Greece: Austerity as Athens Burns

There was another round of Greek protests as the government met to pass an austerity bill:

Greece definitely needs to make progress in reducing their debt and getting their budget in order. The economy is suffering and people are going nuts over it. There's been an immense brain drain because of this. The whole country is unhappy:

Although the demonstration was organized by leading labor unions, everyone from trash collectors, teachers, retired army officers, lawyers and even judges walked off the job to protest the government-imposed wage cuts and tax increases that they say are squeezing the debt-ridden country into penury.

“There’s no precedent for this,” said Anastasia Dotsi, 70, a retired bank worker who said anger had driven her out to protest. After two years of austerity measures, “we have been crushed as a people,” she said.

The bill is harsh in that it will include wage cuts and job cuts, but it might be a necessary measure:

The controversial bill includes cuts in wages and pensions as well as thousands of layoffs in the public sector — once a political third rail in Greece’s welfare state. It also changes collective bargaining rules to make it easier to hire and fire workers, a highly unpopular action that economists say is crucial to liberalizing Greece’s economy but that has little popular support.

Some of this is a necessary for Greece's EU position:

“The vote will boost our negotiating position; it will give us strength for the E.U. summit,” Mr. Papandreou said this week. The main goal for Greece, he added, is “to stay in the euro zone.”

The situation is bad. There's no other way to describe it. Any decision that the government makes seems like a poison pill. I have no idea how Greece is going to get through this in the short term, but in the long term, moving towards a strengthen private sector makes sense. The government is stuck between a rock and a hard place though.

Update: Egypt

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The Perfect Protest?

People have been talking about protesting British Petroleum for a while because they're angry. They're angry because their livelihoods have been taken from them. They're angry because of the environmental damage that has occurred. They're angry because of the indecision which has led to this problem getting out of hand. Some are just angry to be angry.

But you know who aren't angry? British Petroleum. They might be annoyed by it a little bit. The fine they faced probably sucked and paying for the damages does too, but this is a company that makes billions every year. They're still doing alright no matter what happens. I think if you want to protest British Petroleum, you need to really piss those blimey Brits off.

I think I have the perfect protest. Obviously, growing up in the Boston area, I've been greatly influence by Revolutionary War history. A particular moment or event really stood out to me when I was thinking about a protest. I started thinking about the Boston Tea Party.

This was the event that really started the war. It really ticked of the Brits. It wasn't about losing the land, the subjects, the trading posts; it was about all that tea that was dropped into Boston Harbor. They hated all that tea going to waste. They were so pissed off about it that they decided to go to war over it.

If we really want to piss British Petroleum off, I say we dump a large portion of the World's tea into the Gulf. That would show them. May be they'll try and clean up the Gulf then. May be they'll take action. Because I'm sick of all this inaction. This problem should have been solved already. Their failure is unacceptable. We must strike.

More Protests Against Israel

More Anger Towards Israel

Americans Angry At Israel

I don't know how I feel about this protest. I don't know if some of these people are fueled by hate or not. Obviously, Israel has committed a crime that they must be held responsible for. Yeah, I realize I haven't made a post about it yet. Read this for now:

New York (CNN) -- Israel faced condemnation and questions Monday at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting called by Turkey on the Israeli military's storming of a six-ship flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists headed to Gaza with aid supplies.

At least nine activists died in clashes that injured seven Israeli soldiers. Israel contends the flotilla intended to break its blockade of Gaza, while Palestinian leaders and allies said Israel launched an unprovoked military assault on civilians.

They must be held accountable.

Kyrgyzstan Revolt

The other day, I was checking out Boston Globe's Big Picture, and I came across this photo album. I was greatly moved by the photos, so I decided to do more research.

The outlook does not look good in Kyrgyzstan.

Iran's Revolution Day

Iran had Revolution Day, but the celebration was marred by protests and violence.

What's Goin On?

I'd like to introduce a new class of post that I'll make from time to time. It's called "What's Goin On?" Basically, I'll look at events that are happening through out the world. May be I'll comment about them, may be I'll let them stand on their own. The key thing is to share them with the world. Here we go:

This is a story I've commented on this week, but it's turning out to be a bigger issue of security. This past week, on Christmas Day, a man was apprehended after trying to light a bomb on an airplane after it landed at Detroit Metro Airport. It appears that the man failed, but several facts have arisen after the incident. It has been reported that his father had reported him to the US Government. Here's some back ground on the suspect:

This New York Times Article reveals something else:

Instead, officials said Sunday, they marked the file of the son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for a full investigation should he ever reapply for a visa. And when they passed the information on to Washington, Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was added to 550,000 others with some alleged terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags.

It will be interesting to see what develops as a result of this incident. We've already seen TSA have a security breach that revealed secrets including racial profiling when it comes to checking people. Will this go one step further? Some people say that security checks are doing their jobs. However, it is clear with incidents like this that they aren't. Not only are they checking people who are completely innocent (like myself), they are not checking people like Abdulmutallab, who have bad intentions. I think an easy solution would be to scan passports to make sure that people are not on any terrorist watch lists.

Things aren't any better in Iran where protests continue to sprout up since their election in June, 2009. The latest protests have turned violent, showing an increasingly dissident group of support against the government of Ahmadinejad. I'm a fan of seeing visually what is going on, so here's a video from Al Jazeera:


While we're in the Middle East, it's the one year of the bombings in Gaza. Here's a video of children recounting their stories. I couldn't imagine being in a situation like this. Imagine being that young and having that sort of chaos escalating around you, your home, your life. I remember watching a live feed of Gaza last year and it was a constant stream of bombs and machine gun fire.

Just chilling, haunting stuff.

Speaking of anniversaries, Monday is the two year anniversary of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. We still have no answers about her murder nor do we have stability in the Pakistani government. There is a lot of work to do.


If there's any question that China will take over the world, China has unveiled the fastest train in the world:


In science and technology, the focal point of news seems to be on Apple's new tablet. Apple is one of the most successful companies with their incredible computing machines, music devices, and of course, their phones. Now they are introducing a tablet and the industry is going rampant with curiosity. What impact will the introduction of the tablet have on the market? I look forward to seeing it because quite frankly I'm not sold on the Tablet idea. I need to learn more about its usefulness.

That's all for "What's Goin On?"