I know that the biggest thing out of the Justin Beiber-verse right now is the fact that 20 year old fan Mariah Yeater is claiming he’s her baby daddybut “The Bieb” might be the cause of something even more significant across the pond, according to a recent report in the Christian Science Monitor.
Spain is like many nations across Europe over the last half decade. Center right politicians have come to power initiating austerity measures and cutting back on social services and benefits that were once seen as the standard in European life. The consequences of this are unprecedented levels of unemployment, and a shredding of the social safety net. In the case of Spain 44% of young people are without work, which has led to protests and demonstrations all throughout the year. This May, after a protest in the public square of Madrid, a group of students decided to camp out overnight to discuss future plans and demonstrations to fight impending government cuts. Police quickly came on the scene and forced all 40 students to move, sometimes in a less than gentle manner. The kicker is that just a few nights before, a whole throng of students was allowed to sleep in the public square in order to get in line for Justin Bieber tickets – the cops had no problem with that. Then, via Twitter, the cry went out: “We can sleep on the square for Bieber tickets, but not to discuss our future.”
With that as an unlikely rallying cry the “Occupy Spain” movement went viral, got serious and now has spread all across Europe. Imagine a silly little Pop singer from Canada becoming the catalyst for a nationwide movement for equity and fair government. Un-Belieb-able! http://belieber.com/
This article originally appeared at Politic365.com.