Les Bonnes Choses

So it's bill paying day. I noticed my cable bill was slightly higher this month than in months past. The culprit? Check out the addition on my $10 retention discount.

I contacted the retention department and ask why they only want to retain me half as much as they did last month. Fortunately, the web-based support chat allows a transcript to be retained:

Rep: I do see here that you have the Retention discount.

Rep: This discount is already ending this Nov 22, 2011.

Rep: That is why for cycle Nov 7 to Dec 6 bill, you get only $5.33 discount (covers Nov 7 to Nov 22 only).

Me: I see. So after November 22, there's no longer any interest in retaining me?

Rep: After November 22, the retention discount already expires.

Rep: We can modify/change your current services if you wanted to keep more or less the same monthly rate after the discount expires.

Rep: We surely want to keep you as our loyal customer, sir.

What you can't see here is the 2 minute gap between my last question and the rep's response. Poor bastard. I'm sure I sideswiped him with that doozy. At the end of the day, my $10 discount was replaced by a $30 discount for the next six months, with no change to my services. I'm pretty sure I have to tone down my snarkiness when I write rebuttal letters, but it can be a useful trait from time to time.

I'm writing again today about the #OCCUPY protests. I'm a visitor to the country in which I am currently living, here entirely at their pleasure. I'm also currently looking for a job. As soon as I hit the "Publish" link, my ideas will be out there in the wild for all to see -- including officials who have the power to decide whether to allow me in the country, and including people who might be on a hiring committee. For this reason, I feel it prudent to begin by stating that I do not endorse the #OCCUPY movement, nor have I been in contact with its organizers. I am similarly uninvolved with the communist party.

So, I was reading today about various Occupy protest sites that have been directed to be dismantled, citing health and safety issues and the recent attraction of these sites to certain undesirable elements -- thieves and drug users:

On Saturday, Occupy Portland protesters dismantled large sections of their encampment, but dozens of tents remained after midnight.
Mayor Sam Adams ordered the camp shut down, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment’s attraction of drug users and thieves.

Globe and Mail, November 13, 2011

The Occupy Boston movement has entered its second month in downtown Boston. It has been relatively peaceful thus far. However, a drug danger may be putting the movement in jeopardy.

WHDH-Boston November 7, 2011

The credit crisis appears to have sobered up Wall Street in more ways than one. A review of drug-test data compiled by drug testing firm Sterling Infosystems Inc., shows that cocaine is losing its favor among investment professionals. What drug is their choice? Marijuana.

Among existing employees, psychologists and counselors said that drug abuse has not slackened. Some even said it is peaking, exacerbated by the credit crisis and the volatile and tenuous recovery that has ensued.

Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2011

In all fairness, it's inaccurate to portray these poor souls as a bunch of coke-heads. For one thing, bankers and financiers are way down the list in this report. Or, at least they were in 2007, before everything went south. I'd be interested to see a more recent set of statistics.

Still, as my title suggests, there's more than one camp of thieves and drug users on Wall Street, but only one of them is in danger of being broken up. The other one is too big to fail, I guess.

I think the weather would have eventually lead to this outcome anyways, but a few cities (including my hometown) have decided enough is enough, and that it's time for the #OCCUPY protesters to move on. They've made their point, and it's "time to move on", says Toronto mayor Rob "Pottymouth" Ford, winner of the Worst Person in the World award for the week of October 28, 2011 (a remarkable accomplishment because Kim Jong Il was still alive and well as of that date).

Granted, I imagine it must be hard for all the people living and working around these protest sites to have to see these protesters day in and day out. After a few weeks, I'm sure it gets tiring, irksome and depressing.

That's the point. It's a protest, not a parade. Protests aren't supposed to be 'convenient' or make you feel comfortable. Carrots are more expensive than sticks. If you can't afford carrots, sticks are all you've got to work with. A protest (or a union strike, for that matter) is a stick. I'm surprised how many people have not figured this out yet. They're there to make a point. They will stay there until they feel they've been heard. When "the man" comes in and roughs them up and tells them to go away, that kind of reinforces the sense of alienation these people are protesting. So far, they've generally been met with dismissiveness. You want them to go away? Listen to them and do something about it. That's how these things work.