By Raman Jokhakar, Tarunkumar Singhal, Chartered Accountants
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50 Recession ignites unrest People worlwide
take to streets as economies crash
In the grand sweep of the current financial crisis, a few
riots here and there may not seem to add up to much. But it is a sign of things
to come : a new age of rebellion. The financial meltdown has become part of the
real economy and is now beginning to shape real politics. More and more citizens
on the edge of the global crisis are taking to the streets. Bulgaria has been
gripped this month by its worst riots since 1997 when street power helped to
topple a Socialist government. Now Socialists are at the helm again and are
having to fend off popular protests about government incompetence and
corruption.
Iceland, Bulgaria, Latvia : these are not natural protest
cultures. Something is going amiss. The LSE economist Robert Wade recently
warned the world was approaching a new tipping point. Starting from March-May
2009, we can expect large-scale civil unrest, he said. “It will be caused by the
rise of general awareness throughout Europe, America and Asia that hundreds of
millions of people in rich and poor countries are experiencing rapidly falling
consumption standards; that the crisis is getting worse not better; and that it
has escaped the control of public authorities, national and international.”
Governments have so far managed to deflect attention from
their role in the crash, their slipshod monitoring, by declaring themselves to
be indispensable to the solution. This may save the skins of politicians in
wealthier countries who can expensively try to prop up banks and sickly
industries. But it does not work in countries that are heavily indebted, with
bloated and exposed financial sectors.
(Source : The Times of India, 2-2-2009)
