Athenians riot when a 15 year old student, Alexander Grigoropoulos is killed in the Exarheia district, Athens' "Quartier latin", by a policeman's bullet, a "ricoched one" according to the policeman's lawyer, a direct hit according to eyewitnesses. What is certain is that he is a victim of an uninhabitable city that hosted the pharaonic Olympics, which added more unsustainable buildings and roads and brought security paranoia, cameras and an armed & militarised police with "rambo" mentality patrolling the sea of cement that is the inner city of Athens, once more (as in ancient times) a globalised metropolis complete with ghettoes for all those who fail to partake in the bright side of globalisation, unemployed and radicalised youth, poorly paid "illegal'' immigrants fleeing western wars in the east, trafficked prostitutes from western Africa and eastern Europe, mob gangs and laid off workers and ... and...
In Athens, and other large cities worldwide, citizens are in need of peaceful solutions for all to tackle a growing crisis that runs far deeper than the price of oil and stocks, a crisis of the whole model. The same system that finds billions so easily for banks, arms, lavish events, wasteful luxury items and exclusive resorts, leaves one third of society out in the cold, easy prey to the hands of religious extremists. Waste, pollution, violence, intolerance, inequality, ignorance must stop. The solution can be peaceful and green but it must be radical in content and magnitude, and certainly includes Ecological Tourism in inner cities, rural areas and 'developing' countries.

Possible measures include taking education out of the four walls of prison-like schools, totally overhauling and retraining the police, and finding meaningful employment for the 20% of unemployed youths, possibly through subsidising positions at quality NGOs. More money for Education today, or more for Prisons tomorrow!