Occupy Wall Street In Zuccotti Park, NYC.

I went to Zuccotti Park in NYC at the end of October by curiosity. What a pleasant surprise to see these protesters just next to the Wall Street District!
The Occupy Wall Street movement began in Zuccotti Park in New York’s financial district on September 17 2011.  
The catchphrase  was :“We are the 99 percent”. 
But, November 15 2011,  the New York Police Department have been clearing the park where Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camped since September.
Here are some pictures and videos I made during my visit.

Below some videos.



Occupy Wall Street in New York City. from philippe le vessier on Vimeo.

 Here is the Occupy Wall Street Band playing  In Zuccotti Park, re-named Liberty Square by the occupiers.

Untitled from philippe le vessier on Vimeo.

 I went in Zuccotti Park  during the first snow fall of winter in New York,  October 29, 2011.  It was the first time in history that more than an inch had fallen before Halloween in NYC. 

Unrelenting high winds tormented the occupation with freezing sleet and snow while temperatures fell into the low 30s. Many tents to collapsed under the conditions, leaving occupiers' possessions vulnerable to the elements.

A week before police evicted protesters from Zuccotti Park, Tim Weldon quit his job in Connecticut to be closer to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Music in NYC subway

"Take Me Out" by Atomic Tom LIVE on NYC subway

"Sherry Baby"

During the  San Giglio feast, Williamsburg, in Brooklyn (New York City), in the evening,  people are going in the street for this celebration.  At this time, I saw a band who was singing "Sherry Baby", a classical american song. Enjoy this video I made !!!


Untitled from philippe le vessier on Vimeo.

Mexican Immigration in U.S.A.

Last February of this year,  I went to Mexico City to renew my Visa, like a french immigrant, for my job in New York City. I needed an interview with the American immigration. I went to the embassy of the United States of America and I was so surprised by the number of people who was making the line to get  an application for tourist visa  or temporary worker visa. That day, I was with almost 800 Mexican people in this American embassy and the only  french guy. A man who was in the line told me that  the number of Mexicans is like that everyday. I spent more than 5 hours to get an interview with an immigration agent. I discovered, like a french immigrant, an  unusual reality. Today, I read this article in the New York Times. 

A quiet cultural shift is running through rural families like the Orozcos - from left; Andrés, Antonio and Samuel, who have been sending workers north since the 1920s. Now their homes are filling up with returning relatives, men who used to go illegally are seizing expanded visa opportunities, and the youngest Orozcos are determined to stay put.


" The extraordinary Mexican migration that delivered millions of illegal immigrants to the United States over the past 30 years has sputtered to a trickle, and research points to a surprising cause: unheralded changes in Mexico that have made staying home more attractive... Here in the red-earth highlands of Jalisco, one of Mexico’s top three states for emigration over the past century, a new dynamic has emerged. For a typical rural family like the Orozcos, heading to El Norte without papers is no longer an inevitable rite of passage. Instead, their homes are filling up with returning relatives; older brothers who once crossed illegally are awaiting visas; and the youngest Orozcos are staying put...".
"Better Lives for Mexicans Cut Allure of Going North". By DAMIEN CAVE. Published: July 6, 2011. New York Times. 

A video.

Half-Marathon of Brooklyn (NYC).

I did this race, like 6000 others road runners, Saturday may 21 2011 (from Prospect Park to Coney Island).

Six in the morning, the runners drop their bags just before the race.

 In Prospect Park, the first seven miles.

The last mile on the boardwalk in Coney Island!

Yes! So great, the finish lane!!!!

A video when I crossed the finish lane, in 1h 59 min 42 s.

Half Marathon of Brooklyn from philippe le vessier on Vimeo.




The place  to pick up our bags.

After the race, a great time on the beach and in the water. So good!

In the street, direction the subway.

Time to pick up the train for Manhattan.

‘Birdman’ of Inwood in New York City.

 
" Inwood, an area in North of Manhattan (corner of West 208th Street and Ninth Avenue) is a place of refuge for hundreds of birds.  James Cataldi 53, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and former computer programmer, spends most of his time...

 

  Bird Week | 'Birdman' of Inwood - NYTimes.com
- Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.

In a year and a half, he has single-handedly removed hundreds of pounds of garbage, including car windshields and syringes. But “it will take years of continuous work,” he says, to remove completely the garbage still festering under the topsoil...

“The Birdman of Inwood”,  as many in the neighborhood call him, now makes it his daily mission...

"I was a Wall Street guy. I was heavily into math,” Mr. Cataldi said. “But this is my calling.”...". By CHIARA SOTTILE.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

"Welcome to Shelbyville"

 Students recite the Pledge of Allegiance during ESL (English Second Language) class.

"...In the heart of America’s Bible Belt, "Welcome to Shelbyville" focuses on a small Southern rural town (State of Tennessee)  with rapid demographic change. This documentary takes an intimate look at this town as its residents - whites and African Americans, Latinos and Somalis grapple with their beliefs, their histories, and their evolving ways of life... It is also a subtle account of of the ways in which communities face up to the challenges of change...".

Welcome to Shelbyville - Trailer from Smartley-Dunn on Vimeo.

  "...This documentary  is a melting-pot movie, asimmer with social issues: immigration, racism, unemployment, intolerance. Its examination of the clash between Somali Muslims and rural Tennesseeans does not sugarcoat the kinds of conflicts that have bedeviled the country for centuries; it questions, in its way, what America means...".  By JOHN ANDERSON Published: January 14, 2011. The New York Times.

Mixed Marriages in the South (USA).

"For generations here in the deepest South, there had been a great taboo: publicly crossing the color line for love. Less than 45 years ago, marriage between blacks and whites was illegal, and it has been frowned upon for much of the time since... In North Carolina, the mixed-race population doubled. In Georgia, it expanded by more than 80 percent, and by nearly as much in Kentucky and Tennessee. In Indiana, Iowa and South Dakota, the multiracial population increased by about 70 percent... Mississippi led the nation in the growth of mixed marriages for most of the last decade. Still, multiracial people are a tiny percentage of the state’s population: 34,000, about 1.1 percent. And many here complain of enduring racial inequities...".                                                                                                                                                                                                           By SUSAN SAULNY Published: March 19, 2011 

A road runner race, sunday morning in N.Y City.

In march, I participated like  5,000 runners in the 13th annual Coogan's Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5 km (more than 3 miles).  The start was in Washington Heights (north of Manhattan). The race  run north and made a  loop in  the Cloisters.  Dozens of different musical groups were  along the course. An amazing race!!! 

  

 

  

 

Hard times generation: homeless kids

I watched tonight  a tv programm which  touched me a lot.

(CBS News) "...One of the consequences of the recession that you don't hear a lot about is the record number of children descending into poverty.  The government considers a family of four to be impoverish

ed if they take in less than $22,000 a year. Based on that standard, and government projections of unemployment, it is estimated the poverty rate for kids in this country will soon hit 25 percent. Those children would be the largest American generation to be raised in hard times since the Great Depression.In Seminole County, near Orlando, Fla., so many kids have lost their homes that school busses now stop at dozens of cheap motels where families crowd into rooms, living week to week...".

visit: http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/title1/Home/FamiliesinTransition.asp

Snowstorm in New York

In Central Park

View from a plane.

Some Videos.