Who would have thought this would happen in Sweden. Generous cradle to grave benefits, you name it. A country with 15% foreign born population. Norway has a little less 14% and having similar immigrant problemsNow schools, police stations and cars are being set on fire, but looting has not been reported. So far the army has not been deployed.
There is a lot of chatter on the Finance forums I read, that expect similar riots to occur in Europe during the summer. Specially, Greece, Spain, Italy where increasing economic crisis and youth unemployment is over 25% is a tinderbox. Wonder when they start to throw out the "rights" rule book. Already this year Sweden implemented a de facto racial profiling with project REVA. What's next.
Another aspect I find puzzling is that there is very little reporting of the riots in the US and UK. As of Friday, The NY Times World Section does not have a word on the riots.
Update: Apparently this is not the first time this has happened.
In 2010, up to 100 youths threw bricks, set fires and attacked the local police station in the immigrant-heavy suburb of Rinkeby for two nights. \
And in 2008, hundreds of youths rioted against police in the southern Swedish town of Malmoe, sparked by the closure of an Islamic cultural centre in the suburb of Rosengaard that housed a mosque.The news from the horses mouth
US & UK Travel Warning to Sweden: http://www.thelocal.se/48120/20130524/
5th Day of Rioting: http://www.thelocal.se/48100/20130524/
Economic hardship brings out the worst in people. Similar things happened in SE Asia during the Asian economic crisis of 1997 - anti Chinese riots in Indonesia.
ReplyDeleteSri Lanka's own conflict starts with the minorities being cut off from economic opportunity with Sinhala only. English was the pathway to a job or higher education. Minorities feared that they would be cut off, the majority felt that the minority was cutting THEM off with English.
When the opportunities failed to materialise for the Sinhala youth, that lead to further uprisings in 1971 and 1987-9.
AT the moment the great saving grace for Sri Lanka (and the major source of growth over the past 6-7 years) is that we export our disaffected people to jobs overseas.
The money sent back keeps the economy ticking and food on the table.
More thoughts on related topics:
http://jestforkicks.blogspot.com/2011/04/arab-unrest-and-shoe-throwers-index.html
I agree that the "Economic hardship brings out the worst in people".
ReplyDeleteNo question we have exported our unemployment out. If the education had been in English (or much better working knowledge) in SL could probably have had higher skilled export of employees.
I would not call the SL work ethic at home the greatest, but no question Lankans are hard workers, integrate well when in other countries.
Europe and the US have also been exporting their debt, importing unskilled workers etc.
So based on the shoe throwers index based on youth unemployment, income disparity it would appear that Europe and US are ripe for greater unrest, but not necessarily of the Arab Spring variety.
A little over a century ago, Europe Ireland Sweden, Norway and Germany included exported their unemployment to the Americas. i.e. Literally hordes emigrated to the countries of North and South America.
ReplyDeleteThen in 1918 and 1945 millions of the young and able bodied were killed.
60 million and approx 2.5% of the world population in world War II. Around 13% of the USSR population and over 8% of the German allied population
This is pretty much the thesis of Cruel windfall: How wars, plagues, and urban disease propelled Europe’s rise to riches. The article does not specifically discuss World War I & II, but the basic thesis is applicable.
Great info, thanks so much for sharing,
ReplyDelete