It must be something in the water: Interesting image regarding the locus of turmoil, being in countries that are on the Mediterranean Sea:
>
click for ginormous map
Hat tip Jason
(anyone recognize this? What is the original source?)
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
The best way to keep money in perspective is to have some. —Louis Rukeyser
"It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine" say the French as consumer confidence in May rose to the highest since Nov '10 as they welcome and get excited about new Pres Hollande. Also, the French 10 yr bond yield touched the lowest on record this morning. June consumer confidence in Germany held at 5.7, just .2 pts off the highest since Mar '11. To the euro bond debate which is now taking on greater rhetoric with those with high bond yields wanting them and those with low ones saying no way, ECB member...
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November 9th, 2011 at 7:43 am
History does repeat itself…The Mediterranean was the birthplace of modern day culture, politics, mathematics, astrology, cuisine, wine making, personal freedom and the Renaissance. Here we are centuries and millenia later and the Mediterranean is yet again at the helm when it comes to change that will affect us all.
November 9th, 2011 at 7:45 am
Wow, that in amazing!
Would never have thought to see it in “the bigger picture” : )))
-TL
November 9th, 2011 at 8:13 am
I am glad you posted this. As you can see from the inequality ranking in the Gini Index (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality), all these countries (except Lybia) are in the top half of the more equal countries in the world. And I am not counting Belgium, Iceland, France and many others who had their PMs removed and/or their opwn version of social unrest.
This should finally put an end to the widespread myth that income equality buys social peace.
November 9th, 2011 at 8:21 am
I blame cheap local wine.
November 9th, 2011 at 8:25 am
With French spreads at 150 it’s time to add another bonfire to the party.
November 9th, 2011 at 8:33 am
Doesn’t change the argument, but really… Portugal isn’t on the Med. Nor is Ireland (missed that one, did he?)
November 9th, 2011 at 8:42 am
Um, no little “hot zone” for political unrest in Iraq, Afganistan, Mali, Niger or Sudan?
I think there’s a little data filtering going on there.
November 9th, 2011 at 8:45 am
@stoned
The Mediterranean was not the birthplace of the industrial revolution, explosives, electronics, telecommunications, railroads, modern medicine, atomic energy, refrigeration…
November 9th, 2011 at 8:49 am
Remember the biblical story of Noah and the great flood? The story is based a natural occurrence caused by tectonic fault lines that run underneath the Mediterranean. An article in Nature estimates a major Tsunami incident in the Med, may occur approximately. Every 800 years (last incidence just below Crete AD 365).
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v1/n4/full/ngeo151.html
I do believe there is a link between geography and the kind of behavioural characteristics that get favoured throughout the process of living and dying.
November 9th, 2011 at 9:17 am
I messed around with google’s new image search function. You drag and drop the image into the search box, and google magically finds similar images all across the interwebs.
It found many images with similar colors, but it didn’t find another use of this image.
November 9th, 2011 at 9:18 am
@Dylan: There also is a theory that the great flood was actually the breaking of the Dardanelles and flooding of the depression that is now the Black Sea.
Otherwise that soft whistling coming up from the Mediterranean are the Winds of Change (soon at gale force).
November 9th, 2011 at 9:21 am
Dylan Says:
November 9th, 2011 at 8:49 am
I do believe there is a link between geography and the kind of behavioural characteristics that get favoured throughout the process of living and dying.
reply:
———-
Of course. These countries all have favorable climates, more or less, which promotes a more laid back attitude than urban countries. The people here can live decent lives, politics permitting, without the need to raise capital for urbanization and all that accompanies it. However, to get along in the world, there is a call to action for those who want a more modern and competitive lifestyle. The more urbanized neighbors want them to be a part of their world for various reasons. A sizable part of the locals say ‘piss off, Europe. We just want to chill.” This is the conflict.
November 9th, 2011 at 10:00 am
Not likely. Just data mining of what our own particular headlines are focused on. Plenty of crises elsewhere to go around.
November 9th, 2011 at 10:41 am
@NoKidding : do you mean that Marconi (wireless), Volta (battery), the Venice Arsenal (invention of the first modern factory processes), Marie Curie (nuclear medicine), Pasteur (vaccination, pasteurisation), Damini (clooning)… are NOT the founders of modern technology ?
Even the highway (Autostrada) like you know it now, is a “recent” invention from Southern Europe.
But probably you are referring to the microprocessor and CPU build by the American company Intel. The project leader is true legend : Federico Faggin an Italian (“oh no”) born engineer who recently receive medal of innovation by Obama.
Please inform yourself before posting.
November 9th, 2011 at 10:58 am
This seems too much like some sort of Biblical prophecy thing. I try to avoid those as best I can.
I prefer jaymaster’s cheap local wine explanation.
November 9th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Why isn’t there any flame icon by Israel (home of one of the longest running conflicts in the 20th century & still not settled) or Syria?
This reminds me of the volcanic “ring of fire” (which has also been “acting up” lately).
November 9th, 2011 at 2:07 pm
IS THIS A REVEAL?
Systems Failure (but not limited to Mediterranean) – Governments’ negligent, reckless and/or criminal mismanagement of national economies and resources until they are overthrown via peaceful or violent revolution … all accelerated by tremendous advances in communication technology, primarily the Internet, increasingly limiting government control of information reaching 99%.
Or
Somehow there must be a way to blame all this on Barack Obama, Barney Frank or school teachers in New Jersey.
November 9th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
Made me laugh.
Now, make a map on wars, those involving Muslims on one or both sides, and those not involving Muslims on either side.
November 9th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Map leaves out Syria.
November 9th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
@gms777
Yes, I had noticed that also. It wouldn’t be a stretch either to include Lebanon and Israel, thereby completing the “Mediterranean Ring of Fire”? (Club Med for short)
November 10th, 2011 at 11:55 am
This map is absurdly selective, as NoKidding points out at 8:42am.
- Haven’t some of the Balkans had some bank crises and government turmoil in the past 2 years? Is that all resolved or are we just not hearing as much about it lately?
- Aren’t the police in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Syria shooting live rounds at some protestors?
- Aren’t there ongoing “Christian”-led occupations of and wars in and terrorist attacks on several Muslim countries?
- Weren’t there “color revolutions” in some countries on the right-hand side of the map?
- What about banks in Belgium, France, and Germany that need bailouts and rioting in the UK?
And we know even less about some of the other countries in that map, simply because there’s even less coverage about them — not because s* ain’t happening.