The world reacted swiftly to Haiti's catastrophic 7.0 earthquake in 2010. The United States shipped in 20,000 troops, some to perform lifesaving medical procedures, others to protect aid workers from earthquake victims deemed dangerous. Movie stars, criminals and other prospective parents rushed to adopt motherless Haitian babies.
Occupy activists from Wall Street to San Francisco's financial district have dramatised their anger with big financial institutions by blocking JP Morgan Chase Bank doorways, dancing atop Wells Fargo counters, pitching a tent in a Bank of America lobby, hanging banners across Citibank windows, and accompanying the actions with the now-familiar chant "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out."
With its encampments mostly destroyed, the nascent Occupy Movement in thousands of communities across the U.S. and dozens more around the world has not faded away.
Occupy movements in Oakland, California; Portland, Oregon; and Longview, Washington claimed victory Monday when they prevented workers from loading or unloading ships at the three ports.
Five months ago, Gayla Newsome was at work when she got the call. A sheriff had come to her home of 15 years and put her two pajama-clad daughters out on the curb of her West Oakland street. Newsome knew the bank was about to foreclose, but thought she still had time to fight it.
Twice evicted from its encampment just outside city hall, Occupy Oakland sprung back to life Saturday, erecting a new three-dozen-tent camp and defying multiple city warnings that lodging in public spaces would not be tolerated.
Occupy Cal students were clubbed by baton-wielding university police Nov. 9 - with beatings captured on video - when they linked arms and refused to disband the tent camp they had erected on the University of California, Berkeley campus.
On Nov. 2, the day of Occupy Oakland's General Strike, the streets were filled with chants and music and the sounds of people speaking in the many tongues of Oakland residents.
The early morning sun bounced off of the 150 or so multicoloured tents that crowded into the re-populated Oscar Grant Plaza Wednesday, just one week and one day after police raided the Occupy Oakland camp and evicted its occupants using tear gas, batons and possibly rubber bullets.
Several dozen tents popped back up Thursday afternoon at Oakland's Oscar Grant Plaza as people played music and shared hugs. But as darkness fell, a sombre mood overtook the nearby corner of 14th Street and Broadway, where friends and supporters of Scott Olsen lit candles and spoke quietly.
Barely a month after the first group of protesters set up its encampment in Zuccotti Park in New York City, the phrase "We are the 99 percent" has already become legendary.
As the sun came up over Oakland City Hall Wednesday, Mike Porter, 24, was standing behind police barricades, watching a public works crew power wash the plaza that had been home to some 200 participants in the Occupy Oakland movement.