I Am Greek (Will I Work for Peanuts?)

collage via tromaktiko.gr

No Pasarán

 Yesterday's vote of the Cypriot parliament to the EuroGroup-suggested (!!) plan for cutting a significant percentage of money deposits of citizens and companies in Cypriot banks was met with a resounding NO. There was not a single "yes" among the votes. For once hellenism stood and opposed the vulture-like appetites of the European credit system, instead of succumbing like Greek politicians have done so far, with George A. Papandreou leading this catastrophic dance.

But nothing is simple. In Cyprus right now there is a strenuous battle going on: between Berlin and Moscow. There is great Russian and British interest in Cyprus and its banking system, because many companies and individuals from those two countries have bank deposits in its banks. There is also the geopolitical importance of the island, the gas reserves, the proximity to Turkey controlled pipes etc.
 It is also the apex of the strange, economically-wielded World Word War III which looks like it will demolish the dream of the Unified Europe, because there is no will (and no resistance) to oppose the disruptive voices. And Germany (its administrations) is again responsible for the ominous Balkanization of Europe with all the repercussions this might entail. It remains to be seen if Cyprus will be the explosive cocktail to set Europe on fire.

Song to Athens: Nick Cave and His Lighting Bolts

It probably takes someone who has lived and loved this city and the Greek people (both locally and in Australia) to feel and share the dread of what this fate inflicted on us means for the whole world: a darkly foreboding tale of despair.

Επανάσταση και κοινωνικό υπόβαθρο

Από άρθρο του Κάρολου Μπρούσαλη: "Θέλει παιδεία η επανάσταση"
(http://bit.ly/XXACWU).

Η κατευθυνόμενη λογική θέλει τα «παιδιά των βορείων προαστίων» να παίρνουν τα όπλα για να διασκεδάσουν την ανία τους, καθ’ όσον «τα έχουν όλα». Όμως, «τα είχε όλα» και ο κόμης Μιραμπό στη Γαλλία του 1789, όταν επέβαλε τον «όρκο του σφαιριστηρίου» και πρώτος σήκωσε μπαϊράκι ενάντια στον Λουδοβίκο ΙΣΤ’. «Τα είχε όλα» και ο δούκας της Ορλεάνης που μετέτρεψε τους απέραντους κήπους του σε άσυλο των διαδηλωτών, τον ίδιο καιρό. Και «όλα τα είχε» ο δημοσιογράφος Ντεμουλέν που καλούσε «στα όπλα» τα πλήθη, τα οποία τελικά κυρίευσαν την Βαστίλλη.
Πατέρα ραβίνο και πλούσιο δικηγόρο είχε ο Καρλ Μαρξ, πατέρα εργοστασιάρχη ο Φρίντριχ Έγκελς που συνέγραψαν το κομμουνιστικό μανιφέστο στα 1848. Τσιφλικάς ήταν ο πατέρας του Μιχαήλ Αλεξάντροβιτς Μπακούνιν που ίδρυσε τον αναρχισμό και πήρε τα όπλα όπου υπήρχε εστία αναταραχής στην εποχή του. Πρίγκιπας, ο Πέτρος Κροπότκιν που θεμελίωσε επιστημονικά τον αναρχισμό διδάσκοντας: «Ο νόμος της εξέλιξης της ανθρωπότητας είναι ο νόμος της προόδου. Το Κράτος είναι εμπόδιο στην εξέλιξη και μέλλει να καταργηθεί». Είτε το θέλουμε είτε όχι, η επανάσταση συμβαδίζει με την καλή μόρφωση. Γι’ αυτό κι ο Κοραής επιθυμούσε μορφωμένο λαό που θα οδηγιόταν στον ξεσηκωμό εναντίον των Τούρκων.

Lessons from the Greek Crisis 5: There Will Be Oranges

This is a Western world country. This is a bag of oranges, part of farmers' association gifting of their products to the needy in protest for having their prices dropped while their costs have skyrocketed. These are not beggars, but normal, everyday people who have lost their jobs, seen their pensions cut down to nothing, lost their income and their livelihood and have become hopeless.
This is our dignity brought to its knees while the IMF is admitting their "wrong calculations" but isn't changing anything.

This is a 6 February 2013 exhibit.

For how much longer?

More pics: lifo.gr

Christmas Gifts

by Kipper Williams for Guardian

Greece is its own gift.

Lessons from the Greek Crisis 4: Because there are people who are hungry

"We must both have been hungry because we constantly led the conversation round to food. "What is your favorite dish, grandad?" "All of them, my son. It's a great sin to say this is good and that is bad." "Why? Can't we make a choice?" "No, of course we can't." "Why not?" "Because there are people who are hungry." I was silent, ashamed. My heart had never been able to reach that height of nobility and compassion. "

 ~Nikos Kazantzakis, Life and Adventures of Alexis Zorbas

film still from Zorba, the Greek

Greece is Not a Dog: the Arrogance of the Austerians

"One of the most extreme pronunciations came from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a recent pre-election debate with Labour leader Diederik Samsom. Samsom openly asked Rutte whether, in order to save Greece and the euro, he would be willing to cough up the money for another bailout. (Obviously, it’s not about “giving” this money, it’s about expensive loans. But let’s leave that aside). No, Rutte yelled. Why not? Because it would be extremely unwise to say that now, for the Greeks would immediately slow down, sit back and stop privatizing and reforming. After all, they would count their blessings in advance, knowing full well that “someone would pay for them” again and therefore refuse to do anything whatsoever. And so Samsom had to be careful with his words, because the Greeks were listening along — and they would “now receive a completely perverse incentive” from the Labour leader.

 Rutte: “we have to keep them on a tight leash.”

Excuse me?

As if Greece were a dog. As if the Greeks were shitty little kids grabbing every opportunity to skirt their responsibilities. What an idiotic way of doing international politics. What an arrogant attitude toward people who are bending over backwards to stay inside of “Europe”. Rutte apparently has such a deep distrust and such a profound contempt for our fellow EU member state that we — from the point of view of Ruttian pedagogy — have to actively deceive them and, above all, should not let them know that they can count on any further bailouts if needed. As Prime Minister, Rutte has already made it known that he has “nothing to do with the Greeks”.

From a staggeringly to the point article (and insightful comments from readers) by Dutch journalist Ingeborg Beugel on September 11, 2012 at the Roar magazine

Fighting Back

Alex, a Greek stereotype?

Opposition to George A.Papandreou Teaching Seminars at Harvard: The Ire of Hypocrisy

A Greco-American professor opposes the invitation by Harvard to George A.Papandreou, former prime minister of Greece during the height of the crisis, to teach seminars to its students on "ways to get out of a crisis" etc.

Worth reading:


Dear Mr. Trey Grayson, Director of Harvard School Institute of Politics,

 From the Website of the Institute, I was informed that the Fellows and Study group Program has organized a series of seminars /discussions, titled "Redesigning Europe", to be presented and led by George Papandreou (http://www.iop.harvard.edu/redesigning-europe-led-george-papandreou ).

 Please understand that for the majority of Greeks who live in Greece and experience the hardships, as well as for Greek Americans who, in desperation and indignation are watching Greece drowning and do not know how to help, GEORGE PAPANDREOU IS A WANTED MAN. A man who should be investigated for treason, a man who, intentionally or unintentionally (unfortunately there is a lot of evidence for the former) bears the greatest responsibility for Greece's downfall and for the consequences on the Greek people, which range from closing their businesses and losing their jobs to ending up homeless or committing suicide. It is inappropriate for your prestigious institute, at these crucial times, to invite George Papandreou to offer his insights regarding "sovereign debt crisis", "solutions to global problems", "Will austerity make our economies competitive?" etc. Is he, seriously, the authority to talk about austerity and the impact on a country's competitiveness? Presenting himself as a "socialist", I doubt that he will advocate austerity measures as a means to increase a country's competitiveness. Yet, this is exactly what he dragged Greece into. Do you see the hypocrisy here?

Considering his recent "achievements", is George Papandreou a suitable person "to inspire students to consider careers in politics and public service", which is the mission of your Institute? Do you understand that inviting this individual to lead a study group in your institution (an invitation that honors G. Papandreou and indicates that you hold high respect for him and his views) is a slap in the face for the Greek people? Please do not allow these seminars to continue. Cancel these seminars on the basis that you received many complaints from Greeks, and your prestigious Institute cannot afford to organize and sponsor questionable programs.

 Thank you,
Vassiliki Aroniadou-Anderjaska,
Ph.D. Research Associate Professor
Dept. of Anatomy, Physiology, and Genetics and Dept. of Psychiatry,

F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine USUHS / HJF 4301
Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814

Hermes: The Summer Campaign is Shot on Aegina Island, Greece

The beauty of the pictures speaks for itself. The purity of line, the wisdom of time, the sparsity of luxury. All these are represented perfectly by the French sellier -which became the fashion and leathergoods luxe house- and the eternal Greek ideal. The mighty, sturdy olive, gigantic through the passage of the centuries, the clear skies, the flowing fabrics, the architectural lines, the "nothing in excess" spirit.

The campaign's motto? "Le Temps Devant Soi"...time before you.

Enjoy!

The Three Major European Mistakes Towards the Greek Crisis

In a detailed article signed "Diogenes" by a group of professors of economics, bankers and specialists in the French economic paper Les Echos the three major mistakes perpetrated by the Europeans towards Greece are delineated. It is again made clear, as we have referenced in these pages before, that the euro crisis and the austerity put on Greece as a means to devalue the euro only benefits one party: the dollar (as attested by numbers). And furthermore, those who doth protest too much (i.e. the AngloSaxon press) are exactly the ones whose countries and institutions stand to gain the most.

Here is the English translation of the Les Echos article. Very worth a read:


"The European leaders who have accepted 21 July 2011 not to support Greece in exchange for a downgrading of its debt led us into an unknown world, and especially uncontrollable. Those referring to the Argentine crisis a decade ago forget one thing: the Argentine banking system was closed, like any national currency system. Foreign exchange position passed by the balance sheets of the central bank. The latter could unilaterally block the exchange to avoid capital flight. That's what she did. And without telling anyone: in these conditions the effect of surprise is essential. Those who lived through the devaluations of the franc remember: until the last moment the Minister of Finance denied any problem taking speculators by surprise.

By introducing the Euro, European countries have created an open system where money flows freely. Greek banks can safely transfer the assets of their clients in France, a bank in Anglo-Saxon, for example, that he not be allowed to change of the euro against the dollar or sterling. Using one of the benefits of the euro which allows citizens to use the same currency in all countries of the euro area, the Greeks could "nationalize" their savings in dollars and convert easily. It is therefore not possible to set up a special exchange control for the Greeks.

If we continue the argument, before anybody could do anything whatsoever, and this is almost a year while it lasts,in Europe there will remain but the debts of Greece and Spain. The assets will be elsewhere. It is these assets that are vital to restart their economies. European leaders were wrong - at least-three times.

By breaking the pact of solidarity of the single currency, with of course the excellent reason that the Greeks have lied. By taking action whenever insufficient but more expensive, they went back to the public in those countries without a solution. Letting time pass, they allowed the Greeks and Spaniards who were rich enough to take the necessary steps to get their assets out of their country.
To continue in the same way, all they need to choose between two options: do nothing or decide that Greece should leave the euro.

The big winners are therefore the dollar, the U.S. economy, which desperately needs cash to finance its deficits, and the Anglo-Saxon banks who take their commissions in the process. In a world where competition is fierce, victory belongs to those who demonstrate the ability to move, to decide to act against a Europe mired in its selfishness and its divisions."

"_________ is not Greece": Geez Louise, Spanking New Thought, huh!

In a lengthy catalogue, Business Insider quotes the times Greece has been used as the "black sheep" compared to which other countries seem much more...I don't know, tamer? more obedient? more organized? more secure financially? You take your pick.

The truth is this makes one fact and one fact alone crystal clear, if anyone had any doubts: Greece is unique. There's just no other place like it on god's green earth! When you'll about to close your eyes forever, won't you regret not having visited even once?

Just take a look!

pic: big blue..eternal white...Santorini, Greece via LaPartdesAnges on Flickr.com

“You send the money, you call it a ‘loan’ — you get it back and call it an ‘interest rate' ”

An interesting article published in the New York Times, stating the obvious: Most aid to Athens circles back to Europe.

This is a pretty good explanation on why the popular argument that Greece has received the biggest bailout program in history and should have got its act together by now is ignorant. The truth is, the average Greek and the Greek state don't even see most of this money given as "aid"; it all aids the pay of interest rates on the loans originally got! (and let's not start on how the original loans were scheduled with false fiscal numbers which were allegedly "cooked" by Goldman Sachs)

"As they pay themselves, though, the troika members are also withholding other funds intended to keep the Greek government in operation. Last week, the Athens office that tracks revenue said Greece could run out of money by July. If so, Greece could default on its debts — except those due to the central bank, the monetary fund and the European Union.

“Greece will not default on the troika because the troika is paying themselves,” said Thomas Mayer, a senior adviser at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt.

In an elaborate payment system that began after the May 6 election that brought down the Greek government and is meant to ensure that the Greeks do not touch the cash, the big three creditors are now wiring bailout payments to an escrow account in Greece. There the money sits for two or three days — before much of it is sent back to the troika as interest payments on the Greek bonds that Europe accepted under terms of the bailout deal struck in February. About three-quarters of Greece’s debt, or $229 billion, is now effectively owned by one of the three troika members, according to estimates by the investment bank UBS."

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".

"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.

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"

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?

Sarkozy: You Flunk on both Geopolotics 101 & Europolitics 101

Nicolas Sarkozy, in great part responsible for the direction of European politics since 2007, has come out with a preposterous suggestion: That France closes its borders to inter-European move from members of other countries of the European Union! After the economic and fiscal solitude that the German plan has suggested (and more or less practially implemented) for the countries of the European Union beginning 1st Jan.2013, mr.Sarkozy proposes exiting Schengen, the "contract" that allows members of all European Union countries to freely travel & work within the confines of the Union. In short, the last noble vision of our times is collapsing, if mr.Sarkozy has his way.

Not only that, but in order to "safeguard" his borders, he emphatically accused "the hole between Greece and Turkey" as the sole responsible party for the illegal immigration problem within Europe. Really??
Well, surely, for one, no one "invades" Europe through Norway, right? It's a matter of sheer geopolitical positioning that makes this very corner of Europe the pivotal point it is in the destiny of the continent. It has always been so, since the Persian advances in 5th century BC. Where's your historical memory, mr.Sarkozy? Were you absent that day in school?

Not to mention that there is no credible way of determining an immigrant's potential, goals, contribution and outlook beforehand!

Newsflash, mr.Sarkozy:
1. Not only does Dublin II (which the administrations of France and Germany have been instrumental in implementing because it suits them and getting Greece to sign under no subtle threats to sovereignity) force us to retain each and every illegal immigrant that enters our country, claiming asylum....(resulting in thousands of illegal immigrants who come in Greece with the hopes of entering the EU and traveling to other countries in the first place to find a decent job!)
2.....but people here in cahoots with your administration (and Germany's) are actually on the payroll making sure that the illegal immigrants in the port of Patras (and elsewhere) NEVER embark the ships to other countries and remain in a state of beggary and deliquency here (where no decent jobs can be found anymore thanks to your brilliant economic plans of the last 3 years!).
An intricate problem has arisen in Greece concerning illegal immigration where no sufficient or fair solution has been given so far.

Bottom line: You're just playing for votes, mr.Sarkozy. Cheap shot, absolutely no concern for people.

You have made us the dumbing block of Europe, the scapegoat for every ill. You deserve to be dumbed by your own people. They're not stupid, you know; it would be a gross mistake to think that they were.