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You have to hand it to them, the Greeks have really put their heart, soul and chemistry abilities into the latest protests.

Raging against the socialist government that is making them give up their bonuses, civil servant pensions and hiking taxes, several protesters threw Molotov cocktails into banks and bookstores and beat bus shelters.

You can read all about it here.

What really baffles me, though, are the following things:

1) Why take your rage out on a bank, rather than, say, a parliamentary building? After all, the crisis is being caused by a massive, gaping deficit…

2) Why attack a bookstore or a bus shelter? I promise you, people of Greece, neither had much to do with your current situation and both will require some government funds to get back in order…and let’s be honest here, your government doesn’t have money to burn.

3) Why take to the streets in such rage? Sure, nobody likes to see taxes rise, but – let’s try to agree on this – in this case it’s a bit of a necessity. Your country is about to go broke. Your president needs to do this in order to secure the EU/IMF funds. Stop shouting and blowing things up already!

And yes, I agree, it isn’t fair that money is being taken from the poor masses rather than the rich elite. I’m not an economist and I can’t offer insightful commentary on this point because I haven’t put the time in to study the situation in detail. There may be a better system, but this one has been approved and it is better than the alternative (allowing the country to fall into bankruptcy), so stop it already!

In other news, a plane was forced into emergency landing because of “suspicious behaviour” by a woman in a burqa. You can read the story here, but the gist is that a few passengers complained about the woman and her companion. The plane was taken down when the woman wouldn’t defy her beliefs and take off her religious garb..

Note, the report does not say what this suspicious behaviour involved and the woman and her companion were set free after having been detained for questioning. This worries me on two levels.

Firstly it reeks of racism. So much so that I might have to leave the windows open all night so that my entire blog site doesn’t stink up. And it’s pretty cold outside, I’ll have you know.

Secondly I often act quite strangely – suspiciously, even – and I certainly don’t want to a) take my clothes off to prove my innocence or b) be detained for questioning in some random airport.

So I’ve decided to come up with a list of things that could be considered as “suspicious” enough to warrant an emergency landing:

1. Asking for more plane food.*


2. Juggling. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t find a juggling passenger slightly suspicious.


3. Reading a book with a title like “Terrorism; it’s fun!” or “How to make a bomb out of a toothpick and some plane food”


4. Intently staring at people.


5. Doing everything in slow motion. It messes with the mind.


6. Assembling a rifle you sneaked onto the plane in your wooden peg leg.


7. Taking a really long time in the toilet. Like an hour or two.


8. Playing cards and acting like it’s fun**.


9. Looking like you’re from a foreign, marginalised part of society; one which the media have sensationalised to a point of hysteria.

Okay I’m out of creative juices for the day….feel free to add to my list.

P.S.

The image is a screen shot of Google when you type in "Greek protests"... I found it both disturbing and amusing. No other country I tried the keywords with (and I even gave France a go) registered with every year like that.

*Personally I love plane food, but I suppose that justifies my concerns.

** I also do this on a semi-regular basis.