NWO Orchestrated Protests

Jobless Youths Trigger Concerns in UK

February 24, 2011

Press TV - The think tank Demos will publish a report next month in which it would say the extent of the youth unemployment crisis is being severely underestimated, with the figure to witness an enormous 23 percent increase on the number of youths that are currently unemployed around the country, the Daily Mail reported.

The report will say that the qualifications of those youths who leave education at level 1 or 2 are “inadequate and offer young people little or no protection from unemployment.”

The warning comes on the day new official figures are due to be published, revealing the number of young people considered to be ‘Neets’ – ‘not in education, employment or training.’

The last figures to be published showed that 1,026,000 16 to 24-year-olds were ‘Neet’ in the third quarter of 2010.

And unemployment figures published last week showed that 965,000 16 to 24-year-olds are unemployed, depicting the highest number since the record began in 1992.

Demos is warning that the percentages ranging from 10 to 15 were the norm for youth unemployment in the 1990s, but the recession, and a kind of failure in the education system can change the norm figure to 20 percent.

“Young people who spend long periods unemployed at the beginning of their careers work less and earn less throughout their working lives,” said report author and Neet expert Jonathan Birdwell.

“There is a drought of entry-level jobs meaning the door to work is closed to many young people,” he added.

“Those who don’t go to university would normally acquire skills in their first jobs, but the disappearance of these positions means young people are getting hit twice – they get neither a salary nor skills,” said Birdwell.

Clashes in Greece During Anti-austerity Demonstration

Greek PM vows to pay back bailout loan

February 24, 2011

AFP - Police fired tear gas near the Greek Parliament yesterday as clashes broke out with stone-throwing protesters during a demonstration against austerity measures, an AFP reporter said.

The confrontation occurred near the finance ministry with police seeking to block protesters from approaching the building as thousands marched in Athens and other major cities in this year’s first general strike against wage and pension cuts.

At least 36,000 people according to police demonstrated in Athens, Thessaloniki and the port of Piraeus to reject economic policies dictated by Greece’s narrow bankruptcy rescue by the EU and the IMF last year.

With the fresh protests against Greek austerity measures yesterday, the country’s Prime Minister insisted that Greece will repay its bailout loan even as it seeks an extension.

“I can guarantee you we will pay it back. The Finnish taxpayer has nothing to worry about. We will pay it back with interest,” Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said during a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart Mari Kiviniemi.

Mr Papandreou is on a European tour to drum up support for Athen’s case that it should get more time to pay back the massive bailout loan granted by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

In Greece, meanwhile, a general strike paralysed maritime traffic and train services, disrupted urban transport in Athens and grounded flights for several hours.

Hospitals, government offices, banks and schools were also affected.

“I understand the pain ... I sometimes would like to tell the protestors that I would like to be out there protesting with them because I am not happy but we need more than protests,” Mr Papandreou told reporters in Helsinki.

He said that in the past year, his government had implemented 80 percent of the required austerity measures that have sparked such anger in Greece, pointing to reforms of the pension system, local governance and taxation, for example.

Finnish Premier Kiviniemi meanwhile would not say whether she believed a loan extension was a viable option.

“I won’t go into the specifics now but we are ready to make at the European level a comprehensive package,” Ms Kiviniemi said, adding that if an extension were granted, payment could not be postponed indefinitely.

Mr Papandreou was in Berlin on Tuesday for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the possibility of getting an extension for repayment.