the freedom campers. Luckily by the time I went downtown to join them, the 3 day Cyclone Dovi was over and the sun was out again. For the next few days anyway.
I was feeling a bit down this morning, which is not like me. First I came across news of ScoMo deploying supersonic weapons on the people of Canberra, including children. Naturally I started worrying about the Wellington children, but more than 24 hours have gone by and no signs of NZ sinking that low, so let's take that as a positive sign. Since police have said they disagree with Mr Speaker's previous actions, I trust they will protect us from this type of weapon.
It was also discouraging, though not surprising, to look at all the inaccurate reports coming out in MSM, and to find that people are actually believing them. So today I decided to go and find photographic proof of some of the media allegations.
The conditions are filthy, children are playing in faeces and experts say that the squalor is a public health danger.
The portaloos - look pretty clean to me
Oh look, here's the portaloo company maintaining them
Let's just sweep my front stoop, no need to be untidy just because we're camping
Gosh, just look at these conditions the children are playing in! No squalor that I can see, but maybe your eyes are keener than mine. Let me know.
There is also some concern that e-coli will be present because of the unsanitary cooking conditions. But the experts will no doubt be reassured to learn that the meals are all cooked off site in people's home kitchens, and delivered to a central HQ which is also off site (see photo below). This HQ then delivers meals to the food tents as required.
Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161653872231982&set=a.10156086778021982
So many streets are blocked that the CBD has been disrupted and businesses can't open
I got off the bus at the bottom of Lambton Quay, and took some photos of the traffic being impeded in Bowen and Whitmore Streets. Oh hang on, no disruption here.
But there is disruption in the stretch of Lambton Quay in front of Parliament ground? Yep, fair call, there is some there. Both sides of the street are lined with cars. But hang on again - there is an empty lane on both sides of the street for vehicles. Huh.
In the next block, there were cars parked all along the bus stops, so it was a fair call to move the bus stops to temporary locations. But I do wonder, did the cars park there first, or did they move in when the buses stopped? I have no answer to that.
Coming up Molesworth Street, yes it was completely blocked all along the Parliament boundary, so I looked out for the businesses that weren't able to open. Maybe I missed a couple but I only found two. A coffee shop partway along Kate Sheppard Place was closed. But given that was 3pm, maybe they had just closed for the day. I'll go again one morning and check.
What about Thistle Inn at the end of that street? Looks pretty accessible to me.
And these guys working on this building didn't seen to have had an issue getting there.
The second closed business was the Backbencher. Since most of their patronage would be foot traffic, they would have been accessible. But many of their patrons might be the very people who have been assiduously avoiding us. So on balance, there might not have been a lot of point them being open.
Heading up to Hill & Aitken Streets, about half of Aitken Street was blocked but I couldn't see any businesses that had been affected. From midway down the street, plenty of room to move.
The south end of Hill Street, and Molesworth Street from there on up, had normal traffic flow.
So here's my little map of the affected streets. Yellow dots = parked cars but can get through. Orange dots = completely blocked. Is that a smaller area than you expected?
Now, you guys are aware of the blocked areas in downtown Ottawa, right? In comparison, here in Wellington, some bus routes and stops have been adjusted, and some government workers can't go to the pub. As far as I can see, that's it. That's IT, folks. Compare that now to the destruction of the economy over the last two years, and the job losses amongst the thousands of people in there protesting. Some of them have no jobs to go home too. Why would they not stay there as long as it takes?
But what about the disgusting behaviour of the people spitting on and shouting at people in masks? People are too scared to go through the area.
As I've said before, and many representatives of the protest have said, that behaviour will not be tolerated. Help us find who's doing that so they can be stopped. We still don't know whether they are members of the protest or not, but given the feel from everyone inside the grounds, it's hard to imagine they would be.
So I was on the lookout for that too, as I went about today. The masked people that went by didn't look terrified. I saw two school girls walking through Parliament grounds in their masks, and later on two school boys. They didn't look the slightest bit concerned either, and nobody was taking any notice of them at all.
I was also pleased to see security personnel, which I think is new. Given that this community is less than a week old, it's becoming more refined each day.
The hypothesis hasn't been tested enough yet, so maybe next time I go down, I'll walk around in a mask and see if anyone spits on me. If they do, I'll be passing their photograph on to security.
What else did I notice today?
The area looks much more like a permanent settlement. People are in this for the long haul. This photo only shows one section of the grounds. And you have to remember this is just the people camping over. There are many more staying elsewhere, or who are Wellington residents, who are just coming down for the day, and the party. Also, today is a Monday, there will be more people coming in again on the weekend.
The freedom wall which people are recording their thoughts on.
Up by the barricades
While I was there I noticed people grooving out to a song I didn't know. As it ended, I realised it must be James Blunt "You're Beautiful". Hey Trev, looks like the people have adopted the song you thought would drive them away as one of their own.
I hear the wheels have come off, the crowd is violent, is threatening politicians and the police, and is basically an overseas funded rent-a-crowd.
At least I think those are some of the lies coming out of our politicians' mouths. I just can't face talking about those today as well, though it is a conversation that needs to be had. Maybe tomorrow...
A final thought
We were promised that two shots would lead to a free summer. Some of us didn't fall for that. But I feel for those who did, especially the young people who were expecting festivals. But all good, the best festival in the country is open to all for an unspecified time, complete with free food, good company and feel good vibes.
Bahahaha, duck petting. Sorry Trev, shouldn't laugh. But frankly, if you've become a national or even international laughing stock, you have to admit, you did it to yourself.
My previous posts:
Day 1 - @kiwideb/convoy-nz-2022-day-1
Days 2 & 3 - @kiwideb/convoy-nz-2022-days-2
Day 4 - @kiwideb/convoy-nz-2022-day-4
Day 5 - @kiwideb/convoy-nz-2022-day-5
Day 6 - @kiwideb/convey-nz-2022-day-6