[Current Events] 2008 Greek Riots

[Sentama Lin]

Greek Riots of December 2008

I... don't know what to say about any of this. I can't say I'm informed about what's going on in Greece but if it's causing such uproar from the citizens it must have been something awful. It makes me remember that no matter how unfortunate I am right now there are others that are more unfortunate. I suppose it's another eye opener, but at the same time I mourn that I have to deal with my problems before I can help out others. Not... that I can do anything here anyways...  

[Saverio C.]

I can't stand to see people acting stupid. I don't know why the police shot that kid, or if it was a accident or not, but the children (anyone who acts like that is a child) are out of line. Protesting is fine and normal, but rioting and more importantly burning things is never right, especially people. These ignorant kids have done more harm then any good could have come from their actions. I hope their mace was worth it.  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

I scrolled down to the comments, and well, one of them said the pictures were fantastic.

>_>

And a lot of them were.  

[Sentama Lin]

The photos are fantastic. It makes me wonder, however, how the photographers had time to photograph and if they sacrificed helping in any way to capture the photographs. *muses*

@Saverio: Action is all relative, my dear friend. I think what they're doing is atrocious as well, but I'm not in the situation. If the government was truly as corrupt and terrible as the comments said, and if civil disobedience was already tried, perhaps this was the only choice they had. And, of course, the pictures may be more of the extreme end of the riots. Governments are designed to serve the people after all, and if it no longer does, the people should do something about it.  

[Brunswick]

Curse you Lin, beating me to it. Same link btw. xd

Pretty crazy stuff going on over there.  

[Saverio C.]

Sentama Lin

The photos are fantastic. It makes me wonder, however, how the photographers had time to photograph and if they sacrificed helping in any way to capture the photographs. *muses*

@Saverio: Action is all relative, my dear friend. I think what they're doing is atrocious as well, but I'm not in the situation. If the government was truly as corrupt and terrible as the comments said, and if civil disobedience was already tried, perhaps this was the only choice they had. And, of course, the pictures may be more of the extreme end of the riots. Governments are designed to serve the people after all, and if it no longer does, the people should do something about it.

Relativity removes all morality from the world. While everything may be relative they are still endangering people will no end game or plan. Burning s**t doesn't solve anything especially cops. You want to make a point by burning something, burn yourself. That is making a point, and a more valid one then throwing a Molotov cocktail on an officer quelling a destructive mob who is breaking everything simply to spite the government. If you want to start using fire power (and Molotov cocktails are fire power) then be wary, because turnabout is fair play. This isn't doing something about it. This is mindless destruction and not a political movement.

When schools burn the rioters should have been stopped by all mean necessary. Burning a school solves nothing, and never will. I can only hope that someone pays for these monsters actions.

Riots have never solved anything. How many riots changed the Jim Crow laws!? None, only calm resolute peaceful determination. Riots are actions of Ignorance, protests are actions to movements. Civil Disobedance works better then burning some random ladies car, Smashing a bank, or some families store. Marching in numbers and showing that you won't back down to pressure is how you create change. Until these "revolutionaries" get this pointless violence out of their system they will never get anything.

More to the point there was no other actions, there was a less then two weeks between the initial incident and the start of the riots, and it's closer to one. There was nothing else done so don't tell me there is no other option.  

[Sentama Lin]

These revolutionaries, however, seem to be not a select few but an entire populace of citizens. As I said the actions are relative and I have no right to judge that what they're doing is right or wrong because their fighting for what they think is right. But, as I mentioned, I do agree that their actions are atrocious and would hope that they'd have better means to resolve than the violence that they are causing.

I never said they had no other option; I'm not aware of what actions they have done. The news of the Greek riots came as a surprise to me, considering that it wasn't really a blip in anyone's radar here until these atrocities happen. It may be that that kid killing by the cops was the straw that broke the camel's back but I'm making the assumption (due to a current lack of information) that they have tried other ways before coming to this.

Edit: I've been reading whatever articles I could find but I'm really finding the search for what exactly caused all this (not the kid dying, but the entire state of Greece to do something like this) to happen. The Internet seems to be flooded with the kid's death instead of information about what has been happening as time passed to Greece. In any case I still don't have a good idea so I won't make any judgment other than the damage is saddening.

Edit 2: Other information. 20% of Greece, as of today, live off of about 700 USD per month. The tone I'm getting from some articles seem to suggest that the "middle class" is about 900 USD a month. In any case, things seem pretty bad. Reviewing history (since this type of thing has happened before) the reaction so far seems to be very textbook: a very small minority is well off while the majority suffers, the government is corrupt, and doesn't do anything for the majority. Ergo, the people raise arms. More information after the jump.