moontza

Every year on the 25th of March here in Greece we celebrate our independence day with parades. There is a military parade in Athens and student parades everywhere else. It is our equivallent of the Fourth of July. In every town and city a stage is set upon which distinguished members of society, military chiefs and the local mayor along with some guest MPs will sit. As the parade marches past this elevated stand the flagbearer will turn his or her head towards the honored and give them the salute. This year many students decided not to give the usual salute and instead of facing the honored stand turned their heads and gave a different salute. The open handed gesture known as moontza is one that is demeaning and disgraceful. It is the equivallent of giving the finger and also means "go to hell". A profoundly insulting gesture that is usual reserved for the worst drivers the moontza has its own urban legend. The myth is that as Jesus was being led up Calvary or Golgotha a Roman legionaire struck Christ with his hand open, just like in our rude gesture. So what does it all mean? Just ask the shriner...many thanks to Main Street Oceanside.

sugar sugar

Looks can be deceiving or sometimes looks can be revealing. Take the case of the packaging for Greek sugar. EBZ stands for Greek Sugar Manufacturing and it is a healthy and profitable company. It is also a company that is up for sale. It employs close to three hundred employees and is the sole buyer of Greek sugar beets. The packaging on the left reveals just that. White crystal sugar and a Greek flag to show that it is a 100% Greek product. So profitable in fact that last year our legislaters tried to run it out of business. Now the same company is put in the uncomfortable position of having to import sugar from other countries and simply package it here. Thus the bag of sugar on the right. Notice how there is no Greek flag and how the little girl is not holding a bag of sugar. In fact her hands are behind her back. Something like the expression "my hands are tied". It is all part of the game of belonging to the European Union. The little train that could has a caboose that travels at half the speed of the engine. It is called two tiered economics and is definetely uncomfortable for those on the lower level. We will be expected to pay to be a part of the EU for the next few years while our incomes and wages are slashed and prices are pushed through the roof with newer and meaner taxes. Maybe when we start exiting this crisis they can give the little girl on the package some shades. Rose colored. Still need to catch y'all up on PSI, CDS and partial default...

Hot potato

A recent event here in Greece that many people overseas may not know about is the potato movement. It all started by a group of individuals in northern Greece who decided to cut out the middleman and sell potatoes directly from the farmer to the consumer. At the time, almost a month ago now, potatoes were selling around the one euro mark in supermarkets and farmers markets around Greece. The little group on individuals managed to get a price of 25 cents a kilo directly from the producer. Potato growers typicaly get paid 10 cents a kilo by wholesalers so it was a sweet deal for them. Ten kilos of potatos for 2.5 euros or for ten to twelve euros at the market. Grower direct off the truck and with a receipt hand written on the spot. All legal and win, win, win. Sure I too am excited although my kids don't eat potatoes. The story aired on the news and within a week mayors and other organizations started to copycat everywhere around Greece. Here in Nafpaktos it was the labour hall that organized the potato sale and the instant response was 70 tons of potato at 33 cents a kilo off the truck. You have to order in advance and it takes a few days for the order to arrive but it is a sweet deal. Watching people line up to load up on cheap potatoes is like a breath of fresh air. To think that the middlemen in this country have been marking up produce, and everything else for that matter, up to tenfold makes me happy to see them pushed out of the way. They have been fighting back with mud. Representatives of the middleman have been apearing on news broadcasts trying to convince people how wrong and unsafe it is to buy potatoes without their help. How farmer direct is not fresh, or is in some way inferior, to their overpriced produce. They have also set up a very effective network around the countryside so that we have not seen a single potato grower on the news. They all refuse to be interviewed in fear of retribution. Middlemen are typicaly mafia types. I say keep buying direct and cut out the middleman. Why feed your enemy?

Keep Breathing

Seems to be the name of the game in this modern age. As my good friend Sakis so aptly puts it, "must to survive". The alternative is unthinkable. We have kids to raise and bills to pay and it is all coming to a horrible halt under the iron rule of the troika. There is no way to escape the irony of Schauble telling us to "go ahead and have your elections" just as long as the winner honors this recently signed rotten deal. I am not sure what to believe anymore. Here in the news there is a constant stream of beaurocrats getting caught with the hands in the honey pot. A million euros here, a couple million there, twenty million over there. It is insane. Most of them will go unpunished and that is truly depressing. I am considering finking on a few myself but I am not aware of any officials on the take. I only know of rumours. I sure would like to see more getting caught. I know that the last year I have slipped from having an uncomfortable income to having no income at all. It has to change. As for those poor suckers that owe the tax system small amounts, you know 200-2000 euros, well the law now alows the government to simply pick-pocket peoples savings without even asking. As for the big time offenders, well they have to be taken to court and after three to five years there may or may not be a decision. If seven years go by then the debt is simply erased. That is the letter and the spirit of the law. March 25th is our independence day celebration and I expect it to be a hot potato. More on potatos in my next instalment. I will say it is ridiculous to see the Prime Minister on tv, you know the appointed one, asking people to safeguard politicians at commemorative parades. Safeguard against who? It is the majority of people that want to chuck yoghurt at their elected mps. I would like to as well but dairy products have gotten too expensive. Construction grade lime is much cheaper and causes second degree burns as well. 2 euros will buy 3 gallons of the stuff that has the same texture and consistency and even colour of yoghurt. I don't know what will happen on the 25th but our leaders seem willing to push us into a civil war before they will ever take responsibility for their own actions. I wonder if it is the same elsewhere?

Greek riots

It was on February tenth of this year that although nearly a million people protested peacefuly in downtown Athens against the signing of the second memorandum the worlds media was more interested in riots. A total of 300 or so well organized troublemakers, many times with the blessing of the police, spent the day burning and looting anyone that had not paid them protection the day before. Talk about corruption, 300 bums run and ruin the country. The funny thing is when I receive e-mails asking me if I and my family are ok. I must say here that reports of lawlessness in Greece are exagerated. We are all well although most of us are flat broke. However there are food banks and all kinds of handouts for the less fortunate. During the last cold spell municipalities were racing to find shelter for the homeless and the church feeds thousands of families every day. I have been too busy to write instalments and it has been nearly a month since my last entry. In that month so much has occured and so little has changed. We are all awaiting the next tax grab. I am not sure exactly how we are supposed to survive but I do know that those who created this situation are not paying for it. Instead the weakest, sickest, and retired segment of the population is made to pay. Pensions are to take another cut in June along with wages and a new tax hike on everything. Unemployment is high, very high, and times are depression tough. It has become impossible to watch the news, it is so severely negative these days. The only bright glimmers are the newly discovered oilfields all over Greece. Seems we will become the next Emirates. Drilling rights have been sold to the biguns who will start drilling south of Crete. I am sure that this will not change the price at the pump. As for us little guys, well there realy is nothing on the horizon as yet other than working abroad or looking for work on hireagreek.com. Below are two links, one is for a spoof called "we are all Greeks Hollywood" and the other is a view of the message Anonymous hacked on to the ministry of Justice web page. Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEvHziwxYoE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eJP9wDhDoI&feature=related

and of course the Greek Parliament's official answer to the above anonymous video titled irresponsible-anefthinos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6cIbQPpzPM

must say yes

October 26th was the date of the signing of the first memorandum that was to save Greece from bankruptcy and economic disaster. Part of that parcel included a "haircut" on our debt so that we would be able as a nation to cope with payments. The country nearly fell apart under the moral strain of signing everything over to foreign powers in order to achieve this loan. The prime misinster resigned and a technocrat banker was appointed in his place. We were promised elections before memorandum number two. A governement with a specific objective and timetable. No elections were held, polls show an absolute failure of the present political system, and they have passed memorandum number two. So this coalition government that was to carry out memorandum number one as enforced by the troika has failed on every level. It has not closed a deal on the "haircut" beyond the internal sixty percent. The deal was to have a similar dumping of debt from the private sector. This is only the first double cross. Elections before the passing of memorandum number two is the second double cross. Memorandum number two has passed despite the objection and deletion of nearly forty members of parliament. Two opportunists crossed the floor to support it. So this is slowly turning into a money making proposition for the world and a case of high treason for the Greeks. Deals are struck, laws are passed, money is never transferred, sovereignty is lost and to top it all off Schuable says there is no need for elections. It is ridiculous. It is proof of how wrong and desperate he is. It is proof that this is a process of looting that does not need popular support and will never enjoy it.

During the last week, and after the signing of memorandum number two, our president, mr. Papoulias, asked "who is this mr. Schauble who feels he can insult my country?". Along with mr. Glezos, the man who lowered the Nazi flag from the Acropolis the night of the German invasion, and mr. Theodorakis he is the third ww2 hero and member οf parliament to speak up against these memorandums. Like little postit stickers these memorandums have come into our lives to make the poor poorer and poorer. We are the only country to never receive reparation payments from Germany, we are the only country to never receive repayment of the forced Nazi loans of world war two. The loan, known here as the occupational loan, amounts to all the gold held by the Greek national bank at the time and along with interest would amount to a third of our debt today. The Nazi war machine and blitzkrieg tactics steamrolled through all countries but one during the war. The first to stop and hold the Nazis at the border were the Greeks. The myth of German invincibility ended here. Will it end again or will the Germans, some Germans anyways, exact their revenge?

Σόιμπλε-Schauble prays...

The German minister of finance manages with his speeches and demands to prove everyday why the Greeks must remain in the European Union. With his deep understanding of markets, finances, debt, restructuring, taxation, pensions, expenses, inflation, cost of living and all things to do with "hard" numbers, Wolfgang is certainly the right man for the job. I certainly understand him when he asks for deeper cuts and more sacrifices. I hear ya brother. I too am a fan of Schaublenomics. Why should the Greeks expect anything else? Why should we want elections? Why not just take your advice and accept a German technocrat appointee to run our country? We certainly faired well with our German king the last time the Europeans were so gracious as to allow us to become part of your honored continent. I am sure his great-great grandson Konstantinos Glixmbourg would be more than willing to reclaim the throne. Certainly we have a democracy right now but with 40 members of parliament being kicked out of their parties it stands to reason that soon our coalition government will be a minority government. In the polls both parties combined can't muster even a third of the vote. Elections today would mean deep changes in our political system. Greek changes. I see mr. Wolfgang that you are busy praying that this will not happen. I see that you are smug having already raked in 200 billion euros of our money. We know the truth, you can't hide it with fake numbers. I know as I watch you praying to your god. I see you doing the sign of the cross mr. Wolfgang, too bad you are doing it with your left hand...

Mr. Schauble, certainly I exaggerate and take poetic liscence sometimes. I must say though that so many of the problems that we face today originated in your neck of the woods. So many scandals and huge sums of public money that mysteriously dissapeared to the north. Too bad wikileaks isn't around to publish some of these facts. Having extorted a new loan agreement from the present Greek parliament and refusing to recognize us Greeks the basic right of a vote exemplifies the differences in our cultures. Whereas democracy is based on certain rights of the individual by mere right of birth in your mind we have to earn these rights. This however is an illusion, similar to our national debt. Earning the right to vote is ridiculous and certainly undemocratic. It is a thin disguise of the deep need of some to bend the will of others. We all have free will by our nature and the right to vote is meant to accomodate that free will. It is a compromise. We all demand the right to vote and to chose collectively our next compromise. Just wait and see.