A first timer at Climate Camp discovers that eco loos aren't safe from the zoom lens of an overbearing and intimidating police operation
Having arrived at Climate Camp on Tuesday, it's been a real eye-opener with many pleasant surprises, but also some rather disturbing behaviour by the police.
I came to Climate Camp because I was inspired by the mix of eco-living, workshops, and protest.
On the eco-living and workshops front it has been an amazing revelation, discovering something far different from the typical experience of going to some event, such as one of the hundreds of festivals in the UK each year, or the usual sponsored and council organised bonfire night event.
At most of those events, a van arrives and unloads portaloos full of chemicals which everyone hates using and finds 'alien'; and the food supply is mainly greasy meat (or is that meat derivatives) served from an all stainless steel kitchen, in foam trays with plastic forks.
The experience at Climate Camp is very, *very* different. Irrespective of whether you are a camper like me, a local resident coming to support the camp and find out what it's all about, or a patrolling police officer, you cannot fail to miss (especially if you are trained in observation ;), the neighbourhood kitchens, grey water treatment systems, and composting toilets.
My first use of a composting toilet was fine. It really was a non-event, when I consider the difficulty holding in the contents of my stomach at the smell of the chemical toilets at a festival. No really noticable smell other than the same temporary one you get in your own bathroom, and then instead of flushing, you drop a handful of sawdust on your compost contribution.
The mens urinals are slightly different, being a bunch of bales of hay in a chest-high enclosure, looking out over the fields, airplanes and... police with big zoom lenses.
I didn't quite imagine that one of my personal firsts accomplished at the camp would be to have my photo taken while taking a pee by a bobby with a big camera and perhaps some big issues that would have him doing such a job. How amazing is it to do that to members of the general public who are visiting the camp, and of all sorts of levels of personal confidence. While I don't feel intimidated by that action, many people do, and it really does have me asking what sort of police state we have become.
With that thought in mind, I also wonder where my 'colleagues' are. Those people who had gags in their mouths in front of a court for a photo during the BAA injunction hearing. If they want to claim to be fighting for our civil liberties, then they need to do more than just debate in the comfort of council chambers and the Houses of Parliament. They need to get out and fight for what is being lost, day by day, abuse by abuse. They really do need to get here and experience, first hand, what it is like to be the subject of "PeeWatch".
I came to Climate Camp because I was inspired by the mix of eco-living, workshops, and protest.
On the eco-living and workshops front it has been an amazing revelation, discovering something far different from the typical experience of going to some event, such as one of the hundreds of festivals in the UK each year, or the usual sponsored and council organised bonfire night event.
At most of those events, a van arrives and unloads portaloos full of chemicals which everyone hates using and finds 'alien'; and the food supply is mainly greasy meat (or is that meat derivatives) served from an all stainless steel kitchen, in foam trays with plastic forks.
The experience at Climate Camp is very, *very* different. Irrespective of whether you are a camper like me, a local resident coming to support the camp and find out what it's all about, or a patrolling police officer, you cannot fail to miss (especially if you are trained in observation ;), the neighbourhood kitchens, grey water treatment systems, and composting toilets.
My first use of a composting toilet was fine. It really was a non-event, when I consider the difficulty holding in the contents of my stomach at the smell of the chemical toilets at a festival. No really noticable smell other than the same temporary one you get in your own bathroom, and then instead of flushing, you drop a handful of sawdust on your compost contribution.
The mens urinals are slightly different, being a bunch of bales of hay in a chest-high enclosure, looking out over the fields, airplanes and... police with big zoom lenses.
I didn't quite imagine that one of my personal firsts accomplished at the camp would be to have my photo taken while taking a pee by a bobby with a big camera and perhaps some big issues that would have him doing such a job. How amazing is it to do that to members of the general public who are visiting the camp, and of all sorts of levels of personal confidence. While I don't feel intimidated by that action, many people do, and it really does have me asking what sort of police state we have become.
With that thought in mind, I also wonder where my 'colleagues' are. Those people who had gags in their mouths in front of a court for a photo during the BAA injunction hearing. If they want to claim to be fighting for our civil liberties, then they need to do more than just debate in the comfort of council chambers and the Houses of Parliament. They need to get out and fight for what is being lost, day by day, abuse by abuse. They really do need to get here and experience, first hand, what it is like to be the subject of "PeeWatch".
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Talking crap
17.08.2007 19:45
I was just in a portaloo decorated with daisy-chains and glitter-balls. It was far too pretty to actually make use of. I'd have no compunction about defocating or urinating in front of a police photographer though - that just has to make them more self-concious about what they are doing with their lives than it does us. If that is what FIT is fit for though then it will make for interesting identity parades.
Danny
Danny's crap
18.08.2007 04:21
Itsme
Gags in mouths + local farmers
18.08.2007 08:24
[2] Given the amount of crap in the air [from aircraft and road traffic], I hope that nothing grown by local farmers enters the food chain.
johnh
e-mail:
aviationcc@RoseCottage.me.uk
shit + temperature x time = safe compost
18.08.2007 11:03
But if you can't make sure it's reaching a high temperature, as long as you keep it isolated for a sufficiently long period (a couple of years) then you get a compost that's safe to use, even on food crops (but to be extra double safe, stick to fertilizing fruit trees and the like.)
The most hazardous stage of the process is probably when you wipe your arse. Wash your hands!
Read the Humanure Handbook...
shit stirrer
Homepage:
http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure_contents.html
Ta
18.08.2007 22:22
By the way, the wheelie bin suggestion was a serious idea someone else had, can't remember who, to ease the removal and storage of compost loos. My council even provide brown wheelies which seem most appropriate.
Danny
Cauliflower
21.08.2007 13:12
It doesn't take long to compost, and the cauliflower kept me in lunches for a week!
Christian
poo
31.08.2007 06:11
happy camper
heat does the trick
22.11.2007 13:03
tomas