21st C. Protest Means The Right To Chuck Litter at Officers?

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Global trade is frozen solid.  USA is waging two failed wars.  England is a mess.  France is constantly on strike.  Germany and Japan are near bankruptcy status.  China and Russia are crafting a plan to free the dollar from its position of being the world's chief reserve currency.  The world is confused by what it does to itself.  This is why the top 20 leaders – 85% of the world’s economy – have met in London to panacea this crisis.  But why are people protesting when these leaders are endeavouring to iron out this deepening financial calamity? 

 

Well they are of course angry about all sorts of things, for a start, losing their jobs.  These people are members of the usual suspects: anarchist, climate change and so on; their intentions are to take advantage of the presence of the G20 leaders in Square Mile.  And the group that are making the loudest noise is the anarchist, and their manifesto is anti-capitalists.  They are furious at the way unfettered free market led to the biggest economic slump in living memory and they want a world free of powerful banking corporations and crooked politicians.     

 

Having said that, when these protests smash building, clash with officers, chant anti-capital, anti-war and anti-pollution slogans, throw bottles, cans and paint bombs at police lines, and then get beaten up by officers with batons and left bleeding on London pavements, it chips away at the moral stance of all those involved by proving to the spectators that those engaged are nothing more than thugs who are inept of rational behavior.  Therefore they are unlikely to be engaged in any sort of discourse.  More to the point, their messages are likely to be ignored.

 

What’s more, in London at least, Northern Ireland's own painful experience of the past thirty years demonstrates that street violence is the road to nowhere.  

 

So there is no need for protests.  The world is in a mess.  These leaders know that and they are endeavoring to speed up the recession.  They are aware that people are losing their jobs.  They do not need punch of people shouting outside where the summit is taking place.  And let’s not act as though we (the angry public) have nothing to do with the credit crisis.  We are one of the factors that caused this financial black hole.  We have become nations of frivolous spending and no saving.  Therefore when banks needed money they had no choice but to borrow.  Furthermore, we (the share holders: you, me and our neighbors) demanded our bank CEOs to jump on any profitable bandwagon that passes by regardless the risks or they jump out of the window. 

 

So there is no need for anarchists and climate changes to march on streets of London and cause havoc. And let’s be honest with ourselves for once, deep down in our hearts we do not want to ban cars or planes or banks.  What we want is truthful and honest politicians, genuine democracy and an understanding that we are the keepers of this earth and ought to look after it.