Fire in Husby

The explosive riots by young people in Husby a surburb of stockholm,the swedish capital follows the shooting to death of a pensioner who had threatened police with a knife while tey were visiting his flat on an emergency call. Eveything started on sunday May 19 when police were responding to a car on fire in Kista,another surburb in the south of stockholm,where they met by stone throwing youth. Wanton destruction of property later spread to Husby which is quite close to Kista.The disturbances continued on Monday,may 20, when eight more cars were set on fire.Three young suspects were arrested as suspects but later released.On Teusday,May 21,27 cars were set on fire in areas around Husby. The unrest has now spread.In Rågsvärd,windows of cars were destroyed and a police station set on fire. In surrounding surburbs such as öåööHjulsta,Rinkeby,Farsta,Tensta,Hagalund,Salem,Norsborg,Fruängen,Bredäng,Södertälje, and Hagsätra ,there have been reports of destruction of property through fire or stone throwing as well as vandalisation of schools.The unrest has been going on for at least five days. The root causes of the unrest have been attributed to a sense of hopelessness,high unemployment in the surburbs,diversion of resources from poor communities to more privileged ones , lack of meaningful leisure time activities for the youth and frustration. A recent OECD report notes that the gap between rich and poor in sweden has increased dramatically in recent years. Indeed,Sweden has moved from first to fourteenth place in the league of the most egalitarian countries,says the report.According OECD relative poverty is that portion of the population whose disposal income is lower than fifty per cent of the country's median income..Median income is income in the middle class. Material or absolute poverty is related to level of income.Relative poor people run the risk of material poverty.It is defined as as inability to afford at least three of the following-rent for accomodation,interest on loans,an unexpected expense,inability to afford a week's vacation at another place,cost of a washing machine,colout tv,cost of protein or a telephone. In Rinkeby 53% of the population earn less than 160,000 swedish kronor per annum(approx 24,000 dollars)while it is 53% in Tensta and in stockholm the figure is 30%. The sequence has been the same regardless of whether it was Los Angeles(1992),Seine Saint- Denis(2005),Tootenham(2011) or Husby 2013.Somebody from the area is in conflict with police with a deadly outcome.For example,the shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham by police provoked a huge protest. Finally,when everything returns to normal.It is the people in the affected areas whether they burnt cars or had their cars or businesses destroyed,windows broken,bus stops or schools vandalised who are the biggest losers.The issue is why people in the affected areas lashed out at others living in the same community ?. åIndeed,riots have become international.One view is that riots will always shock as long as privatisation continues leading to economic inequality which promotes social unrest especially when it is combined with police brutality and racism.