1.24.2009

Takin' It To The Streets


Some days it's nice to live in a real jerkwater. Where our government continued to more-or-less effectively regulate banks.

Not so great when you come from a jerkwater where the government didn't. Just ask the good folks in Iceland, where they've been regularly protesting against their government for weeks. This video shows just one of the recent clashes with police – and most recently a near-riot at their parliament buildings.

Are you kidding me? Iceland for chrissakes! Go smoke a fish or something. You're not supposed to riot.

It's enough to cause one columnist from the staid Times of London to wonder if it's not a harbinger of more to come. Roger Boyes notes that Iceland and other countries aren't by nature “protest cultures” so when something moves them to take action, you know something's up.

There's already a protest movement building in the U.S. over foreclosures. Makes you wonder how it'll all play out in another country that -- at least recently -- doesn't seem to do protests.

Update: Iceland PM "first political casualty" of the credit crunch.

1 comment:

The Mouth Journal said...

This is good stuff:

"...most people would rather live in comfort under a government they know is wrong than in discomfort under a government they know is right. Because Americans had enough money and their houses were regularly doubling in value, they were comfortable living under the government of George W. Bush, even though they knew it was wrong.

'In my view, and in a lot of people's view,' Mr. Lapham says, 'I think that kind of corrupt, enlightened selfishness has been the way of the world and the United States since the election of Ronald Reagan and his new bond with America.'

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090123.wstbarack0123/BNStory/International/home