May 31, 2012

Christine Lagarde: "My words were misunderstood"

Right.... Lagarde, head of IMF, took her words about the Greeks back. It was all a misunderstanding, silly! She called us all tax-evaders and we thought she called us all tax-evaders. What is it you don't understand, dumbhead?

*Her Facebook account got more than 36.000 comments on this particular "misunderstanding" bringing the retracting post up to the main search results through Google search for "Christine Lagarde Facebook".

May 12, 2012

"Germany Pays to Save Greeks" and Other Bedtime Stories

Former Greek prime minister George Papandreou says that when he asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for gentler conditions in 2010, she replied that the aid program had to hurt. "We want to make sure nobody else will want this!" Ms. Merkel told him.



Also read the very detailed and lengthy report on how the austerity plan has failed on the Wall Street Journal.

May 11, 2012

Lessons from the Greek Crisis 3: We Shall Dance...the Day we Get a Chance


"We shall dance, we shall dance
The day we get a chance
To pay off all the violins of the ball
We shall dance, we shall dance
The day we get a chance
To get a dime to buy back our souls
We shall dance, we shall sing
My dear love, O my spring
My love good days will come"



Greek singer Demis Roussos from 1971 sings with his emotional, sweet voice "We Shall Dance" in a rare
recording.





Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child (including later day music stars Vangelis on keyboards and Demis Roussos in vocals) perform "Rain and Tears" in 1969.

"Rain and tears are the same, but in the sun you've got to play the game"

May 4, 2012

When Pre-elections Management Ignores Human Tragedy

The publication of the photographs and private data of the 17 (illegal) prostitutes who were found HIV-positive in Greece the other day and were sent to prison awaiting their trial (accused of spreading an incurable disease to the population) is part of a cunning but unethical political campaign on the part of the governing party, PASOK. This dawns upon anyone discovering the tragic stories of the girls and women (most of whom were also junkies, a couple of whom were brought into the country to prostitute, one of whom was impregnated by a client) who have been heavily exploited by other people, men in the system, in the majority of cases, who are allowed to escape scot-free.


Surely spreading AIDS is bad, but aren't the people who are prostituting these women responsible too? Aren't they responsible for encouraging them to engage in unprotected sex? And aren't the men who actually seek illegal prostitutes (in a country where prostitution is legal -one of very few in Europe as seen from the chart, refer to link for details- and there are regulated brothels where you know the women are routinely checked by a medical team every two weeks!) and engage in unprotected sex with them responsible as well?

Where does the exploitation of human being from human being end? And how far can political games in a ravaged by politicians country go?