UK resembles Iran in this case

In the summer when temperatures are getting nice, a common spectacle is a water fight between children. They will attack each other with water pistols, supersoakers and waterbombs (little balloons filled with water).
And it's not surprising that students do the same and even organise elimination competitions.  They act like snipers in a sort of gang war that can take weeks.  A person who is shot wet, is declared "dead" and out of the game.

                                           Water fight in the Netherlands

                                           Water fight in Thailand
                                       
It's not surprising either that throwing and shooting water at each other is popular in other countries too. When you go on the internet you can find loads of pictures of water fights.
The water fight can even be found in the Guinness Book of Records: in 2007 there was a water fight of 2,671 people in Spain.

                                             Water fight in Thailand

You can even see water fights in reality shows.  This is a picture of a fight on the final episode of Jersey Shore on July 31 2011.

                                           Water fight in TV programme Jersey Shore

First it strikes you as odd that in Iran dozens of youngsters have been arrested by the morality police because of taking part in a shameful and corrupt event.  Some were forced to go on TV and admit they had been acting against the law.  Because of the water,  niqabs were sliding down and the girls were showing too much hair and sometimes the forms of their body could be vaguely distinguished. The mullahs and ayatollahs probably never were young themselves. I think the youth should be able to have some fun. But we know rules are very strict in Iran.
I read that these water fights are organised on Facebook just like they are in other countries.

                                           Water fight in Tehran, Iran

                                                        Water fight in Tehran, Iran

It really hit me as very amazing to read that in Colchester (U.K.) a young man of 20 has been arrested because of organising a water fight on Facebook. His arrest is based on a law dealing with heavy criminality installed in 2007. A second man was arrested but later released without charges.
It shows the danger of the super soaker for British society!
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Are the riots and looting in London anything new?

                                           Tottenham riots 2011

Everybody agrees on the fact that the death of Mark Duggan ignited the riots and looting that are taking place in London, Manchester and Birmingham. The man got shot.  First the people are told that the police were firing back when he opened fire and so he got hit.  Later the story changed into he was armed and considered dangerous.
There are two stories about what he was.  His family and friends tell  that he was a true family man, not really innocent but certainly no criminal. The police keep to the story that he was an important gang leader and a crack dealer. I fear we will have to wait a long time before the truth comes out about his life and death.

                                           Mark Duggan

It does show again that the police are not  great communicators.  There have been incidents before and the people don't forget. There was the death of newspaper salesman Ian Tomlinson in 2009 who happened to be in the neighbourhood when there were demonstrations.  He had nothing to do with these,  got hit anyway and died because of it.  Stories the police told were untrue,  there was plenty of filmed material to prove it.  Last year the lawyer Mark Saunders was killed after being surrounded by 59 policemen for hours.
And there was the case a few years ago of the Brasilian Jean-Charles de Menezes who got shot seven times in the head because the police thought he was an islamic terrorist.

                                           Death of Ian Tomlinson

Furthermore the police lost a great deal of respect because of the close connection between the top of the police and the tabloids of Rupert Murdoch. The disappearance of The News of the World will not change this  for the public.

                                             Margaret Thatcher

When we go back in time we see the riots of Brixton in 1981. These were the days of Margaret Thatcher and  her economics. The poor saw that they were getting poorer and the rich were getting richer. There was a lot of dissatisfaction and it caused the uprising of mostly black poor people. This was caused even more because of the police being close to being racists. Thatcher was not a person for showing mercy:  the miners and the Argentinian army (Falklands War) have witnessed this.

                                           David Cameron and George Osborn

David Cameron has a different approach. He wants everybody to share in his Big Society. Till now not everybody sees that there is an equal sharing.  According to Cameron the youngsters in the gangs just need more love.  Till now there have been more words than action, we still wait for the first signs of "Hug a Hoodie".

                                           The Gordon riots by painter Seymour Lucas

Some newspapers claim that there is an organisation behind the riots. The looters are in contact with each other by mobile phone and blackberry. There is no proof of this. I doubt if they need these.
There have been riots and looting since there are people on this world.
The largest riot in history in London happened in 1780: the Gordon riots in which almost 300 people got shot by the police.

                                           Crowning riots in Amsterdam in 1980

And of course it's also not a real British thing, think about the riots in Paris and several other cities in 1968.
And of the riots in the banlieus in France in 2005. Even the Netherlands had their own, for instance the Crowning riots in 1980. The use slogan of the rioters: "Geen woning, geen kroning". No house for us, no crown for you (Beatrix of Orange).

                                                    Eel pulling

                                                           Eel uprising in Amsterdam in 1886

A legendary riot is the Eel uprising in 1886. A policeman hindered a game of eel pulling. The eel pulling game was officially forbidden because it was a bit cruel. A living eel was bound on a rope that was hung over a canal. Little boats would go under it and try to get it off with risking to fall into the water.
The bystanders became angry with the policeman and he got a severe beating. Other policemen came to arrest the people responsible. Things got out of hand, a big riot resulted and 25 people got killed by the police.
According to historians it really was caused by a big gap in wealth between rich and poor. Not having a mobile phone or a blackberry did not stop the rioters.
Nothing new is happening in England.
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