"_________ 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.