Two news items caught my eye this afternoon during a tutoring lull. One was a museum shooting in Tunis and the other was a riot near the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt.
The former is designed to run westerners out of Tunisia, since the museum was loaded with European tourists looking at their collection of Roman artifacts; all but two of the 19 dead per the BBC were foreigners. That's militant Islam's game at present, de-westernizing the Muslim world. Nigeria's Boko Haram even has that as its name, "Western Education isn't kosher" would be a cheeky translation of their name. Their Tunisian buddies would be essentially saying that Western Civ is haram with their attack today.
If they keep turistas away from the country, it will weaken the ties with Europe and make a ISIS-style theocracy easier to achieve.
Meanwhile, we have a weenie roast in Frankfurt, where leftists are protesting the ECB actually making countries pay the debts their governments racked up. Police cars are getting torched by the usual suspects on the left- Blockupy is the broad term for this melange of leftists-
- Activists from Greece's radical left governing party Syriza and Spain's anti-corruption Podemos are joining the rally
- Also includes Germany's Die Linke and Occupy Frankfurt
- Rallying call: "They want capitalism without democracy, we want democracy without capitalism"
Or, if we can put an Islamic spin on it, "Kapitalism Haram." They would like to turn Europe into some sort of socialist state where foreign bankers aren't welcome.
The end game might see the north side of the Med as isolated as the south, at least economically.
Without financing from the more developed parts of Europe, a rejectionist south would have to maintain an roughly even balance of trade, since investors will avoid those countries and also avoid having the local currency. They'll also either have to raise taxes or confiscate property to make up any deficits that are currently being financed by foreign loans.
It's not a pretty future.
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