The Dark Side of Gold

Opa?

One of Robert Prechter's main themes for the downward contraction is the escalation of social unrest. Along with this comes a power struggle between the government and the people.

"The Socialist opposition leader, George Papandreou, speaking after emergency talks with the prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, said Greeks had lost trust in the government after three days of disorder across the country, triggered when a schoolboy was shot dead by police.
"The country doesn't have a government to protect it," he said. "Citizens are experiencing a multiple crisis: a social crisis, a crisis of values. People have lost trust in the government." Karamanlis today began emergency talks with top politicians, urging them to unite against the face of civil unrest, as he struggles to reassert his authority. "We won't show any leniency," he said. "No one has the right to use this tragic incident as an excuse for acts of violence. At this critical time, the political world must unite to condemn those responsible for this disaster and isolate them." Source: The Guardian

"But the anti-government movement acquired new impetus following the fatal shooting by the police on Saturday of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, 15. While clashes between the police and students have been common in Greece for decades, the ferocity of the reaction to the boy’s death took the nation — and its crippled government — by surprise. Outrage over the death was widespread, fueled by what experts say is a growing frustration with unemployment and corruption in one of the European Union’s consistently underperforming economies, worsened by global recession." SOURCE: The New York Times

Congo, Zimbabwe, Thailand......As Americans, what should we prepare for?

What Can We Do To Change Them?

This morning I was watching "Face The Nation" with Bob Schieffer. During an interview with Tom Friedman discussing Pakistan, he stated "what can we do to change them?". That's a very interesting statement. When did we get put in charge of "changing" countries and cultures? Did they ask us to change them? When did we become so arrogant that we believe that everyone should be like us? Why do we always pick a "weak" country as our target for change? Why don't we enter the Congo right now and change them? Why don't we invade N. Korea and change them. How about Russia? The Congo, Bosnia, Rawanda, Zimbabwee, Myanmar, Somalia...that's where we could have implemented change. Not changing a culture, but changing a government and saving innocent people.

I had a conversation with a good friend a few weeks ago who has been travelling the world a lot lately. He reports that our arrogance has made us very unpopular. I don't think that that is new news to anyone, but shouldn't we stare into the mirror and ask ourselves the question "who put us in charge of the world?" I'm a very firm believer that we should wield our power to aid countries during major internal conflicts where millions of innocent people are being impacted. I'm not a supporter of invading countries for their resources under the veil of being a good Samaritan.