‘DAY OF RAGE’ AS RIOTERS RAMPAGE THROUGH ROME

GLOBAL “DAY OF RAGE” PEACEFUL
FOR MOST COUNTRIES BUT NOT ITALY

London (Reuters) - The hangover from a global “Day of Rage” against bankers and politicians turned out to be a mild one for most on Sunday, after protests that were peaceful everywhere but Italy.  Cities from East Asia to Europe and North America saw rallies on Saturday denouncing capitalism, inequality and economic crisis, but riot police were busy only in Rome.  The city cleared up on Sunday, a day after masked and armed “Black Bloc” protesters torched cars, attacked banks and hurled rocks.  Tens of thousands of other “indignant ones” had marched peacefully against the government of deeply-indebted Italy.  Lisbon and Madrid also saw tens of thousands march, but most turnouts were lower. “People don’t want to get involved. They’d rather watch on TV,” said a demonstrator in New York, where the Occupy Wall Street movement that inspired the global day of unrest began.

In New York a few dozen were arrested for minor offences. Other cities across the United States and Canada saw modestly-sized and peaceful demonstrations.  The wave of protest was not quite all over on Sunday.  Around 250 protesters set up camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral on the edge of London’s financial district, promising to occupy the site indefinitely to show their anger over the global economic crisis.  The rallies tracked the sun from the Asia-Pacific region westwards on Saturday, but the first demonstrations in the east made ripples rather than waves.  Protesters gathered in their hundreds in Japan and across Southeast Asia.  In Tokyo, many gathered to complain about radiation leaks from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, seven months after an earthquake and tsunami.

The protest in Italy was one of many staged around the world to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States.  In many countries people marched on the Stock Exchanges and city centers protesting against corruption and corporate greed.  Concrete demands of the movement are few, other than a general sense that the "greedy and corrupt" rich, and especially banks, should pay more and that elected governments are not listening.  The solution is to follow spiritual behaviors and moral guidelines given by the wise sages and sadhus.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The social evolution that gave rise to modern government brought with it massive political oppression, genocide, and so on.  The very democracy in the United States, some argue, is at risk if it really exists at all any more, as mega corporations control the elected. These people argue that we have gone backwards from the direction of the course set by the founding fathers. If we consider the unborn child to be a living being, the medical and sociopolitical progress that has made abortion legal in the United States has shortened the average person’s longevity by many years. ... General experience reveals that humanity has both progressed and regressed over and over again. I suspect it will continue to do so forever, while some souls will take the leap of well reasoned faith from the ferris wheel of the material circus and tread the sure ground of unthinkable path of consistent progress that leads to liberation and ever expanding love of God.

Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Tripurari Mahārāja :
“Vedanta and Cyclical Cosmology”
Sri Caitanya Sanga - March 4, 2001, Vol. III, No. 17
http://www.swami.org/pages/sanga/
http://www.swami.org/pages/sanga/2001/2001_17.php