04-19-2020, 10:07 AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/cor...story.html
(could be behind a paywall.. a sniper below in the event it is)
Stirrings of unrest around the world could portend turmoil as economies collapse
BEIRUT — As more than half the people in the world hunker down under some form of enforced confinement, stirrings of political and social unrest are pointing to a new, potentially turbulent phase in the global effort to stem the coronavirus pandemic.
Already, protests spurred by the collapse of economic activity have erupted in scattered locations around the world. Tens of thousands of migrant laborers stranded without work or a way home staged demonstrations last week in the Indian city of Mumbai, crowding together in defiance of social distancing rules.
In locked-down Lebanon, which was confronting financial collapse even before the coronavirus paralyzed the economy, angry people have swarmed onto the streets in Beirut and the northern city of Tripoli on at least three occasions. In Iraq, where a six-month-old protest movement demanding political reforms fizzled in the face of the country’s coronavirus curfew, there have been spontaneous but brief outbursts of rage in the city of Nasiriyah and the impoverished Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City.
For now, fears of infection are keeping most people indoors. Strict controls imposed by governments and security forces deter the kind of organized protests that were sweeping the world from Hong Kong to Chile before the pandemic struck. The health crisis has come as a boon for some authoritarian leaders, empowering them to introduce the kind of controls on their citizens they could only have dreamed of before the spread of covid-19.
In Kenya as of Saturday, as many people had died in police crackdowns on citizens defying curfew as from covid-19, according to human rights groups and government statistics.
But the restrictions aimed at halting the coronavirus are also causing new poverty, new misery and new rumblings of discontent among the world’s working poor, for whom hunger can appear to be a more immediate threat than being infected.
"I’d rather die of the virus than die of hunger, or see my son or my wife go hungry, but I can’t provide them with food," said Hussein Fakher, 20, who used to earn a little less than $20 a day driving a tuk-tuk in a now-shuttered market in Baghdad. He got into a fight with police who tried to fine him for violating Iraq’s curfew when he went out to seek work. "What should I do?" he asked. "Beg? Steal?"
The United Nations and the International Monetary Fund are among those that have warned in recent days that the pandemic could unleash what U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called "a significant threat to the maintenance of international peace and security."
And this isn't only happening in some far off foreign place were they don't speak english.. folks this is happening in America. Will it happen in Honolulu? Hilo?
(could be behind a paywall.. a sniper below in the event it is)
Stirrings of unrest around the world could portend turmoil as economies collapse
BEIRUT — As more than half the people in the world hunker down under some form of enforced confinement, stirrings of political and social unrest are pointing to a new, potentially turbulent phase in the global effort to stem the coronavirus pandemic.
Already, protests spurred by the collapse of economic activity have erupted in scattered locations around the world. Tens of thousands of migrant laborers stranded without work or a way home staged demonstrations last week in the Indian city of Mumbai, crowding together in defiance of social distancing rules.
In locked-down Lebanon, which was confronting financial collapse even before the coronavirus paralyzed the economy, angry people have swarmed onto the streets in Beirut and the northern city of Tripoli on at least three occasions. In Iraq, where a six-month-old protest movement demanding political reforms fizzled in the face of the country’s coronavirus curfew, there have been spontaneous but brief outbursts of rage in the city of Nasiriyah and the impoverished Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City.
For now, fears of infection are keeping most people indoors. Strict controls imposed by governments and security forces deter the kind of organized protests that were sweeping the world from Hong Kong to Chile before the pandemic struck. The health crisis has come as a boon for some authoritarian leaders, empowering them to introduce the kind of controls on their citizens they could only have dreamed of before the spread of covid-19.
In Kenya as of Saturday, as many people had died in police crackdowns on citizens defying curfew as from covid-19, according to human rights groups and government statistics.
But the restrictions aimed at halting the coronavirus are also causing new poverty, new misery and new rumblings of discontent among the world’s working poor, for whom hunger can appear to be a more immediate threat than being infected.
"I’d rather die of the virus than die of hunger, or see my son or my wife go hungry, but I can’t provide them with food," said Hussein Fakher, 20, who used to earn a little less than $20 a day driving a tuk-tuk in a now-shuttered market in Baghdad. He got into a fight with police who tried to fine him for violating Iraq’s curfew when he went out to seek work. "What should I do?" he asked. "Beg? Steal?"
The United Nations and the International Monetary Fund are among those that have warned in recent days that the pandemic could unleash what U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called "a significant threat to the maintenance of international peace and security."
And this isn't only happening in some far off foreign place were they don't speak english.. folks this is happening in America. Will it happen in Honolulu? Hilo?
