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Spanish anti-austerity Protests.

  • 23-03-2014 12:36AM
    #1
    Stavros Murphy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,435 ✭✭✭


    So, Our Spanish cousins have taken to the streets to protest against austerity, poverty and cut-backs (and possibly unemployment..) The protest ended in scuffles and a bit of a ruckus. Will there be more? Do they have it worse than us? Are they durty hippy slackers with a sinister agenda? Or is it reflecting the grinding unemployment and straitened circumstances many currently are having to endure?

    Personally, I'm wondering what took them so long, but there you go. :) So, Hippies or Heroes?


«134

Comments

  • #2
    orangesoda
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,223 ✭✭✭orangesoda


    Kinsale 1603 comes to mind, a wild bunch those Spaniards


  • #3
    Stavros Murphy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,435 ✭✭✭Stavros Murphy


    I do a bit of work in Spain and have been struck that things are far bleaker there unemployment and poverty wise than here. It always struck me as a bit of a simmering pot these last few years..


  • #4
    tomwaterford
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,768 ✭✭✭✭tomwaterford


    Stavros Murphy wrote: »
    So, Our Spanish cousins have taken to the streets to protest against austerity, poverty and cut-backs (and possibly unemployment..) The protest ended in scuffles and a bit of a ruckus. Will there be more? Do they have it worse than us? Are they durty hippy slackers with a sinister agenda? Or is it reflecting the grinding unemployment and straitened circumstances many currently are having to endure?

    Personally, I'm wondering what took them so long, but there you go. :) So, Hippies or Heroes?


    nearly certain they had a few massive protests in relation to this last year!!


  • #5
    IrishHomer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,121 ✭✭✭IrishHomer


    Funny the way Irish and UK news media ignoring the story all day


  • #6
    dxhound2005
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 24,787 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    IrishHomer wrote: »
    Funny the way Irish and UK news media ignoring the story all day

    I saw it on the BBC news.


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  • #7
    comongethappy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,756 ✭✭✭comongethappy


    IrishHomer wrote: »
    Funny the way Irish and UK news media ignoring the story all day

    Its not really.

    "Protest held in country".

    Its not going to get news editors pulses racing.
    There are protests everywhere every day.


  • #8
    Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo


    Instead of spending 80 million on Gareth Bale they could have bought every single one of them a Twix and had some change left over for jellies. You won't be having anyone rioting when they have a Twix and some jellies I'll have you know.

    I should be in the UN.


  • #9
    strobe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,872 ✭✭✭strobe


    And now with a minute by minute update, we'll hand over to our Spanish issues correspondent - Legs Eleven.

    What are the latest developments Legs?


  • #10
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 31,828 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    comongethappy wrote: »
    Its not really.

    "Protest held in country".

    Its not going to get news editors pulses racing.
    There are protests everywhere every day.
    "Police shoot protesters" would grab headlines though!


  • #11
    dxhound2005
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 24,787 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »
    80 million for Gareth Bale and they could have bought every one of them a Twix and had some change left over for jellies. You won't be have anyone rioting when they have a Twix and some jellies I'll have you know.

    I should be in the UN.

    You are the Marie Antoinette of the modern age. Let them eat Twix.


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  • #12
    Kristopherus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,902 ✭✭✭✭Kristopherus


    Always puzzled me how Spain is not one of the wealthiest nations in Europe with the billions they take in annually from tourism:confused:.


  • #13
    dxhound2005
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 24,787 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    Kristopherus wrote: »
    Always puzzled me how Spain is not one of the wealthiest nations in Europe with the billions they take in annually from tourism:confused:.

    Spain is way behind France in the number of visitors.


  • #14
    Ruu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,622 ✭✭✭Ruu


    strobe wrote: »
    And now with a minute by minute update, we'll hand over to our Spanish issues correspondent - Legs Eleven.

    What are the latest developments Legs?

    Seem to have lost her there, some technical difficulties.


  • #15
    Sir Arthur Daley
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Sir Arthur Daley


    Ruubot2 wrote: »
    Seem to have lost her there, some technical difficulties.

    Back to the studio.


  • #16
    Stavros Murphy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,435 ✭✭✭Stavros Murphy


    Kristopherus wrote: »
    Always puzzled me how Spain is not one of the wealthiest nations in Europe with the billions they take in annually from tourism:confused:.

    By that logic, the Aran Islands should be carpeted with gold at this stage though.


  • #17
    Kristopherus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,902 ✭✭✭✭Kristopherus


    dxhound2005 wrote: »
    Spain is way behind France in the number of visitors.

    Maybe so now, but Spain has been a haven for the Brits since the 1960s.


  • #18
    20Cent
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,947 ✭✭✭20Cent


    Irish media don't cover protests in Dublin nevermind Spain.


  • #19
    Stavros Murphy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,435 ✭✭✭Stavros Murphy


    Kristopherus wrote: »
    Maybe so now, but Spain has been a haven for thetight old pensioner Brits since the 1960s.

    ;)


  • #20
    Red Nissan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,055 ✭✭✭Red Nissan


    Stavros Murphy wrote: »
    Do they have it worse than us?

    You're not a fan of Top Gear then, we were treated to an episode where they were able to race around a Spanish Town in the city centre.

    Mad stuff, the town was as big as Cork City and has an International Airport as well that would put Cork's Airport in the farthing place, an entire city development idle, as bad as Chernobyl, except it was not a nuclear reactor wasteland, but an economic wasteland that laid devastation to a vast city that ALL our ghost estates in Ireland could fit in just ONE block.

    We have been at war, ladies and gentlemen, we have been at war and the Irish are very, very slow to understand this. Developers across Europe have laid waste to more land than Hitler, Stalin, Mao all put together, yet we outfought those.


  • #21
    dxhound2005
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 24,787 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    20Cent wrote: »
    Irish media don't cover protests in Dublin nevermind Spain.

    Check out RTE the next time there is a riot in Dublin. Or Madrid.

    http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0322/603988-madrid-protest/


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  • #22
    Aongus Von Bismarck
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,794 ✭✭✭Aongus Von Bismarck


    People here give out and handwring about our politicians being corrupt, but the levels of corruption amongst the Spanish political class is incredible.


  • #23
    The Diabolical Monocle
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,618 ✭✭✭The Diabolical Monocle


    Who are they protesting against ... themselves ??

    Like many other protests against 'the man' nothing actually gets done. Just pots banged and joints smoked.


  • #24
    Davarus Walrus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,280 ✭✭✭Davarus Walrus


    Stavros Murphy wrote: »
    I do a bit of work in Spain and have been struck that things are far bleaker there unemployment and poverty wise than here. It always struck me as a bit of a simmering pot these last few years..

    Yourself and your squad of daycent hard-working hardshaws are a pan-European movement at this stage. Raw from the university of life they slog and toil all day doing proper graft, before propping up the bars of Iberia in the evening. Back up at the crack of dawn though to put in a long day.


  • #25
    Stavros Murphy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,435 ✭✭✭Stavros Murphy


    Davarus Walrus wrote: »
    Yourself and your squad of daycent hard-working hardshaws are a pan-European movement at this stage. Raw from the university of life they slog and toil all day doing proper graft, before propping up the bars of Iberia in the evening. Back up at the crack of dawn though to put in a long day.

    Naah, I do a bit of consultancy work there, pretty dossy as it happens. :)
    I did notice, from speaking to Spanish colleagues, that a wage of €1000 take-home a month was seen as being a very good goal for most people - kinda "the going rate". Which struck me as worrying, for us. Maybe we've a bit more "adjusting" to do yet, Fulton, me old flower.


  • #26
    KyussBishop
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,797 ✭✭✭KyussBishop


    Red Nissan wrote: »
    You're not a fan of Top Gear then, we were treated to an episode where they were able to race around a Spanish Town in the city centre.

    Mad stuff, the town was as big as Cork City and has an International Airport as well that would put Cork's Airport in the farthing place, an entire city development idle, as bad as Chernobyl, except it was not a nuclear reactor wasteland, but an economic wasteland that laid devastation to a vast city that ALL our ghost estates in Ireland could fit in just ONE block.

    We have been at war, ladies and gentlemen, we have been at war and the Irish are very, very slow to understand this. Developers across Europe have laid waste to more land than Hitler, Stalin, Mao all put together, yet we outfought those.
    That's how the fraud works: Acquire land on the cheap, build something - regardless of whether or not it's socially useful or whether anyone is going to live there or not (don't have to care about that) - taking out loans from a complicit bank, to fund it - and develop on it, then sell it at an increased value (because of the development), even if the increased value is just 'on paper' since nobody is going to end up living there.

    Many people working in the bank, and in the construction industry, will be earning a generous salary + bonuses + perks while the boom is building up - money they can pocket and benefit from immediately - then when the boom turns to bust, they can walk away from the economic and actual wastelands they leave behind, more wealthy than before and without being held accountable for their actions.


    It's all just an excuse for funnelling large amounts of money into something (money that is created from nothing by banks, yet we're still all in debt now to repay it...) - into anything, even if it's totally useless/destructive - and just being there to siphon off as much as you can for yourself; that's how 'wealth' is generated for a lot of peoples these days.


  • #27
    Nonoperational
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,401 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    Red Nissan wrote: »
    You're not a fan of Top Gear then, we were treated to an episode where they were able to race around a Spanish Town in the city centre.

    Mad stuff, the town was as big as Cork City and has an International Airport as well that would put Cork's Airport in the farthing place, an entire city development idle, as bad as Chernobyl, except it was not a nuclear reactor wasteland, but an economic wasteland that laid devastation to a vast city that ALL our ghost estates in Ireland could fit in just ONE block.

    We have been at war, ladies and gentlemen, we have been at war and the Irish are very, very slow to understand this. Developers across Europe have laid waste to more land than Hitler, Stalin, Mao all put together, yet we outfought those.
    KyussBishop wrote: »
    That's how the fraud works: Acquire land on the cheap, build something - regardless of whether or not it's socially useful or whether anyone is going to live there or not (don't have to care about that) - taking out loans from a complicit bank, to fund it - and develop on it, then sell it at an increased value (because of the development), even if the increased value is just 'on paper' since nobody is going to end up living there.

    Many people working in the bank, and in the construction industry, will be earning a generous salary + bonuses + perks while the boom is building up - money they can pocket and benefit from immediately - then when the boom turns to bust, they can walk away from the economic and actual wastelands they leave behind, more wealthy than before and without being held accountable for their actions.


    It's all just an excuse for funnelling large amounts of money into something (money that is created from nothing by banks, yet we're still all in debt now to repay it...) - into anything, even if it's totally useless/destructive - and just being there to siphon off as much as you can for yourself; that's how 'wealth' is generated for a lot of peoples these days.

    Forget to take the pills today lads? Very important, the pills...


  • #28
    Stavros Murphy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,435 ✭✭✭Stavros Murphy


    Nonoperational wrote: »
    Forget to take the pills today lads? Very important, the pills...

    Really? Have you considered starting them?


  • #29
    tomwaterford
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,768 ✭✭✭✭tomwaterford


    Nonoperational wrote: »
    Forget to take the pills today lads? Very important, the pills...

    that's right rubbish opinions different to your own

    at least the second isn't sensationlist


  • #30
    KyussBishop
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,797 ✭✭✭KyussBishop


    Nonoperational wrote: »
    Forget to take the pills today lads? Very important, the pills...
    Forgot to put forward a counterargument, or just can't be arsed with anything more than a rhetorical attack?


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  • #31
    renegademaster
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,670 ✭✭✭renegademaster


    Stavros Murphy wrote: »
    So, Our Spanish cousins have taken to the streets to protest against austerity, poverty and cut-backs (and possibly unemployment..) The protest ended in scuffles and a bit of a ruckus. Will there be more? Do they have it worse than us? Are they durty hippy slackers with a sinister agenda? Or is it reflecting the grinding unemployment and straitened circumstances many currently are having to endure?

    Personally, I'm wondering what took them so long, but there you go. :) So, Hippies or Heroes?

    you do realise the spanish and portugese have been protesting so much the last few years it was suggested recently that the people of western europe were being afforded too much democracy and that the right to protest should be removed from them.

    it is us that need to wake up and get busy


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