Video from Al Jazeera English

We will either die here of hunger and thirst, or be eaten by wild animals.

Due to debt and crop failure, 1500 Indian farmers have taken their own lives.

“Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well.”

Article fromThe Independent: 1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India

ATHENS, GREECE: Today, as the Agrocultural Minister is in Brussels convincing the EU of the need for a stimulis package, a boat load (literaly) of Cretan farmers will run their tractors into the city, hoping to drive home (also literally) their demands for help. The Greek government has already offered 500 million Euros worth of hand-outs to the farmers (borrowed from the EU), but the farmers don’t believe that is enough. They have been using tractors as road blocks and staging other protests all over the country.

It’s interesting that the Kathimerini article points out that the Alternate Interior Minister is Cretan. There are possibly some ethnic politics as an undercurrent to the protest.

I’m not a farmer by trade, but I doubt if tractors are very fuel efficient. Hopefully, the hand outs will be enough to reimburse them for gas.

Article from Kathimerini English: Farmers head for Athens