economy
The suicide note and post scriptum of the living
I fear. I fear because you have no idea how angry we are and our anger has no outlet when police forces attack you as you reverently place a flower on the grass where the body of the 77-year-old pensioner who took his own life lay yesterday in Syntagma Square, just meters away from Greek Parliament.
His death was not the first. There have been many more these past two years, but the media always played these cases down with a peremptory «mentally imbalanced» name tag on each victim’s toe — if they happened to mention the incident at all, that is. Yesterday they couldn’t hide it. It was early in the morning and there were many passers-by; it was outside the parliamentary building; it was in the center of Syntagma, the square all eyes have turned to ever since this maelstrom started three years ago, where all protesters have gathered and been clubbed by batons every single time because they want to exercise their democratic right to voice their feelings.
The late victim’s name was Dimitris Christoulas. He was a pharmacist. People who knew him said the Συνέχεια
The Truth about Greece
Comment by MySatelite: «My name is Dimitris and I come from Greece». This is the opening of a message in a bottle, a cry not for help but for empathy and awakening written by someone called Dimitris, your average, Greek everyman. This is the situation in Greece put simply. It’s illustrated, straight-forward, short and readily comprehended by a 10-year-old. Ok, it has some grammatical inconsistencies and one or two typos, but nothing that impedes understanding.
For once, let go of your stereotypes, the ones the media have instilled in all of us and read something which actually states facts and a reality Greeks have to face on a daily basis. Read Dimitris’s message below and pass it on, for the sake of our children and yours. Συνέχεια
Greeks have good reasons to protest
Declan Hill, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, December 18, 2011
Athens
‘Almost everything that you thought you knew about current-day Greece is wrong.»
That thought went through my head as I stood among a mass of demonstrators in Syntagma Square during the recent general strike. There was a festive air: souvlaki sellers amid grandmothers, students singing and lots of street theatre performances. It was unlike any of the images that I had seen; there was no stone throwing, no tear-gas or water cannon attacks. I may have been lucky but there was a wide spectrum of ordinary people marching in the demonstration. The usual suspects were there, of course: the anarchists, the Communists and the general drop-a-hat-see-me-protest lot. But there was also a broad range of others: nurses, farmers, doctors, actors and teachers.
After the demonstration was over, I walked past the rows of gas-masked policemen (generally far nicer Συνέχεια
Let Them Eat π
Yet another excellent article from Sturdyblog that steers away from the usual propagandist ranting of 
the media that is simply a tool in the hands of speculative bankers and other investor think tanks geared towards shaping public opinion to suit their needs.
The only regret I have when reading this gem is that punches were pulled. Papademos and Monti need to be seen as usurpers of democracy and their respective rise to power called coups d’état, plain and simple. Most important of all is the fact that people in Greece believe their country’s rising debt is not just 30-years’ worth of bad politics, corruption and inept members of Parliament — it’s been a methodical, calculated plan executed with preciseness, enabling the few to live off the many.
My firm belief is that this has been in the making for a long time. Greece practically hasn’t had a single patriot in office since WWII. Foreign interests influenced and still influence decisions to benefit everyone but us Greeks. Some saw the world as an orange, squeezing (half of it) as much as they could out of Third World countries — sorry, that would be developing countries to those who want politically correct euphemisms used to spice up slavery as an on-going evolutionary process towards development. Now that the orange is starting to shrivel, they’ve decided to pick up the other half by turning to Europe and as I foresee other developed countries and squeeze out the savings it managed to accumulate throughout the years.
Enjoy the read, and many thanks to the author for a very fine piece.
The Reaper
Let Them Eat π
Some months ago I tried to explain that the crisis in Greece concerned the entire globe directly and that what was happening to my country was nothing short of an economic coup d’état. Naturally, I was accused of doom-mongering and over-dramatising. It pains me to have been proven absolutely right on Συνέχεια
The Death of Democracy and National Sovereignty in Europe
As Johan Van Overtveldt, the editor-in-chef of Trends magazine states, Greece is «condemned to go down in a vicious circle of more recession, more unemployment, larger government deficits or budget deficits and so an endless need of additional money to fill up the gaps.»
So why continue the loans? Why continue the Euro sham? Since Italy is next, and France’s banking system will follow suit, why fix something that already smells putrid?
Brussels will undoubtedly push the situation to its advantage and demand to step in at any time. Συνέχεια
Like a Phoenix from its Ashes
Yesterday’s scene in front of Parliament sums it all up. The old clashes with the new as the country is in flames.
Συνέχεια
United We Stand…
Published August 3, 2011
United we stand, divided we fall – a statement we all have heard, read, uttered. No one can deny its common sense. No one can argue that its premise is false. More than ever this statement applies to the needs of Greece. Why? What begs the unification of the people in Greece today? What is the core issue in Greece today? The failing economy is the apparent answer. The lack of sovereignty is also key. However, the core issue is that Greece is travelling on a road of severe impoverishment at lightening speed. At the end of the road a third world country awaits. The lack of sovereignty is the vehicle that carries Greece to the final destination. And the failing economy fuels this vehicle.
The impoverishment of Greece will not only be the result of the unbearable austerity measures but of the loss of national wealth, the loss of all that is necessary to revitalise a crippled economy, condemning Συνέχεια
A miserable failure of the IMF prescription
THE FIGURES disclosed by the Hellenic Statistical Authority last month show the complete 
failure of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescription for Greece, resulting in a rapid increase in inflation, but also a reduction in the revenues.
So, annual inflation in July rose to 5.5 percent from 5.2 percent in June 2010 and 0.6 percent in July 2009, now returning to 1997 levels! In addition, state revenues in July decreased by 10 percent overall and Value-Added Tax (VAT) returns by 5 percent, despite the fact that all indirect taxes have increased.
It has now become evident to the government and the IMF Συνέχεια
Greek economic crisis: Timeless values help villagers
Roger Jinkinson, a British writer who lives in a remote village on the Greek island of Karpathos, reflects on how the profound economic crisis is affecting his small rural community more than 400km from Athens.
Although times are hard, he believes that a long tradition of thriftiness, a thriving barter economy and the return of young people to work on the land will help the village weather the crisis.
mySatellite 