Italy: self-immolations in response to austerity

[Hapax]

There are reports of a number of recent suicides in Italy, triggered by the financial crash. Now in the news are two men who attempted to burn themselves to death:


A 58-year-old builder accused of tax evasion set himself alight in his car in Bologna on Wednesday.

Another builder, a 27-year-old Moroccan, set himself on fire outside the town hall in Verona on Thursday, saying that he had not been paid for four months.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17556273

While this is highly distressing in itself, it also echoes the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi, whose death in Tunisia in spring of last year initiated uprisings of the Arab spring.

[Kev Bar]

Meanwhile

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17545174


One young demonstrator told the BBC that Spain was a "market dictatorship".

[PaddyJoe]

Meanwhile

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17545174


One young demonstrator told the BBC that Spain was a "market dictatorship".
What has changed in Spain in the last few months is the government. The divisions between left and right are huge and now that the PP are in government there won't be any more half hearted protests. The 'austerity' debate was confused to some extent over the last couple of years because of the PSOE being in government.
No more ambiguity:)

[fluffybiscuits]

Great article in the Guardian today in relation to self immolation. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/29/self-immolation-freedom-tibetan-exile-jamphel-yeshi Ireland has used it as a tool to battle the oppression by the British from Pearse to Sands but in modern Ireland has anyone done it or are we not that type of people? Its not going to the last case of this happening either. Each day people are growing tired of not being able to provide for a family and in particular for a family where the breadwinners are not out of work things are going to get worse.

[C. Flower]

Terrible waste of lives. Self-immolation must come out of rage, frustration and despair and at the same time a hope that somehow their death might change something.

It also suggests that these people are in a desperate position, see no future for themselves, see absolutely no political outlet for changing things, feel they are not being listened to, that they feel isolated and that they have no alternative to acting alone. I don't think they are in the same position as the Irish hunger strikers who acted as a group, and as part of a movement, and who didn't want to die.

In Tunisia, Mohammed Bouazizi's death was a wake up call to generations of people who had felt powerless to change things. They understood how frustrated he had been, and how humiliated by the authorities, and they made a decision to act, and organise, in their masses, rather than in the form of isolated protests.

[ZeroWedge]

From the BBC article


The man in the first incident had reportedly left a suicide note to the tax agency, protesting his innocence.

With Italy in such serious economic trouble, there is now a much more rigorous pursuit of those who do not pay what they owe the state, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.Its clear to me that the man was protesting against being hounded and harassed by the greedy public sector, whose never-ending greed for more taxes can never be satisfied.

[fluffybiscuits]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20912616

Man in Spain sets himself on fire because of financial problems, we dont know the half of it..

[C. Flower]

Monti said that Greek and Irish bailouts are pushing Italy's debt up.

[Apjp]

Great article in the Guardian today in relation to self immolation. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/29/self-immolation-freedom-tibetan-exile-jamphel-yeshi Ireland has used it as a tool to battle the oppression by the British from Pearse to Sands but in modern Ireland has anyone done it or are we not that type of people? Its not going to the last case of this happening either. Each day people are growing tired of not being able to provide for a family and in particular for a family where the breadwinners are not out of work things are going to get worse.

Martyrdom is not really suicide though is it? Pearse and Connolly etc. knew exactly what they were dying for and had a certain satisfaction in meeting their deaths knowing(somehow) the reaction it would provoke. These lads who committed suicide in Tunisia, Italy Greece etc. have all died in a depressive state of unimaginable pyschological torture.

[C. Flower]

Martyrdom is not really suicide though is it? Pearse and Connolly etc. knew exactly what they were dying for and had a certain satisfaction in meeting their deaths knowing(somehow) the reaction it would provoke. These lads who committed suicide in Tunisia, Italy Greece etc. have all died in a depressive state of unimaginable pyschological torture.

I don't believe for one moment that either Pearse or Connolly wanted to die.
They wanted to fight. They were living at a time when there were millions of people dying in a war over borders.

I do agree with you about the mental and emotional state of people who killed themselves.

[People Korps]

I don't believe for one moment that either Pearse or Connolly wanted to die.
They wanted to fight. They were living at a time when there were millions of people dying in a war over borders.

I do agree with you about the mental and emotional state of people who killed themselves.

Correct on all points CF

[fluffybiscuits]

Martyrdom is not really suicide though is it? Pearse and Connolly etc. knew exactly what they were dying for and had a certain satisfaction in meeting their deaths knowing(somehow) the reaction it would provoke. These lads who committed suicide in Tunisia, Italy Greece etc. have all died in a depressive state of unimaginable pyschological torture.

Well its others who martyr the respective people who commit suicide through these methods. You are correct these people whom are dying in Greece, Italy, Spain etc are all under great pressure and we can only imagine the angst they are going through but the people like the Tibetan monk who set himself alight or others who died for a cause are held to be martyrs for their cause by others. Suicide should never be an option for anyone in this world we can all agree on that but when people martyr them that is when suicide seems to become more appealing,. peoplem feel they contribute more in death than life I guess.