Daily Lessons from Life 01 May 2012 - Anti-austerity anger sweeps Europe on May Day

"Anti-austerity anger sweeps Europe on May Day - AFP May 01, 2012

MADRID - May Day protesters poured into streets across Europe on Tuesday, swept up in a wave of anti-austerity anger that threatens to topple leaders in Paris and Athens.

From the eye of the eurozone debt storm in Madrid to the streets of Paris and crisis-hit Athens, where tottering governments face elections within days, marchers spoke of job losses, spending cuts and hard times.

More than two years after the eurozone sovereign debt crisis erupted, frustration with austerity is boiling over across the continent as voters wait in vain for signs of the economic pay-off.

In Spain, suffering the industrialised world's highest jobless rate of 24.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012, the major unions called protests in about 80 cities.

Tens of thousands massed in central Madrid's Neptuno square, decrying the jobless queue, new labour reforms that make it easier and cheaper to fire workers, and a budget squeeze in health care and education.

Thousands rallied in Athens, Thessaloniki and other cities around Greece, five days ahead of cliffhanger general elections with voters fed up with years of austerity.

"No One Alone, Together We Will Get There!" read a banner draped on a stage in Athens' central Kotzia square.

The two parties that have ruled Greece for the past 37 years, socialist Pasok and conservative New Democracy, are blamed for catastrophic finances after decades of state overspending and nepotism.

The new Greek government will face an early test when 436 million euros ($715.8 million) of debt, held by private creditors who turned down a swap, matures on May 15."

Seriously I do not know enough about what the Europeans are doing with the trillions of money given to those governments in troubles. They were like rocks dropping into a raging ocean with neither a ripple to be seen!

Lessons for me are:

1. fundamental premises have to be revisited or even discarded to tackle unemployment of 24-25% of the population in Spain! Business as usual simply will NOT work!! It cannot be just about throwing MORE money to create jobs if these jobs are NOT sustainable!!;

2. whatever happened to those trillions given to those governments who cried for help and GOT them? Surely someone has been, and is, making big money from THESE MONEY!! If the democratically elected government CANNOT track and trace these money and they were indeed being ABUSED. It will be a very sad sad situation. Those who profited must surely get their just punishment when karma comes around! How did the banks who took some or most of these financial assistance money make so much money still and rewarding their executives with huge bonuses?? Something is terribly wrong! SICKED actually;

3. will these marches and demonstration solve the problems Europe is facing? NOT in a million year. No close!! A fundamental and radical rethink has to happen. What CAN countries provide to their employable population? what type of income should they be getting to live a 'reasonable' (to be defined by the PEOPLE themselves) quality of living with some REAL efforts??!! Would barter trade be something the countries need to consider so that each country can play to their strengths and NOT try to 'industrialize' like everyone else? Is 'wealth' in the form of high priced properties something desirable? These are fundamental questions that the Europeans need to think about. It is NOT for me or anyone to dictate.

Whatever they define, they will have to live with the consequences. At the rate they are clinging on to the 'why cannot we have it the old way?', there will be 'revolution' with NO clear sustainable solution.

Don't cry for me, Europe...