Nämä heput päättivät parin tunnin kaffettelun päätteeksi, että olisi hyvä jos heidän valitsema Päällikkö hallitsisi sinua jatkossa. tervettä menoa? - “France and Germany have set out plans to create the first “true European economic government” headed by a single appointed leader, as part of major moves to synchronise tax and spending to save the failing eurozone. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and German chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced the dramatic proposals after a two-hour mini-summit.”

We’ve had revolution in Tunisia, Egypt’s Mubarak is teetering; in Yemen, Jordan and Syria suddenly protests have appeared. In Ireland young techno-savvy professionals are agitating for a “Second Republic”; in France the youth from banlieues battled police on the streets to defend the retirement rights of 60-year olds; in Greece striking and rioting have become a national pastime. And in Britain we’ve had riots and student occupations that changed the political mood. What’s going on? What’s the wider social dynamic?

What happens when Greece defaults. Here are a few things:

• Every bank in Greece will instantly go insolvent.
• The Greek government will nationalise every bank in Greece.
• The Greek government will forbid withdrawals from Greek banks.
• To prevent Greek depositors from rioting on the streets, Argentina-2002-style (when the Argentinian president had to flee by helicopter from the roof of the presidential palace to evade a mob of such depositors), the Greek government will declare a curfew, perhaps even general martial law. …

Spain isn’t on the point of revolution, any more than Ireland, or even Greece. But a situation in which the young feel excluded by existing political structures is not a sustainable one. Looking around Europe, it is hard to find countries in which you couldn’t see the similarities. To claim that we in the West should congratulate ourselves on an Arab Spring which looks to us as its example is just to misunderstand its nature and our response.

The protesters in the Arab squares are demonstrating against autocracy and corruption. The demonstrators in Spain are saying the same about their democratic structures.

Hälytyssireeni soi ja Keratean kaupunginjohtaja pyytää kaupunkilaisia puolustautumaan. Valtion poliisi hyökkää.

Jos johonkin on voinut eurooppalaisen rahakriisin aikana luottaa, niin se on ollut kaiken uutisoinnin paikkaansa pitämättömyys ja maamme hallituksen lausuntojen valheellisuus. Eurooppalaisen poliittisen koneiston tekemät laittomat päätökset on sen sijaan voinut etukäteen lukea maailman johtavien talouslehtien sivuilta. Hallitus jatkaa itsepintaisesti samalla linjalla kuin aiemminkin. Nyt meille lupaillaan, että Portugal on se vihon viimeinen pelastettava. Samaan aikaan kansainvälisestä mediasta voi lukea jo seuraavat kohteet takauksille: Espanja, Italia ja mahdollisesti Ranska.

The leaderless Middle East uprisings can inspire freedom movements as Latin America did before