why fire?

what's really messed up is everyone taking a "left" or "right" stance on this. this is not a left extremist who set himself aligh. this is a miserable man who's given up on a system that's screwed him. the protest is not for left-wingers only, and it's a shame that that's how the media portrays it. the only reason the left-wing parties are the only ones promenently displayed during all the marches is because the right-wingers decided not to join from the get-go.

i'm not saying what he did was a wonderful thing, but it's a clear indicator of ultimate distress and desperation and to judge him as reckless and inconsiderate is not "wrong", rather "irrelevant".

i'm not a socialist - far from it - but i do believe that the way things are being run isn't clean capitalism either. if they're going to take so much of our money, they need to give us something back for it.

and i'm not blaming right-wing governments, either. i think all of our parties, left, right, and right down the middle, are equally guilty.

gco: it's not the way to do things in a non-third world society, that's all it boils down to. even if the government doesnt budge at every tel aviv resident's wish (which they shouldn't anyway), it's still not an acceptable way to do things and make points. it shows the weakness of the protests and the desperation. if the people had so much faith in the protests then there would be no need for this. the protests are lame, pathetic and will change nothing.

a) this is NOT a tel-aviv only thing. it's not a left-wing only thing. anyone who continues to perpetuate the whole left / right thing simply doesn't get what these protests are about. our government, and it doesn't matter if it's this one or the next one, doesn't give a shit about its citizens and that's not democracy in action. WE HAVE NO INTERNAL POLICY, which means that education, health, environment are being neglected. if that's a left-only thing, then everyone on the right is a masochist.

b) it shows the weakness of the protests. that is PRECISELY the point. the protests are useless, voting is useless... so, umm... what exactly is anyone who cares about this country supposed to do?

your comment about the third world is pertinent: we should be living in a democracy, and that's supposed to be a system with representation. not everyone gets what they want, but the majority get a fair deal. if you feel like you're getting a fair deal, you're not the majority. shit - i'm not the majority, but i'm aware that i'm paying taxes that aren't going towards our own infrastructure, and that we're on a downward spiral with governments who don't understand sustainability.

if you think that this dude, after so much frustration and shafting, should have crawled into a corner and quietly offed himself, then what you're saying is that you don't want to hear his voice. did you hear it before?

i didn't.