Skip to content or view screen version

Igloos at Davos as Occupy WEF begins

vast minority | 24.01.2012 07:31

ANTI-CAPITALIST igloos have been built in Switzerland at a protest camp against the World Economic Forum.

Occupy WEF says on its website that it has contructed five of the ice homes at Davos, plus a couple of yurts and a field kitchen.

It adds: "Every year, self-proclaimed 'global leaders' allegedly committed to improving the state of the world meet up for the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss mountains to propagate their own businesses and network amongst the so-called global economic elite.

"This year, we will not let them exclude us, the 99%! We say: occupy WEF!"

The protesters re calling for people to join them in Switzerland for a week of protests - updates via their Twitter account - @Occupy_WEF.

A video of the igloos being built can be seen below.

vast minority
- Homepage: http://vastminority.blogspot.com/2012/01/occupy-wef-build-igloos-at-davos.html

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Not sure what the motivation is

26.01.2012 08:24

Out of idol curiosity I searched for "igloo collapse at Davos" and got thousands of hits, mostly from news organisations but also from a couple of blogs so clearly it happened and clearly lots of people have read about it. This begs the question why is the troll here trying to pretend it did not and that leads us on to the whole internet phenomena of trolling.

Wikipedia defines a troll as,
"someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response".
I think however that Indymedia trolling is subtly different in many cases with people trolling to divert attention from events or sow the seeds of doubt.

Here we have a mildly embarrassing minor failure (an igloo collapsed) but instead of admitting it, having a bit of a laugh and moving on to the key reasons why the people are there the troll tries to maintain that the collapse never happened presumably because he is one of those who built a bad igloo and has had his pride shaken. Either way the bigger message of why the protesters are there is being lost admit much posting and counter posting.
I don't claim to have the answers but the subject deserves wider debate.

Vaguely interested bystander


Neither am I

26.01.2012 10:23

"Out of idol curiosity I searched for "igloo collapse at Davos" and got thousands of hits, mostly from news organisations but also from a couple of blogs so clearly it happened and clearly lots of people have read about it"

I have now found ONE article which talks of an igloo collapsing at Davos. According to google te article was posted 14 hours ago:

"Despite the biggest snow dump in decades, one day’s five degree high collapsed an igloo while a protestor was sleeping inside. Apparently it only sunk five centimeters at a time, and created entertainment rather than panic.
Indeed, the mood around this protest is upbeat, with Armenian cognac, cigarettes and two teepees heated by wood fired furnaces (hired at a cost of CHF1,600) on hand to keep people warm. But the message, inspired by the global Occupy movement, is serious.".
 http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/25/warm-response-at-icy-occupy-protests/

It doesn't tell us which day this was, but it does tell a very different story to the previous claims:

eg: "There's a report here on Rueters, looks like one activist was briefly buried but was dug out by a unit of something called the Brigata Fanteria Montagna, a part of the Swiss Army after about twenty minutes. The same soldiers have been offering advice to igloo builders to protect them from other collapses.

 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/16/us-davos-occupy-idUSTRE80F11B2012011"

and

"It seems they have already had to be dug out by the Swiss police after their igloos collapsed shortly after construction. Maybe some sort of training would have been a good idea."

and:

"Regretfully two of the igloos did collapse and some people were trapped, after a lot of pleading with the Swiss police whose attitude to the protest I am told is to ignore it a specialist team arrived and the comrades were extracted."

So, one report saying that a sudden rise in the temperature caused one igloo to collapse slowly and without panic has appeared after claims on the uk that police had to spend 20 minutes digging out one of more protesters because of badly constructed igloos.

So why the lies?



troll patrol


Not convinced

26.01.2012 10:51

"I have now found ONE article"

Really ? Just the one ?

Have you ever used a search engine before ?

Grown up