OK, so our kids are the enemy...!?

So the police in Spain can attack children?
I am appalled I did not know this sooner, do they recruit from outside Spain?



Sorry kids piss me off.

this picture says enough... or it's from a comedy show or some people are loosing grip of reality 

All the uprisings around the Med have everybody nervous I would think. One sure way to make everybody nervous is to attack some kids holding a sit in.

What is so frightening to governments when Kids sit down to protest something? It seems governments answer to that is to hurt them somehow. Various degrees of violence against them. The next thing that happens is the kids stop being peaceful and all hell breaks loose.

Which I imagine is now getting ready to happen in Spain if it hasn't already.

Good Hunting.

MR

Then allow me a bit of cynism, too: If we don´t have money anymore to teach them Maths (because we have to cut down a little bit to save our banks, nothing left for health or education), where do you think we will raise the dough to pay Close Combat teachers?



Yes, definitely, and more so in this culture where kids are saints by definition.



Indeed, that is what we saw: First day they just detained a few 12 years old for obstruction of traffic, next day - when the manifestation went in contra of this act - all hell broke loose.



I sincerely doubt that (for now and the near future). We will, of course, see a lot of street manifestatons of all kind of groups that are hurt by what our current (right wing) government has put out to reduce the debts we have with the international bankers.

But, as I see it, "Spain is different" (google it for subtilities involved and perceived):

- A long culture to keep your mouth shut (Franco only died in ´75, democracy by constitution was given in 79) for all people older than 55+ yrs

- An even longer culture to never say or do anything offensive (if not for outright and intentional provocation), coming from the 800 yrs of Arab ruling, deeply imprinted in the minds of everybody here (though only a minority is actually aware of tis being the reason). It is forbidden to say "no" to any request, you have to invent something less offensive, e.g. "tomorrow", or "I phone you and clear details" to state that you will not, under no circumstances whatever, do what your client/friend/adversary requests.

- Seriously violent confrontations about politics or religion are a "no-no" here, the memories of the Civil War where brother fought brother, husband his wife, fathers their sons etc. is still too close to have been forgotten, many families, villages and the people as a whole remain traumatized: They know that when they start violence there wont be a limit. This said, should a violent reaction occur, there will be *no* liimits, also part of the culture (but as dogs still are around despite showing off every 5 minutes that they are ready to fight because agression has been ritualized, same occurs for the Spanish society, in this I think we are decades ahead of e.g. nations that have not had a Civil War recently).

- Courtesy, maintinig form, stiff upper lip and a natural feeling for when you become ridiculous is also part of this culture (I think even the Engloish who invented all of this could learn  a bit here sometimes), as already stated the absurd is daily and "normal" occurence, all SNAFU is the Spanish way of seeing the world, always. Many movies, everything Bunuel, Saura, Almodovar but also stuff like "Welcome, Mr. Marshall" pay due tribute to this, especially the latter is a must to get an idea of the Spanish society - and why the Marshall Plan only worked in England France and Germany, but not here - : Grabbed 1953 - in plain dictatorship, a legendary and mythical masterpiece of art of stating subtily the opposite of what is visible and so escaping censorship: See last car - is the story of one village preparing weeks for the arrival of "Mr. Marshall" and the benefits he would bring, closing political and religious gaps over the expectation of "Los Americanos", doing everything they believed the Americans would like up to selling their national identity (they set up as Andalusians being from the center), and it ended like this (suffering in style - aka victimism - is also a very important part of the Spanish culture from my outsider POV, they *know* that what they will do is useless even before they start, but do it anyway, that makes them such a great people):

The end of Welcome Mr Marshall

All this mentioned together makes it highly improbable (in the short term, no guarantees should a certain red line be crossed) that we will see a violent revolution here (15M might triumph, but violence would not be part of the scenario in this case).

Nothing wrong with beating kids off the street, but dont you dare call them "the enemy", obligatory it is to call them "the future" and that difference is what made people mad right now.

Rattler