Time Magazine named “The Protester” its person of the year due to the events in the Arab world and Occupy Wall Street. In 2012, it’s tough to look at the state of the world and expect anything different.
The places to watch will be Europe, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China. Earlier this week, Chinese authorities broke up a 13,000-strong protest in Wukan. “If we have to die, we’ll die,” one villager was quoted as saying. More here.
China has a long history of strife between wealthy coastal cities and inland farmers. If/when the economy slows, scenes like this will be disquieting for the tenuous recovery. A photo like this is all a commodities trader needs to see, before hitting ‘sell’.
