social crash haircut

Along with the economic woes that describe our era a social crash is even more difficult. What does it realy mean though? Families that split up, crime, violence, growing social inequality, the loss of the middle class. It is the week before Christmas and for most families there is either no income or a highly reduced income. The haircut to the Greek debt back in October has been translated into paycuts and pensioncuts along with a sharp increase in taxation (see HARATSI November 25th 2011). Those who are employed have seen their paycheques reduced by a full third. Pensioners had their Christmas alowance reduced by one half. Christmas shopping is down eighty percent. Sure one of the reasons to love and live in Greece is that it is not a consumer based economy or culture. What is it though? What do you call a community that is somewhere between first and third world with ties to the second? Even geographicaly we are spread across three tectonic plates. Parts of Greece remind one of Africa, other parts of Asia and other parts of Europe. The one thing I can say for certain is that our ruling class thinks it is ruling serfs. The illusion is that they can do whatever they want, never pay taxes, and continue to raise the cost of living while reducing incomes and increasing taxation to the working class and the middle class. The idea that has held on from the days of the dictatorship is that the people will just roll over and play dead. The people of course have a whole different view of things and a whole different agenda. I just hope that the hotheads don't prevail. Why do I plaster 26th of October on the 17th of November flag? Well the first is the date of the new and improved deal for the 6th installment of the IMF-Troika save Greece loan plan, 26th of October 2011. As for the 17th of November, the student uprising that ousted the dictators in 1973, and the red flag belongs to the 17th of November terrorist organization. They are all, the terrorists, presently behind bars. May cooler heads prevail...

Alexander the Great Plan Part 2

So what's in a name? Well Alexander the Great did topple the Persian Empire and then emptied the Bank of Persia. The money he split with his generals and the first and only working example of trickle down economics took place. The main reason that Alexander was called Great was this. Not his ability to win battles, no small talent for the ancient world, but his knack for spreading cash. Yes his little known economic plan that kickstarted the ancient Asian economy. People had been left cash starved and unable to maintain a basic system of commerce due to overtaxation and the immense money-clog at the Persian palace. Today an entire planet suffers and starves while extremely ignorant first world shoppers are worried about the appearance of apples and tomatoes. People in Africa live and die without the ability to farm their own land or to feed anything beyond mashed roots to their kids. These same people work incredible hours in plantations on their own land that was either grabbed by force or by assumed debt. Today Greece is also being asked to assume debt. To give up her sovereignty and to succumb to external "fatherland" pressures. What are the chances realy, after 5000 years of recorded history and the survival of our language and heritage inspite of a 400 year occupation. The Alexander the Great Plan has been set into motion and the "markets" are now in the crosshairs. Soon the dominoe effect will topple everything worldwide. The first ripples have reached every shore and in every nation a newscast has responded to the Greek debt crisis. The crisis to end all crisis. Our debt may be small, it may even be proportionaly small, but somehow nobody wants to help finance it and demanding payment now will lead to the blackest monday ever. Elections in this country will probably lead to a minority government, not so bad, but may give the balance of power to the one party that does not recognize the debt or the euro. A full default and a return to the drachma. Sure nothing has been heard about it lately and there is a general calm. The calm before the storm...

part sentiment...

Greek club...

My wife says that the Germans are "moose-go-fee" (μουσκοφοί). It is a funny term that describes someone who is always smiling and friendly but has a hidden agenda. She also says that when they reveal themselves-"agnandia"-they are already aiming a gun at you. She also says that she is not surprized by Merkel, "all she wants is to turn us into soap", but by our own politicians who are standing by idle. My dear wife describes the sentiment of many people here in Greece. She is a simple person, like me, but a wise person who usual guesses these kinds of things correctly. Judging by publications in the German press and by the stranglehold on our lawmakers she is right on both occasions. The Germans spent crazy sums in the south of europe. Now it holds the south hostage to its every whim. The fact that Germany and its leader Merkel have the power to cancel budgets, topple governments, force legislation and stop democracy in her tracks is something very depressing to us in the south. Those that lived through the German occupation of WW2 are preparing to starve. You can see the elders as they watch their pensions being reduced for the fifth time in two years. They are dying from this. The people my age and older, in their fifties, are also feeling the pressure. We are the generations that grew up in the years of the junta. We too feel the psychological pressure of a foreign power denying us our democratic rights. A close friend of mine who is an ambulance driver describes to me the shift in his job. He spends more time picking up forty and fifty year old victims of heart attacks and strokes than he ever did. "I use to be called mostly for accidents" he tells me. The feeling of foreboding, of things being beyond our control, of a twilight zone eeriness to our daily lives reveal our path. In the small town I am living in there are endless funerals. The tradition here is to post a small announcement on telephone poles and special billboards for this purpose. Every single day there seems to be a couple more funerals or memorials. I am certain that 2011 will be the year of the highest deathrate yet recorded in Greece. In our village church in the last year there was one marriage, one or two baptisms and 40 funerals. Not a typical year. Even in my neighborhood two men, one 48 and the other in his early fifties, died of heart disease. I will not even mention what I saw in the hospital. We use to be a healthy population with little or no heart disease. Seems like we are being liquidated...

Cinderella needs a spanking...

I always wanted to write a kick-ass blogg. You know the kind that people would read in droves. So I picked this spicy title for todays instalment to see if anyone stumbles upon us through a search engine. So far I have almost given away the message on the sign being held by the man on the left. For those of you who do not speak Greek I will say that the man is expressing his frustration with Merkel Greek style and then some. I will also say that the street is in downtown Athens and from his expression I am guessing that passersby are agreeing with his intentions. But why this open agression to the woman who would be president of Europe by economic force alone? Why would any Greek be anything less than grateful to our German and other European counterparts? Click on this link and see a little excerpt of how welcome one of our own ministers is made to feel while visiting the island of Mytilini. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFixHUBMp8w Why would the crowd be chasing this man with such a vengeance, the minister of maritime and shipping, one of the most important positions in our government? Well, as part of our temporary coalition government and seeing as the leftist parties would not cooperate, the socialists and conservatives opted to work with the fascist party. Yup, at the insistence of Merkel the two leading parties needed a broader base so in comes the 4 percent of our little fascist party, like a supporting finger. Nobody likes getting the finger. Hence this gentelmans' response. A couple more things, the Greek motto "Freedom or Death" is still taught in elementary and of course, if you are curious as to why the police are not arresting anyone in the aforementioned video: ΠΛΗΘΟΣ ΔΕ ΑΡΧΟΝ...ΜΟΥΝΑΡΧΟΣ ΠΟΙΕΕΙ ΟΥΔΕΝ-ΗΡΟΔΟΤΟΣ. Or to put it in English-when the mob rules the tyrrant is powerless-Herodotos. Sure, Merkel is no Nazi but she has forced an openly Nazi minister upon us, yes that barely 40 year old guy, and has toppled our elected government, and Italy's as well. Oh and forbade us to hold a plebicite over the Euro or drachma dilemma. Maybe a non-agressive nazi? Tell me what you think!

HARATSI

Haratsi is a word used by Greeks to describe the latest tax grab. It is a property tax based on location and surface area (square footage) of all properties that are connected to the electrical grid. Churches and graves are not taxed but everything else is, based on location (municipality) and age. The newer the building the higher the tax. I am not sure if parking lots are included in this new tax but I do not see why not. The tax does not take into consideration income or ability to pay but is attached to the hydro bill and if not payed on time... the electric is cut off. Another world first here in Greece, people who can't pay their taxes having their hydro disconnected. You can't imagine the tumult this has brought on. The mayors who have intervened so that this is not enforced as well as the hydro union that has played cat and mouse with the riot police in an attempt to shut down the billing office. There is also a little detail of European law that forbids members from using utilities as a weapon to collect taxes. The first court hearing is coming up on December the second. The lawyers associations of various locations have taken the government to court. I withheld my haratsi from my landlord and paid it. Sure that works fine with rentals but most properties in Greece are not rentals. So pro bono takes over and we will see what happens. I do not expect a return for those of us that already paid but maybe some will be let off the hook. Funny to be living in a country with a pirate government... Pro bono Sam I am green eggs and ham... Haratsi-a head tax enforced by the Ottoman empire on all Christian citizens. I will say thanks here to the mayor of New Ionia who took action against this measure. It only makes sense since a couple of children fainted from hunger in his municipality's schools. Hunger is knocking on the door of many households these days. We are all hunkering down for the worst. I live in a rural are where the haratsi is 3 euros per square meter. In Athens I have property in a medium priced zone that is charged at eight euros per square meter. One square meter is nine square feet. This is the base price and newer homes get charged more. At the same time wages and pensions have been slashed in half over the last two years, believe it.

December 2nd

Well you may ask so what? It is important to us here though as it is the anniversary of the shooting of Alex Grigoropoulos. http://newsfromzoos.blogspot.com/2008/12/black-and-burberry.html On this day students will probably protest and there will be mayhem in downtown Athens. Or maybe not. Things are always so volatile and liquid here. Imagine we have an intern government with a non-elected Prime Minister and by non-elected I mean not even a member of parliament. We have elections set for sometime in February but probably wont see any for another year. We have decisions being made for us somewhere in Europe by politicians and bankers who will simply deal with Athens as a defacto government that is obliged to sign anything they come up with. Here we sit leaderless and voiceless in the midst of a junta-occupation simply enforced by economic measures. This will not last very long though. This is the homeland of democracy and democracy will return to it. However things aren't looking up right now... Oh and we don't get anymore loans from the IMF until we start signing any and all proposals put forth. An economic standstill. I hope it lasts.