According to "Athens clashes as Greek police fire tear gas" there was a group of anarchists breaking out upheaval by throwing petrol bombs during the first general strike since the conservative Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, ruled the debt-stricken country. However, most of protesters peacefully expressed their position against the austerity measures by Greece's government. In fact, the reason they set this general strike, which occurred across country, is that they fear Greece's economy will continue to shrink, result negatively in rising unemployment, as well as cut government officials' salaries.
A point that popped up in my mind when I first saw this news is the freedom of expression. It reminds me that a few years ago this kind of trouble also happened in Thailand. The demonstrations of the Red Shirt and the Yellow Shirt went into violence as well. I think any interruption by anarchists during a peaceful protest is disgusting because it insults people's freedom. Everyone should have his/her own freedom of expression. This also means we are all in democratic society that pay respect to other's views despite their difference.
Another focus is the Greek government's fiscal plan. It seems to be like Thai case of financial crisis in 1997 (or B.E. 2540) or so-called "Tom Yum Kung Crisis". The crisis was instability in both fiscal policy and financial sector. Thai government at that time was pressured by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restructure financial institutions and industries, the major source of country's GDP. The austerity plan resulted in a large number of bankrupt businesses. However, western investor took over them and gain millions baht as its profit in a short period. This case meets a revisionist International Political Economy theory that attack conditions from the international lender as cronyism among western capitalists.
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Reference
Athens clashes as Greek police fire tear gas (2012, September 26). BBC News Europe, Retrieved September 26, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19724284
Athens clashes as Greek police fire tear gas (2012, September 26). BBC News Europe, Retrieved September 26, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19724284
I like the way Cee makes comparisons in his response between the events described in the BBC News he chose to blog and events in Thailand.
ReplyDeleteAnother great post for us to read and respond to.
I interest less in business, finance or even economics, but in my sight European countries are wealthier than Asia. When I heard the news about Europe faced to severe financial problem, it shocked me because it was out of my thought. And of course it make me curious about why their finance are worse.
ReplyDeleteHowever, mob in Greek and in Thailand that Cee's mention are completely different. The Greece mob announces their right about their money; whereas, the Thai mob was gathered by politic power.
Yes, politics is also the subject I am curious least.
Cee, I agree with you when you say "I think any interruption by anarchists during a peaceful protest is disgusting because it insults people's freedom", but in my opinion, the Red Shirt and the Yellow Shirt are not a peaceful protest. In the begging could be, but after they often acted violently. Then, I think that the freedom of expression ends when it begins to affect the lives of others; and that was what happened in that time, they started to harm the country.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I did not comment at the time, Cee's post reminded me most strongly of the recent fuss about the YouTube video insulting Islam. In this case, the protests were far more violent and bloody, and more directly forcing us to think critically and in depth about exactly what free speech must and need not allow.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a lot of coverage of this extremely controversial YouTube video. I thought that a couple of the best responses were two articles published on Saturday last week (September 22), in The New York Times. In "Free Speech in the Age of YouTube", Somini Sengupta narrowly addresses the question of how decisions are and might be made about what to allow and censor on internet sites such as YouTube whilst carefully avoiding taking a stand on whether Google should or should not take down the offending video.
Nicholas Kristof's carefully argued "Exploiting the Prophet", on the other hand, takes a strong stand in favour of free speech, even when such freedom leads to great offence. Kristof also gives a thoughtful explanation of the murderous violence that seeks to save the religion from the charge of being bloody, violent and immoral. I also agree with Kristof's suggestion that Islam, like Christianity and other religions, grow up and "learn to shrug [insults] off".
One of the greatest strengths of the US is the very strong legal protection given to free speech, without which there can be no healthy democracy and no knowledge or any well-founded, balanced opinion on important questions that matter for a society.
References
Kristof, N. D. (2012, September 22). Exploiting the Prophet. The New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/opinion/sunday/kristof-exploiting-the-prophet.html
Sengupta, S. (2012, September 22). Free speech in the age of YouTube. The New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/sunday-review/free-speech-in-the-age-of-youtube.html
If you are wondering, this comment took me more than the usual few minutes to write. It cites a couple of sources, which I had to reread and think about before summarizing, and I did spend a few minutes thinking about the organization, which I don't normally do in my response comments.
DeleteI also reviewed, revised and proofread it before I hit "Publish". We will be looking a little more closely at reviewing and revising over the coming week.
As peter stated the protest against the anti-Islam film, this is an obviously controversial issue not only in the US, but also in European countries. They believe in freedom of expression and think that the holy symbol, highly respectful persons and also the Omnipotent are not deserved their good or polite practice. This cause outrageous demonstration throughout the Muslim world.
ReplyDeleteA book entitled "Murder in Amsterdam" by Ian Buruma describes a case that a Muslim man (perhaps, a teenager) killed a well-known film director because he insulted the Muslim immigrants from the Middle East as the group of unwanted people for the Netherlands.
"Murder in Amsterdam" and "Innocence of Muslims" are significant examples that remind us to reconsider about the discrimination and the tolerance towards/against difference.