Occupy Vancouver: Ahmad Saeid believes protesters should adopt single message

by Stephen Hui on Oct 23, 2011 at 12:13 am
Ahmad Saied has a "simple" message for Occupy Vancouver.
Stephen Hui

Eating dinner on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, we witnessed one Occupy Vancouver participant giving high praise to another for a passionate speech he gave the other day.

The speech maker was Ahmad Saeid, a 34-year-old blogger who recently moved to Canada from Kuwait. He told the Straight that he has visited the tent city three times because he supports justice, human rights, and freedoms.

According to Saeid, Occupy Vancouver has lots of “enthusiasm and momentum”, but its message is “too complicated”. He argued that the Arab uprisings succeeded, in part, because they had “simple and measurable” demands.

Indeed, Saied said, Egyptian revolutionaries summed up their goal in a single sentence: “The nation wants to overthrow the regime.” In contrast, he noted, Occupy Vancouver has a mission statement, developed by consensus, that takes very long to read out.

Well, Saied believes he has just the message for Occupy Vancouver, and perhaps even Occupy Wall Street. It's founded in a religious duty, called zakat, found in Islam.

So, he'd like to see everyone pay 2.5 percent of the money they hold on to – that's different than what they earn – for a whole year.

“Taxes should be paid for the money you hold away from society, rather than for the money that you earn for your children to eat,” he said.

Perhaps that's an idea Occupy Vancouver could get behind.

* * *

Well, it's about time to turn in for the night. Let's see how much sleep we can get in the middle of tent city. The blanket kindly provided by the supplies tent should help.

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Comments (7) Add New Comment
cristian
Oct 23, 2011 at 1:11 am
I think that would bring about some severe social progams cuts.... But he is on the right track. I have a better message for the movement. Go on facebook and search for Bring Jobs Back
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T Dick
Oct 23, 2011 at 1:37 am
cool man good night!
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William Dawson
Oct 23, 2011 at 1:38 am
If we are only taxed on the savings we generate, nobody would want to save money.How would the funds be generated for the needed expenses to keep society running?
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Mike Mckey
Oct 23, 2011 at 6:39 am
Cut the pensions and benefits from everyone in government. Pay attention to the past, they have been giving themselves more and more money every 2 years for the past 20 years, go figure countries are in so much debt. Cut their throats!! Why isn't anybody saying this?? Media won't acknowledge governments "EXTREMELY HIGH" cost of operating, or investigate thoroughly were every dime goes. Maybe cuz the media doesn't want to lose its funding either, see how thats works? they give you money under the guise of a "Grant" or "Funding" but in reality, NOW YOU WORK FOR THEM!!!!! Gezzz anybody watch the Sopranos?? It's Mafia 101, I mean street gangs operate this way for crying out loud.... hello, can you say corruption is running out of control?.....This is what happens when cops/RCMP do not enforce the law, you get corruption in every aspect of our lives..... at the banks, in gov, at work, then your shopping. If you allow corruption to take over, you lose everything and then are forced to fight back, which is where we are now. The only problem is the media is in the governments pocket and won't report the OWS movements all over the world as much as they report on some fake terrorist attack that took place in country that whose government was overthrown by western influences back in the 70's and 80's...... gezzzz it almost like none of you people pay attention past a day and forget your history....... If you ignore history and believe everything your told? then what are you? You are nothing... you're a robot is what you are. Programmed to live how they tell you to..... equals being a slave in case you can't figure out where i'm going with this.....
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Mark Sampsone
Oct 23, 2011 at 6:45 am
We need a flat tax rate so everyone pays the same, rich or poor. It's so simple.
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scathie
Oct 23, 2011 at 8:37 am
"he'd like to see everyone pay 2.5 percent of the money they hold on to"

That actually wouldn't work in BC, which has had a negative savings rate for over a decade now: http://vancouvercondo.info/2011/03/bc-negative-savings-rate-does-not-com...

You wouldn't be able to tax people's savings here for the simple reason that they don't have any. It could work in other provinces, though.

But we do have a capital gains tax in this country -- so what he's asking for more or less already happens, anyway, just in a different way.
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Equal opportunity
Oct 23, 2011 at 12:10 pm
STRANGE!!

Just move here from Kuwait, not a beacon of democracy, and wants to tell Canadians how to run our country!!

Protests are OK, but this gentleman should firstly learn more about the country which gave him a place to live!!
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