Political correctness

A blog of mostly political and cultural content totaly concerned with events in Greece and the implimentation of the Alexander the Great Plan and the workings of the Alexander the Great Algorithm. A day to day log of the erosion of the Global Market Economy and its replacement with the True Value Added system. AGP and AGA leading to a TVA clarity of GNP and GDP in GME measurements. Social Curiosity Tzatziki and hair removal and replacement medications... enjoy!

Try and follow the logic:

Samaras, the leader of the Conservatives (New Democrats) eliminated Dora Bakoianni from the party for voting YES to the first memorandum when the party line was to vote NO.

He subsequently eliminated 21 MPs for voting NO when the party line was YES.

Dora, who had voted  YES, got in touch with some of the eliminated MPs to join her party since they voted NO.

Dora who had voted  YES and was discussing with those who had voted NO to join her party accused Samaras of political schizophrenia.

Samaras is now trying to readmit those who had voted NO when they should have voted YES  into his party.

Comprendes Amigo? Samaras use to date singer superstar Vissi.

TSIPRAS

Every day here we are bombarded with election coverage and election adds. The two main political parties are trying to dominate airtime with their bickering but don't seem to be able to convince anyone. They have lost integrity and trust and the electorate in its great majority rejects them both. The true test here will not be of the Greek democratic system but of global markets and EU and their tolerance of self determination. May 6th is fast approaching and the day after will see a whole new parliament. Tsipras, the leader of the left coalition SYRIZA party decided to have some fun today when he announced that he would certainly accept a coalition with Kammenos' right wing Independent Greeks party in order to support a coalition government with Papariga, the leader of the communist party as Prime Minister.

KAMMENOS

PAPRIGA 

Certainly was a smart move and it guaranteed a sensational news story that dominated broadcasts all day giving us a welcome break from the usual two party bickering. It is so funny to hear Samaras and Venizelos promising to punish and even impeach those who had embezzled public money in the past. Half the members  of their parties are involved so it might be a problem. Certainly will be when friends of friends get involved. Today Akis' wife, see http://ellinomangia.blogspot.com/2012/04/vip-cells.html, was dragged off to jail. Cheers mr. Tsipras for your most welcome humour!!!

You can bank on it, you have my word! In theatres everywhere.

Sure was good times back in 2009. We had endless scandals with public money and endless cover-ups too. We had a pre-election campaign that promissed everything from higher incomes to better schools to raises for pensioners. My favorite title here is Super Schools. You can see an artists impression on the first newspaper depicted here. 2006 had an election campaign with many of these kind of promises as well. Karamanlis had a great system of hiring public sector workers, called the interview, where friends of friends could easily be hired. He invented a new kind of civil servant through his Stages program. These were public sector temps with no pension program. They were the first to go when the bubble burst. The fallout is still radiating our lives and eroding whatever positive our system had to offer. The saddest of all is the end of our social housing program called OEK-http://www.oek.gr/. Probably the single greatest achievement of the 80s OEK managed to put hundreds of working class families into homes with no interest loans. At its dissolvement two months ago it was 2 billion in the black. In our immediate circle we have four examples of people living in social housing. They are all owners and all won the right to ownership in a lottery. OEK also gave low interest loans to any worker interested. The reason this organization was so healthy has to do with many factors. Mostly it gave equity to families that would have never had any. Now all these families have to refinance as banks are to take over their loans for hefty a profit of course.

The last year has seen so many cuts to our incomes and so many increases in taxes that it is a wonder how we survive. People here in Nafpaktos are planting victory gardens to ensure that there will be enough to eat in this tough summer ahead. I wish I was exaggerating. All these months of non-elected officials telling our non-elected government what to do have tired the public. There is a need to teach our politicians a lesson. I am talking about mainstream people that want their vote to become a weapon. One party has promised to do just that, to clean up the Greek parliament by roughing up a few MPs and knocking some heads together. It is of course the Golden Dawn party, our own neonazi clique and they have reached double digit figures in the polls. Take a gander at one of their candidates...

From social security to private security...what did they expect when they started implementing haratsi taxes? The worst is yet to come so a victory garden is a good plan. The good thing about this GD party is that it has managed to deter people from buying weapons of their own. Already they roughed up one former minister. Stay tuned for the next instalment on somersaults and doubletakes.

VIP cells too,

What can one say about Makis? This man put the shade in shady deal. He is the incredible and incredulous former owner of AEK football club.



The man is incredible as he is involved in all kinds of money laundering and illegal betting as well as game fixing. I think owners of professional teams are usualy colorful.



After being at large for a number of months he finaly was arrested and also spent some time in our VIP cell. He is also connected with the church and Vatopedi. Psomiadis proved to be made of teflon and is on the loose again.



Lakis Gavalas the once succesful fashion mogul. Started his career by wearing a Hermes purse on his head. I am not one to criticize fashion. I say whatever.



Lakis was well known and an importer of many famous brand names. Mysteriously he lost all of them while in jail. His semi-celebrity status could not however guarantee him a place in our VIP cell. Simply not notorious enough, notice the unlit cigar, he did his time in a rural prison. No limo ride for Lakis however if you do spot a ".lak" product you may want to buy it as a possible collectible. Not.


Korydalus our beautiful in Athens jail with its own VIP boutique cell is not a jail for everyone. It is home to the highest security cells for the truly notorious members of the 17th November terrorist organization. It is also home to former politicians, clerics and other powerful men. VIP service includes limousine arrival with no line-ups at the gate. A personalized menu and full wifi connectibility keeps our guests connected and satiated. So if you are a former embezzler or statesman of a crooked nature or millionaire in danger of arrest, come live your myth in Greece. So many good things have been lost and so many bad things have appeared. What can one say when markets rule the world... sometimes it feels like the end days indeed...

VIP cells...

Akis is a thorn...

Sure he was the man at the time, the great Akis Tsohatzopoulos minister of defence in charge of ordering weaponry systems like the TOR-M1 rockets or the listing German submarine. A total so far of near 30 million in kickbacks have been discovered and the court case is well on its way. I must point out though that although Akis is presently spending his time in the VIP corridor of Korydalus prison most of his crimes come under the statute of limitations. The remainder can be ignored due to his ministerial immunity at the time. So it is mostly an excercise in futility. His arrest took place the same day that the election date was announced. An ugly coincidence. I suspect he will be released the day after the elections are finished. Unless of course our two leading parties don't manage to collect a full third of the vote. Akis may be a thorn but Efrem had a much more colorful stay...

An accomplice to the laundering of money from all kinds of nebulous deals this man was the first to spend hard time in our VIP cell. Efrem is a monk so many more collected outside the prison gates to demand his release. Nuns as well. After a couple of hearings and as soon as the press died down he was released. He is the abbey of Vatopedi and the scandals involve members of both Pasok and Nd. Our two biggest political parties. People are mostly tired of both and will probably vote for something, anything, else...

Greek Elections set

Sure we all knew there were gonna have an election sooner or later but nobody was sure quite when. Now the date is locked in for May the 6th. We already have been treated to that festive pre-election atmosphere for over a week now so setting an actual date was inevitable. Our interim non-elected coalition government has been ruling, along with some help from troika, since early November. Elections were to be held in February but that was not possible because the troika needed more guarantees from the present government before alowing elections to be held. Thus the second memorandum of a month ago. Both ruling parties, there has been no official opposition since October of last year, have chosen their leaders and are gearing up. They make speeches and hold conferences and do what they do in rented halls and behind closed doors. No more public speeches in this country. Both parties, PASOK and ND have become the laughing and crying stock of an entire nation. Whenever I am in a public place and one of the leaders is making a speech on tv, something that happens quite often, people are either laughing or blaspheming. So why all the anger and cynicism?

When I was growing up we use to spend our summers on the island of Aegina and would often visit the quaint fishing village of Perdika. A beautiful and traditional village of a few hundred souls. I became acquainted with one of the elders, a man in his early sixties at the time, who related to me many of his wartime experiences. His most amazing story had to do with hyperinflation. It was a phenomenom of WW2 Greece where daily devaluations of the drachma eroded the buying power of money overnight. Four digit inflation will do that and there was nothing that could be done as the Greek reserve had been "borrowed", with no interest of course, by the Nazis. This is what is known today as the "occupational loan". The only single one never returned by Germany. So my friend, the fisherman, in his twenties at the time, would set out with his nets every night to fish. After filling his boat he would spend the next six hours rowing to Pireaus to sell his fish. He would then fill his boat with paper currency and row back to Perdika, another six hours. On arrival the money was already worthless. Then they would do it again. It sounds extremely unreasonable and I had to ask him why. "Because Athens was starving" was his unwavering answer.

Last week, in Syntagma square and right under the Greek Parliament, a pensioner who could not stomache his pension being reduced anymore, shot himself in the head. He was 78. He had been a pharmacist and had lived through all kinds of situations but this last bit of state violence was too much. Having paid for his pension many times over during his productive years seeing it now being stolen was too much. He is part of that generation that suffered so severely in the war and the years that followed. They are a generation that worked hard, paid their taxes, lived with their heads held high. They are the generation that resisted fascism and paid dearly for their foolishness. In the end they prevailed. Until this very day when their bought and paid for pensions have had a haircut. Now it is hard to keep your dignity when someone switches the rules on you. Elections are coming and we are all still in good humour. It is the next day, after the ballots have been shut down, that counts. It is the next day that we will see if this state violence will continue or be halted. It is the next day we are all waiting for as our hands are armed and untied. Figuratively speeking of course, even though suicides have just about doubled over the last couple of years.

Greek Elections

The most likely cast this year will be directly into the garbage can!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MfwzQ9-ZZQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=CIl0ouh_PDE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjmS-NXxRPI&feature=related

What was the overhyped PSI anyways? Private Sector Involvement. The boys on Wall Street got to buy CDS and insure their Greek bonds whereas small bond holders, individuals, took a total loss somewhere in the sixty to eighty percent range with no return into the twenties (2020+). What does all this mean? An individual who bought government bonds in this country will not see any of it for years to come. Banks take a beating too but most of all pension funds pay the bill. So it is not a full blown bankruptcy just a partial one. The irony is that the two protagonists of this election promise to save us all from this situation. The very same people and faces that steered us straight into it. Or you could vote for the communists, or one of the smaller socialist parties or any of the many splinter parties. If you don't vote or cast a blank ballot then your vote gets counted in favor of the first party. It is our rule of enriched democracy. I have included links of some of our better adds this year. At least if you clicked on this page you should have a laugh. For those of you that speak the language this last one should get you rolling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CheF0m3ZlA Better article next time boys and girls...