Greece's Government Celebrates the Country's "NO" to Fascism... Shouldn't it be all the Greeks Celebrating????

It is customary to have a parade (students, etc) parade downtown High street in major cities. In doing so they pass before "dignitaries" in the form of, you guessed it, politicians.The participants have booed them accordingly them.
Greek politicians' continued rock bottom popularity (for just cause, admittedly), the whole police force and then some was enlisted to protect Greece's politicians who insist on being present at the parade... a celebration that is, to all intents and purposes, their private affair.

{The 28th October commemorates the day Greece's premier (himself a military dictator, in fact) refused to allow safe passage to Mussolini's troops and, upon the latter's envoy's insistence, Metaxas declared "Alors c'est la guerre". (Easier said than done.) }

Many -Greeks believe that politicians are the root of all evil and all that is still evil in Greece. Accordingly, they protest against the presence of these same politicians on important historical occasions such as the National Day -- especially as such days commemorate heroes; Greeks, not unjustly it would seem, consider many of their politicians as traitors....


While it is unpolitic to provide opinion on the subject, one can see that, in some cases, Greek politicians act in a not-so-composed manner.
One of these, a chap called Paggalos, managed to reroute the NSA spying scandal all by himself: like any adolescent, he declared that spying is not much -- "...we tapped the mobile phone of the US ambassador to Athens and the US ambassador to Turkey..." by which he means, someone in the intelligence service fortuitously logged onto said ambassador's frequency while he was speaking to the other said ambassador, and proceeded to listen in for a while...

That's what we call, "shooting yourself in the foot", or "the guy's not all there" or "the guy's out of focus for the time being..."




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10 Years After and Telecom Advertising in Greece

Of course, I mean "Ten Years After" i.e. Alvin Lee's super-group from the seventies. Their song, "I'd Like to Change the World", one of their most successful, from their (excellent) album "A Space In Time" has enjoyed a renewed success due to its selection as the title music for a major Greek mobile operator.
Said mobile operator probably did not check the song's lyrics -- or (more probably) their advertising agency does not speak English.

I like the song and the album, and actually have the album in both digital and analogue medium. I enjoy listening to TYA's music and sing along.I, along with very many English - speaking people, understand the lyrics.

Usually, the name of a song implies the colour of its lyrics. In this respect, I'D like to change the world" is superb and comes out nicely for a company touting a similar message in its own corner of the business universe.

Sometimes, however, the title hides the true portent of its lyrics... and the insinuations are legion. In this case, unintended, for sure.

I'll let you be the judge of whether the mobile operator is actually identifying with Alvin Lee's cynical approach to life. Here is the first stanza to the chorus:

"Everywhere is freaks and hairies,
Dykes and fairies, 
Tell me where is sanity
Tax the rich, feed the poor
'Til there are no rich no more

I'd love to change the world,
But I don't know what to do
So I'll leave it up to you"


What say you?

Is it "cowboy" taxes we get in Greece -- or just plain catastrophe?

Greece's minister of Labour suddenly decided to impose, what he probably considers, a teeny little one-off tax of  EURO 20/per employee.

Presumably, this one-off, teenie-weenie little tax doesn't really affect employers' financial fate and we all know that employers have money.
Presumably, it is Mr Vroutsis (such is the name of said minister of labour) understanding that most employers only have a 1-2 employees -- as in the bodega down the road or the Periptero up the road. All in all, they will pay 40 euro and be done with it.
Hmmmm!
What about the bank, in-between? How about 2,500 employees, i.e. a sudden tax of EURO 50,000?
Or 2,000 employees at the private employment agency, across from the bank: a teenie tax 40,000 euro.

In the old times and in another country, tiny little taxes similar to this one would be imposed by the people who were there to "protect you".
Said tiny little extraordinary contributions were "implemented" in order to, purportedly, help immigrants' children, or artistic development in the area, or revamp the "protection company's" headquarters...

Whatever the case, these one-off, happy, teenie-weenie taxes were never a suggestion -- they were always compulsory enforced in a variety of methods.

All of the above took place in another country, different times.

Indeed, the people who conceived and enforced those creative, teenie-weenie little taxes were not called "ministers" at all. At the time...