NY Times: People Around The World Are Protesting Over Pocketbook Issues

People, mostly young ones, are protesting in the streets over pocketbook issues, and there are a couple interesting parts with this

From Chile to Lebanon, Protests Flare Over Wallet Issues

In Chile, the spark was an increase in subway fares. In Lebanon, it was a tax on WhatsApp calls. The government of Saudi Arabia moved against hookah pipes. In India, it was about onions.

Small pocketbook items became the focus of popular fury across the globe in recent weeks, as frustrated citizens filled the streets for unexpected protests that tapped into a wellspring of bubbling frustration at a class of political elites seen as irredeemably corrupt or hopelessly unjust or both. They followed mass demonstrations in Bolivia, Spain, Iraq and Russia and before that the Czech Republic, Algeria, Sudan and Kazakhstan in what has been a steady drumbeat of unrest over the past few months.

At first glance, many of the demonstrations were linked by little more than tactics. Weeks of unremitting civil disobedience in Hong Kong set the template for a confrontational approach driven by vastly different economic or political demands.

Yet in many of the restive countries, experts discern a pattern: a louder-than-usual howl against elites in countries where democracy is a source of disappointment, corruption is seen as brazen, and a tiny political class lives large while the younger generation struggles to get by.

“It’s young people who have had enough,” said Ali H. Soufan, chief executive of The Soufan Group, a security intelligence consultancy. “This new generation are not buying into what they see as the corrupt order of the political and economic elite in their own countries. They want a change.”

First off, notice that these youths are whining about little things and seem to be hating on democracy, and further down in the story, capitalism and The Rich. Someone being very rich doesn’t cause the price of hookahs and onions to go up. For those who want Modern Socialism, they should be careful what the wish for, and take a gander as to what has happened, and is still happening, in Venezuela.

Second off, notice that the article mentions neither the aforementioned Venezuela and the protests, nor France and the yellow vest protests, both of which are against the polices of socialistic governments, the former a tad more than the latter. Most of the countries mentioned in the excerpts aren’t particularly Democratic, are they? They aren’t really practicing a form of democracy.

Third, it is hilarious that these youths are protesting against rising taxes when they are constantly calling for higher taxes on Other People, and unknowingly on themselves when they demand government benefits and services and such.

“You could say these protests mirror what’s going on in the United States,” said Vali Nasr, a Middle East scholar who recently stepped down as dean of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. In countries where elections are decisive, like the United States and Britain, skepticism about the old political order has produced populist, nationalist and anti-immigrant results at the polls.

“In other countries, where people don’t have a voice, you have massive protests erupting,” he said.

Is he still including the U.S. in this? Is this highlighting all the whiny snowflakes who just can’t get over Hillary losing the 2016 election? It sure seems like it. They protest because they didn’t get their way, and do not like the notion of democracy, because sometimes they lose.

There is also, buried deep, another point

In the Middle East, the tumult has drawn inevitable comparisons with the upheavals of the Arab Spring of 2011. But experts say these recent protests are driven by a new generation that cares less about the old sectarian or ideological divides.

Instead of calling for the head of a dictator as many Arabs did in 2011, the Lebanese have indicted an entire political class.

“They are stealing and pretending that they aren’t. Who’s responsible, if not them?” Dany Yacoub, 22, said on Monday, the fourth day she had spent protesting in central Beirut. She studied to be a music teacher, but said she cannot find a job because it takes political connections to get hired in a school. “We don’t believe them anymore,” she said.

Well, first of all, you studied music to be a teacher. While we do need music teachers, it’s not a sector that has a lot of jobs. Too many of these youths are getting degrees which do not have many job openings, do not create a lot of earnings. Then there’s the notion that the youths are tired of the old Islamist ways. That could be important in the future for reducing Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism.

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11 Responses to “NY Times: People Around The World Are Protesting Over Pocketbook Issues”

  1. John says:

    Teach are you going to state your position on whether Trump should be allowed to build his Great Wall along the border of Colorado?

    • Doom and Gloom says:

      @John, right after Obama explains who the other 8 states are.

      • Doom and Gloom says:

        Still waiting. John are you a Russian Asset hired by HRC to troll anyone who stands up against your leftest nonsense?

  2. Doom and Gloom says:

    I have seen a couple studies on this issue Teach.

    The AGW crisis was the second attempt at resetting the world order after Were all gonna freeze failed. It must be something that brings the nations to their knees. In this case it is the production of co2 which is owned by all the wealthy nations.

    Nothing new here. But the problem is it is not working because even though those rich countries give lip service and sign non binding treaties they do not fulfill their commitments.

    So now underway is world wide anarchy over the most frivolous of things. The FED IS PUMPING 100 billion dollars per night into the Banks and NO ONE KNOWS WHY?

    The theory is that CHINA has been printing money and has invested up to 17 trillion into the US Stock Market and other interests in the United States, not to mention stealing every technolgy we have ever created and with one flip of the switch can cause the markets to crash and the banks to fail.

    So the fed, quietly is filling the USA banks with cash and these banks are not spending it but rather sitting on it so when the attempted world wide COUP happens the USA will be standing along with CHINA who is trying to reset the entire planet.

    Now you know why Trump has ignored russia and gone after China so hard in his 3 years as prez.

  3. John says:

    Lol
    How many years ago was that ? 2008 ? Wow !!! That must have been quite the important incident got you to remember. Anything a bit more current than “ yeah but Obama misspoke 11 years ago” got anything better for us ? Maybe ?? Something he said while he was POTUS ? He actually of course explained it at his next presser by saying
    How about maybe something like he played too much golf ? Or he used Air Force One too much ?
    The current occupant of the White House is someone that you can not even try to defend
    He is the main reason that the GOP did so poorly in our last national election
    Do you think the Twin Trump Towers in Turkey has any influence on our current national security positions in the Mideast ?

    • Doom and Gloom says:

      @John.

      In 2012, Donald Trump opened a twin tower structure in Turkey under the brand name Trump Towers Istanbul. The buildings were constructed and remain owned by a Turkish company, but Trump licensed his name to the project and continues to derive significant revenue from fees for the use if his name. In fact, according to Trump’s most recent financial disclosure filings, Trump earns somewhere between $100,001 and $1 million in licensing fees from Trump Towers Istanbul.

      If you read this little paragraph you will realize he does not even OWN the property, only lent his name and receives a fee each year for his name.

      NEXT DUMBSHIT LIE?

      yeah but Obama misspoke 11 years ago” So you don’t think Trump Misspoke, he now is going to build a wall between Colorado and NM? Really Elwood? Thats what you think.

      NEXT LIE?

      He is the main reason that the GOP did so poorly in our last national election……LOL you mean like winning 3 more SENATE SEATS? Yes, they lost 35 house seats which is a given in an off-year election especially since 65 incumbents retired rather than deal with a Trump Presidency cause they had their 6 years and their life long pension in hand.

      NEXT LIE?

      Do you think the Twin Trump Towers in Turkey has any influence on our current national security positions in the Mideast ?

      No, but the left obviously does. TrUMP DOES NOT OWN THOSE PROPERTIES, he only lets them USE his name.

      Do you think John that there is a reason why the democrats told the FBI to ff off and not investigate the hacking of the DNC server and intead hired a private firm telling the FBI they had no jursidiction to do so which was a bold face lie.

      Why do you think the FBI meekly said OKAY???

      • Elwood P. Dowd says:

        So President Obama misspoke in 2008 about visiting 57 states.

        Do you really want to compare that to the 13,000 times trump has “misspoke”? President Obama he made a mistake when speaking. Will trump?

        trump said he knew nothing about paying off Stormy Daniels. He said he knew nothing about Jr’s explanation about the meeting with Russians to get dirt on Clinton. Five million illegal votes cast! Maybe Russier interfered in 2016, maybe not. I’ll release my tax returns. “And if there’s upward revision (on taxes), it’s going to be on high-income people.” Repeal and replace Obamacare on day one. WaPo and NYT apologized to their readers for being mean to trump. Murder rate highest in 47 years! Obama wire-tapped trump tower!

        trump collects royalties of the use of the trump name. If the name comes down, so do the royalties.

        The Turkish owner of Trump Towers Istanbul, who pays Trump for the use of his name, was reported in December 2015 to be exploring legal means to dissociate the property after the candidate’s call to “temporarily bar Muslims from specific countries from entering the U.S.” [4]
        In June 2016, Turkish President Erdogan called for the removal of the Trump name from the towers, saying “Trump has no tolerance for Muslims living in the US. And on top of that they used a brand in Istanbul with his name. The ones who put that brand on their building should immediately remove it.”[5]
        In December 2015, Trump stated in a radio interview that he had a “conflict of interest” in dealing with Turkey because of his property, saying “I have a little conflict of interest, because I have a major, major building in Istanbul … It’s called Trump Towers. Two towers, instead of one. Not the usual one, it’s two. And I’ve gotten to know Turkey very well.

        • Liljeffyatemypuppy says:

          So?

          Lolgfy little sissybitch https://www.thepiratescove.us/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_cool.gif

        • Doom and Gloom says:

          I don’t know Elwood I think the RUSSIANS DID IT! I bet if we investigated you we would find out you are a Russian Asset.

          I will have more flexibility after the election by good RUSSIAN FRIEND….we will get together and FUK UP UKRAINE FOR YOU AS LONG as I GET RICH DOING IT.

          The PRESS? Nah they are commies. The Republicans? Nah they are more concerned about their wars.

          don’t worry tell my good buddy Valdimir Ill work well with him. I am after all a Russian Asset am I not……..Barak Obama to the president of Russia with his live mic open.

          • Doom and Gloom says:

            ELWOOD who was Obama’s chief ally in striking a secret deal with the IRANIANS and then shipping them billions of dollars in unmarked USA currency.

            YEP you got it. VLADIMIR PUTIN…… I don’t know Elwood seems the Russians are everywhere. I bet Vlady laid between Michelle and Barak in bed everynight whispering state secrets in his ear.

  4. Dana says:

    If they are protesting over prices for subway fares and small things like that, what are they going to do if the however-many-trillion-dollar ‘Green New Deal’ is passed?

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