It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
(visit the link for the full news article)
Anti-austerity demonstrations in Athens have turned ugly as protesters and police are involved in running street battles.
Teargas has been fired at protesters who threw petrol bombs at two luxury hotels in the central Syntagma square outside parliament. A balcony on one of the hotels caught fire.
The violent clashes have come just hours after parliament approved reforms and spending cuts. The measures are a condition of a major EU/IMF bailout.
Originally posted by TETRA.X
reply to post by MMPI2
I've asked the question why protests are not taking place here in the U.S.
I still can't figure it out. Is it because we're drinking fluoridated water? Is it fear? Is it laziness? Is it ignorance? Are we too trusting of our government? Is it denial? Are we afraid of taking risks?
Will it be too late when we DO decide enough is enough?
Why is our tolerance for injustice so high compared to other countries?
Originally posted by Sherlock Holmes
These protesters make me sick.
They are the epitome of the selfish ''me, me, me'' type of people that are so prevalent in Western countries, who expect to have everything laid on a plate for them.
Some Western people think they've got a divine right to live in an unsustainable lifestyle - of which they've contributed virtually nothing towards - because of an accident of birth, and are now throwing their toys out of the pram now that they are having to face up to previous overspending ( which they weren't complaining about at the time )
So standards of living are going to drop ? Services being cut ? Tough. Now you might get a tiny inkling of how 95% of the world's population have to live all of the time, through no fault of their own.
Now stop your whining, stop being so selfish, and get on with living your lives in more austere times.
Originally posted by TETRA.X
reply to post by MMPI2
I've asked the question why protests are not taking place here in the U.S.
I still can't figure it out. Is it because we're drinking fluoridated water? Is it fear? Is it laziness? Is it ignorance? Are we too trusting of our government? Is it denial? Are we afraid of taking risks?
Will it be too late when we DO decide enough is enough?
Why is our tolerance for injustice so high compared to other countries?
Originally posted by christina-66
I'd say the reality that most people have been a living a life that has equated to waged bondage. Working to pay to get to work again next week. Not everyone has the convenient flat for him in the city and the lovely country home for raising the children....that is just propaganda. Most people struggle to pay all the bills that they are required to pay....are kept busy doing so...and ordinarily have no time to look up to see what's happening around them.
Now that they're losing their jobs...well...they have the time to make a noise.
Originally posted by christina-66
I repeatedly stress that I do not condone violence - it defeats the purpose of making a noise about anything. Nor, however, do I condone the fact that millions of ordinary HARD WORKING people are being asked to pay for the consequences of a few criminal banksters. Now they are selfish and sick.
Originally posted by Sherlock Holmes
Originally posted by christina-66
I'd say the reality that most people have been a living a life that has equated to waged bondage. Working to pay to get to work again next week. Not everyone has the convenient flat for him in the city and the lovely country home for raising the children....that is just propaganda. Most people struggle to pay all the bills that they are required to pay....are kept busy doing so...and ordinarily have no time to look up to see what's happening around them.
Now that they're losing their jobs...well...they have the time to make a noise.
Nobody's forcing anyone to work.
People work so as they can afford the luxuries in life, rather than just the necessities. The welfare State is there to provide the necessities.
And what are these bills that people struggle to pay ? Are these for things that some people in less-developed countries have to go without, such as ( clean ) water and electricity ?
As I say, people need to stop whinging about cuts, and think themselves lucky that they live in one of the select few countries in the world with the highest standards of living and services.
Western countries, post-austerity measures, will still be largely preferable to live in than most other countries in the world.
Originally posted by christina-66
I repeatedly stress that I do not condone violence - it defeats the purpose of making a noise about anything. Nor, however, do I condone the fact that millions of ordinary HARD WORKING people are being asked to pay for the consequences of a few criminal banksters. Now they are selfish and sick.
People in less-developed countries work just as hard, and in many cases, harder than their Western counterparts, yet they don't get top-quality services from their governments in return.
Why do so many people in the West think that they've got a divine right to receive these services in return for what they put in ?
edit on 15-12-2010 by Sherlock Holmes because: (no reason given)