James Bay New Horizons 234 Menzies Street, Victoria
Discussion Topic: The World’s Mass Protests – What Is Driving The Rapid Increase In “Grass Roots” Demonstrations Around The World?
There are more protests about living conditions, prosperity, and major social/political issues going on around the world than ever before. Most of them go under-reported. Below is a partial list of countries affected by mass protests right now. This list does not include the many climate change protests and demonstrations happening everywhere.
I found that most major news outlets are now ‘bundling’ news about national protests into a single article about regional protests like this one: https://www.trtworld.com/
I also found that the violent protests make the news faster and more in depth than the peaceful ones no matter how ‘big’ they are. There are interesting comparisons between these various protests, and the fact that they inspire other countries masses with similar social problems to publicly demonstrate also. In several cases, national governments have fallen or had their leader replaced recently, but the protests don’t stop with that. They seem to continue with a life of their own driven by social media.
Let’s discuss the implications.
Here’s the (partial) list:
Lebanon: Severe economic deprivation in the northern city means locals have little reason to return to normal life. https://www.aljazeera.com/
Chile: The continuing unrest in Chile follows a week of riots, arson and protests over inequality that have resulted in at least 18 dead and 7,000 arrested. https://globalnews.ca/news/
Iraq: In Baghdad, thousands of protesters have defied a curfew to demand jobs, better public services and an end to corruption. https://www.bbc.com/news/
Hong Kong: Once again, police battled protesters on the bustling streets of Hong Kong. https://www.scmp.com/news/
Spain: Barcelona officials say there’s been nearly 600 people injured – and at least $3 million in city damage from the unrest. https://america.cgtn.com/2019/
Venezuela: On Monday, the protests turned violent amid clashes with the police in the historic center of Quito. https://www.miamiherald.com/
Ecuador: The protests are the largest since 2015, when demonstrations against Mr. Correa included hundreds of strikes. About 12,000 police officers were summoned to Quito to protect the presidential palace. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/
Puerto-Rico: The summer uprising of 2019 in Puerto Rico was a repudiation of politics as usual. https://nacla.org/news/2019/
Haiti: Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been rocked by violent protests in the last month that have led schools, public offices and businesses to close and forced non-governmental organizations to suspend aid distribution. https://www.reuters.com/
More world protests:
Pakistan: https://www.abc.net.au/news/
Somalia: https://www.irinsider.org/
Egypt: https://www.dw.com/en/egypt-
NOTE: This is not a complete list. I believe the list above represents the ‘biggest’ and most serious protests around the world against government actions or inactions and their effects on prosperity. Smaller protests can be found in many other countries.
Also, Climate change demonstrations (e.g., The Extinction Rebellion demos) which are also happening everywhere are not included in this list.
QUESTIONS:
What is causing this increased occurrences of public protest around the world? Are these protests related to each other?
Should we expect even more world wide protests over living conditions, corruption, constitutional issues, etc.?
Are these protests driven more by degrading prosperity, or human rights issues?
What role does over-population play in the increased demonstrations and protests?
[Your question here]
See you there! Bring a friend.
All welcome! Donations gratefully accepted.