Ariana Chomitz is a junior anthropology major from Bethesda, Maryland.  She writes from Fortaleza, Brazil, where she is researching development studies.

“Frustration finally boiled over in the form of the Occupy Various Random Spaces movement, wherein people who were sick and tired of a lot of stuff finally got off their butts and started working for meaningful change via direct action in the form of sitting around and forming multiple committees and drumming and not directly issuing any specific demands but definitely having a lot of strongly held views for and against a wide variety of things.” –Dave Barry’s Year in Review: 2011

The rise and subsequent stall of the Occupy Movement in less than a year shows that it will not change American policy in a fundamental way. As thunderous as the original roar was, I would be surprised if Occupy lasts two more years, let alone twenty.

But in Brazil, a truer Occupy movement has been quietly sustained by occasional victories in a long struggle since the 1980s. Continue reading →