Some time ago, I looked into schools in, "Schools in Athens, district of Attica".
In an article published a week ago Macleans, the Canadian magazine, reproduces a study conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation on the quality of education and life-long learning.
Greece is a country known for political platitude and soviet-style political propagandists. All its politicians agree, education is crucial to the future and, in support of this belief it would seem the country's present socialist government renamed its ministry of education to "...education, life-long learning and....".
So how does the country fare in this study? Not very well, despite the politicos' concern.
Not surprisingly, Greece is at the bottom of the list.
I.e. education in Greece sucks. Let alone life-long learning: we don't do that here. We drink freddo and smoke ciggies instead.
For those who still insist on wasting time learning, that leaves two alternatives -- apart from moving out of the country, that is:
* private education (maybe)
* self-education
In actual terms, the educational level of Greeks is surpisingly "normal". The educational level of many Greeks is in sharp contrast with the abysmal level of the Greek educational system (called a "system" in extremis).
Drawing an elementary conclusion, it would seem that Greeks are champions of self-education!
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Monday, 13 September 2010
(DIS) Invest in Greece...
Why?
Because the government and administration of this country, do not want you to operate in Greece. They tell you so, but you aren't taking the hint!
You ARE however invited to consider the country, so do come and visit us and join us; we will throw a huge party for the event. We like parties...
We like parties, and you are a most welcome justification for a few extra do's...
Back to (dis)investing. In case you have not got the message, this is the way it goes: this man, Geoffrey "Yiorgos" Papandreou, currently Prime Minister of Greece, invites you to
Because the government and administration of this country, do not want you to operate in Greece. They tell you so, but you aren't taking the hint!
You ARE however invited to consider the country, so do come and visit us and join us; we will throw a huge party for the event. We like parties...
We like parties, and you are a most welcome justification for a few extra do's...
Back to (dis)investing. In case you have not got the message, this is the way it goes: this man, Geoffrey "Yiorgos" Papandreou, currently Prime Minister of Greece, invites you to
invest in Greece. You are welcome and you can qualify for incentives (poor) if you do invest undefined, "large", sums of money.
On the other hand, THIS man, Something Chrisohoidis, now minister of commerce etc, tells you that certain multinationals' way of operating in Greece and their high pricing tactics, will not be tolerated. 
"I.e., we'll raid them and fine them a few pennies each time"! Carrefour, a french hyper market chain, was fined Euro: 13.5 mill for having identical pricing in its outlets...!!! Accordingly, Fnac, the french non-food chain and Aldi, a German, packed their bags.
So: Which man's advice do you go for?
Geoff 's or Something's?
Your call!
(Bulgaria has 10% standard tax rate for investors. Cyprus 7%. Greece 33%)
Thursday, 9 September 2010
Beware of Greeks bearing bonds...
...is the title of an article in "Vanity Fair" by Michael Lewis, an american writer and financial columnist. It is 7 pages long and an interest and often humourous read. The three outtakes below indicate an unusual understanding of the present day Greece status quo and (no surprise) say it all.
"(4) Oddly enough, the financiers in Greece remain more or less beyond reproach. They never ceased to be anything but sleepy old commercial bankers.
Virtually alone among Europe’s bankers, they did not buy U.S. subprime-backed bonds, or leverage themselves to the hilt, or pay themselves huge sums of money. The biggest problem the banks had was that they had lent roughly 30 billion euros to the Greek government—where it was stolen or squandered. In Greece the banks didn’t sink the country. The country sank the banks.
(p. 7) In Athens, I several times had a feeling new to me as a journalist: a complete lack of interest in what was obviously shocking material. I’d sit down with someone who knew the inner workings of the Greek government: a big-time banker, a tax collector, a deputy finance minister, a former M.P. I’d take out my notepad and start writing down the stories that spilled out of them. Scandal after scandal poured forth. Twenty minutes into it I’d lose interest. There were simply too many: they could fill libraries, never mind a magazine article.
(p. 8) No success of any kind is regarded without suspicion. Everyone is pretty sure everyone [else] is cheating on his taxes, or bribing politicians, or taking bribes, or lying about the value of his real estate. And this total absence of faith in one another is self-reinforcing. The epidemic of lying and cheating and stealing makes any sort of civic life impossible; the collapse of civic life only encourages more lying, cheating, and stealing. Lacking faith in one another, they fall back on themselves and their families. The structure of the Greek economy is collectivist, but the country, in spirit, is the opposite of a collective. Its real structure is every man for himself. Into this system investors had poured hundreds of billions of dollars. And the credit boom had pushed the country over the edge, into total moral collapse."
Need we say much / any / ... more?
"(4) Oddly enough, the financiers in Greece remain more or less beyond reproach. They never ceased to be anything but sleepy old commercial bankers.
Virtually alone among Europe’s bankers, they did not buy U.S. subprime-backed bonds, or leverage themselves to the hilt, or pay themselves huge sums of money. The biggest problem the banks had was that they had lent roughly 30 billion euros to the Greek government—where it was stolen or squandered. In Greece the banks didn’t sink the country. The country sank the banks.
(p. 7) In Athens, I several times had a feeling new to me as a journalist: a complete lack of interest in what was obviously shocking material. I’d sit down with someone who knew the inner workings of the Greek government: a big-time banker, a tax collector, a deputy finance minister, a former M.P. I’d take out my notepad and start writing down the stories that spilled out of them. Scandal after scandal poured forth. Twenty minutes into it I’d lose interest. There were simply too many: they could fill libraries, never mind a magazine article.
(p. 8) No success of any kind is regarded without suspicion. Everyone is pretty sure everyone [else] is cheating on his taxes, or bribing politicians, or taking bribes, or lying about the value of his real estate. And this total absence of faith in one another is self-reinforcing. The epidemic of lying and cheating and stealing makes any sort of civic life impossible; the collapse of civic life only encourages more lying, cheating, and stealing. Lacking faith in one another, they fall back on themselves and their families. The structure of the Greek economy is collectivist, but the country, in spirit, is the opposite of a collective. Its real structure is every man for himself. Into this system investors had poured hundreds of billions of dollars. And the credit boom had pushed the country over the edge, into total moral collapse."
Need we say much / any / ... more?
Monday, 6 September 2010
Get Greece back...
...dot com.
Not that Greece had been lost -- or, if it has or had, that happened long ago. But Greeks woke up to that fact recently.
Now, a few people got together and set up a network on social media, hoping to wake the others from soporific government propaganda and deep apathy.
Unsurprisingly, the site is called "getgreeceback dot com"; so is the facebook.
The proposal is to get out on the street; no shouting, no noise, no nothing except in the words of the visionary: "get (our) country back, ... no IMF, ...no people we did not vote for..."
I would immediately add, get rid f the people you voted for, keep the IMF people. They're better than your politicians, more efficient, much cheaper.
Not that Greece had been lost -- or, if it has or had, that happened long ago. But Greeks woke up to that fact recently.
Now, a few people got together and set up a network on social media, hoping to wake the others from soporific government propaganda and deep apathy.
Unsurprisingly, the site is called "getgreeceback dot com"; so is the facebook.
The proposal is to get out on the street; no shouting, no noise, no nothing except in the words of the visionary: "get (our) country back, ... no IMF, ...no people we did not vote for..."
I would immediately add, get rid f the people you voted for, keep the IMF people. They're better than your politicians, more efficient, much cheaper.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Spain won the world cup.
By beating Germany, and then Holland in the finals.
I.e. they won the cup by scoring a grand total of two goals -- which is two more than their opponents scored.
So Spain won.
I thought "football is a game where two team play against each other and, in the end, Germany wins."
This time it is Spain, despite valiant efforts from both of the other contenders.
Three cheers for all, after all!
I.e. they won the cup by scoring a grand total of two goals -- which is two more than their opponents scored.
So Spain won.
I thought "football is a game where two team play against each other and, in the end, Germany wins."
This time it is Spain, despite valiant efforts from both of the other contenders.
Three cheers for all, after all!
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Germany's D.....z or S...... or both...
...have done it again.!
Or, "How do you ensure your national football team wins ?"
By ensuring off-sides (i.e. off game limits) goals count, and by ensuring that opponents' goals do not.
How do you do that? Well, maybe a question to the expert kickback corporations, D-Benz or Siemens would provide the answer!
The above is a panoramic view of Dachau, a well-known traditional German holiday escape reserved for foreigners who thwart them.
Or, "How do you ensure your national football team wins ?"
By ensuring off-sides (i.e. off game limits) goals count, and by ensuring that opponents' goals do not.
How do you do that? Well, maybe a question to the expert kickback corporations, D-Benz or Siemens would provide the answer!
The above is a panoramic view of Dachau, a well-known traditional German holiday escape reserved for foreigners who thwart them.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Council decision 2010/320/EU of 10th May -- or what Greece agreed to do to get bailed out...
In May the EU Council agreed to provide the much-needed bail-out, thereby offering a solution to the matter of Greece's sovereign debt problem.
This decision comes with some duties on either side: one side promises to provide bail-out money (EU partners & IMF) while the other vows to implement certain deficit-curtailing measures.
Salient bits of this decision are reproduced below.
This decision comes with some duties on either side: one side promises to provide bail-out money (EU partners & IMF) while the other vows to implement certain deficit-curtailing measures.
Salient bits of this decision are reproduced below.
| Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and in particular Article 126(9) and Article 136thereof... |
|
Monday, 14 June 2010
Why didn't they ask Evans?
Would you recruit this person...
...as your Director of Finance?
Probably not. His working experience ends as a financial analyst.
Or this person as your chief buyer?
Probably not, this one has absolutely NO work experience.
Chances are, if you did recruit her, you'd go bust -- but before you did, your suppliers will have their field day! Now she's proposing a new purchasing manual to impose on hospitals in Greece. They are notoriously behind in their payments, 3years and a few billion Euro behind, in fact. The new purchasing procedure promises to make things a bit worse.
Why didn't they ask Evans", one wonders. Evans is a category buyer at a major food chain in Greece. He lives in Athens. He is easily join-able. And, most importantly, HE KNOWS THE JOB, for goodness sake!
...as your Director of Finance?Probably not. His working experience ends as a financial analyst.
Or this person as your chief buyer?
Probably not, this one has absolutely NO work experience.Chances are, if you did recruit her, you'd go bust -- but before you did, your suppliers will have their field day! Now she's proposing a new purchasing manual to impose on hospitals in Greece. They are notoriously behind in their payments, 3years and a few billion Euro behind, in fact. The new purchasing procedure promises to make things a bit worse.
Why didn't they ask Evans", one wonders. Evans is a category buyer at a major food chain in Greece. He lives in Athens. He is easily join-able. And, most importantly, HE KNOWS THE JOB, for goodness sake!
* Greece's Prime minister looks and acts like he is running a NGO.
* Most of his ministers sport a gravitas looking and acting like adolescents entrusted with responsibility by their parents.
* They play at being grown ups, hoping to get a good mark from their parents.
* Some, more hard-core, ministers are in full pre-electoral regalia.
* The government’s communication tactics include the non-stop television-based, subject-matter deflecting propaganda – Soviet style.
Is the country in danger of disappearing for lack of competent resources in its government?
Greece's present government is, indeed, faced with a tough job.
Its executive cohorts however, have shown that they have neither the skills-set, nor the stamina, nor the experience to tackle the job. To this day, the only immediate-term effective cost-cutting measure they have taken is to leave their bills unpaid!
If it is true that “When the times get tough, the tough get going”, then this country is going nowhere fast.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Someone, anyone, HELP!
Things are getting worse. Do-gooders in Greece are making things worse. So are do-baders, but no-one expects them to do any better.
Someone please guard Greeks from their law-makers!
And please, God, someone, anyone, shut their ministers up and keep them away from f*&^% TELEVISION.
In the three months since the country went unofficially bust,
* unemployment has risen by 45% mostly because a new labour law outlaws all flexible labour and introduces labour union control on recruitment;
* government induced inflation (increase in petrol tax and VAT) is running at 4,5%;
* buying power has fallen further by about 11% for all civil servants, due to pay cuts;
* the ministers seem to follow their own personal route, each supremely unaware of, or uninterested in, what the other is doing;
* the ministers and other politicians still spend much of their mornings on morning shows on television, supporting their individual campaigns and common party lines;
* taxation is so volatile that it changes by the month; on the other hand, all agree that:
- growth is the only way out of this tunnel, and,
- investment is the road to growth
* No one seems to notice that, legally speaking, Greek lawmakers do not welcome investments; only investors' money.
* the Prime Minister is... out there somewhere, supremely unaware of what's going on?;
They are keeping the hood on the state run and champion loss-making Organisation of Greek Railways ("OSE" which services an unimpressive 25% of the country’s territory) which thereby continues its own “creative” operating style, losing a cool €: 1 bill / annum.
They are sending out "control teams" from the labour authorities to impose fines at will and whim -- or receive kickbacks instead;
They are complicating bureaucracy so as to make absolute conformity impossible: to whit, in order to operate as a temp agency one needs a license. In order to obtain a license one needs to operate an agency.
And, best of all, the Greek government has officially stopped all tax returns and VAT returns and other payments. BUT, for payments due, it does not accept clearance and charges 1.5% interest / month.
The country's creditors, perhaps? In Greece, now more than ever, money talks!
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Views and reports from afar: Canada
The following appeared in Maclean's, one of Canada's widest reaching and prestigious papers.
It is written by Mark Steyn, an eloquent writer and defender of the English language spoken & written correctly...
Sundry comments in brackets are mine.
From the Times of London: “The President of Greece warned last night that his country stood on the brink of the abyss after three people were killed when an anti-government mob set fire to the Athens bank where they worked.”
Thus wrote eloquent Mr M. Steyn.
'''One reader commented the following:
John Gordon says:
In the Paris Reparations Agreement of 1946 the German war crimes against Greece were billed at 7.1 billion US dollars. A few years later, under the threat of the oncoming Cold War, Germany was already needed by the Allies in the struggle against communism. For this reason, it was agreed in the London Agreement of 1953 that the recognised reparation demands against Germany should be postponed – until a final settlement in a later peace treaty.____Germany also during occupation (1941-1944) was given a mandatory loan from Greece (yes from Greece to Germany) to the size of 3,5 billions USD.____A total sum of 10,6 billions USD at 1938 prices, not today. Even at a modest interest of 4%, this money accounts to 130 billions USD, half of the total debt of Greece!__This war reparations does not take into account the cultural objects stolen of Greece stolen during occupation, neither the massacres of civilians – over 300,000 Greeks died during the occupation and ensuing civil war.__Before the minister of economy of Germany says that Germans are not liable of the faults of Greeks, he should pay back the faults of his ancestors, money that was lawfully is to be given to Greece, and then half of Greek debt will be paid. '''
OK, this was along post.
It is written by Mark Steyn, an eloquent writer and defender of the English language spoken & written correctly...
Sundry comments in brackets are mine.
''Not just their Big Fat Greek Funeral
MARK STEYN: As lazy, feckless, corrupt and violent as Greece undoubtedly is, it’s not that untypical.
Thursday, May 20, 2010 8:00am
From the Times of London: “The President of Greece warned last night that his country stood on the brink of the abyss after three people were killed when an anti-government mob set fire to the Athens bank where they worked.”
Almost right. They were not an “anti-government” mob, but a government mob, a mob comprised largely of civil servants. That they are highly uncivil and disinclined to serve should come as no surprise: they’re paid more and they retire earlier, and that’s how they want to keep it. So they’re objecting to austerity measures that would end, for example, the tradition of 14 monthly paycheques per annum. [Not quite: the cheques are simply annual income divided by 14] You read that right: the Greek public sector cannot be bound by anything so humdrum as temporal reality. So, when it was mooted that the “workers” might henceforth receive a mere 12 monthly paycheques per annum, they rioted. Their hapless victims—a man and two women—were a trio of clerks trapped in a bank when the mob set it alight and then obstructed emergency crews attempting to rescue them.
Unlovely as they are, the Greek rioters are the logical end point of the advanced social democratic state: not an oppressed underclass, but a pampered overclass, rioting in defence of its privileges and insisting on more subsidy, more benefits, more featherbedding, more government. [Not quite: it's not"the advanced social democratic state" that's the problem. Early retirement, etc, is chicken feed compared to big state contracts for construction, medical and pharmaceutical supplies, and especially defence equipment contracts. It's an elite that has enjoyed these kickbacks privileges primarily, and the '' advanced social democracy'' is an eye blinder used on the rest of the population. Hence the use and role of Unions in Greece. To keep a lid on things.
The elite is, of course, civil servants' and other Union leaders, politicians and their entourage of 10.000, and a few business tycoons.]
Who will pay for it? Hey, not my problem, say the rioters. Maybe those dead bank clerks’ clients, assuming we didn’t burn them to death, too. The problem facing the Western world isn’t very difficult to figure out: we’ve spent tomorrow today, and we can never earn enough tomorrow to pay for what we’ve already burned through. When you’re spending four trillion dollars but only raising two trillion in revenue (the Obama model), you’ve no intention of paying it off, and the rest of the world knows it. In Greece, the arithmetic is starker. To prop up unsustainable welfare states, most of the Western world isn’t “printing money” but instead printing credit cards and pre-approving our unborn grandchildren. That would be a dodgy proposition at the best of times. But in the Mediterranean those grandchildren are never going to be born. As I pointed out in my bestselling hate crime America Alone four years ago, Greece has one of the lowest fertility rates on the planet—1.3 children per couple, which places it in the “lowest-low” demographic category from which no society has recovered and, according to the UN, 178th out of 195 countries. In practical terms, it means 100 grandparents have 42 grandkids. Greek public sector employees are entitled not only to 14 monthly paycheques per annum during their “working” lives, but also 14 monthly retirement cheques per annum till death. Who’s going to be around to pay for that?
Welcome to My Big Fat Greek Funeral. As to every profligate Western politician’s enduring faith in mass immigration, what hardworking foreigner in his right mind would move to the Hellenes? According to the World Bank, when it comes to the ease of doing business, Greece ranks 109th out of 183 countries. If they were dramatically to liberate their business-killing economy, they might overtake Lebanon at big hit position 108, and Ethiopia at 107, and maybe Papua New Guinea at 102. And who knows? With even more radical reform, they might crack the Hot One Hundred and be bubbling under such favourable business environments as Yemen (99) and Moldova (94). Greece ranks 140th when it comes to starting a business, and 154th when it comes to protecting investors. They cannot mitigate their deathbed demography through immigration, because, even more so than Canada and the rest of Europe, the only foreigners with any incentive to head there are those who either want to lounge around on welfare or plot jihad at taxpayer expense. In my “alarmist” book I put it this way:“Projected public pensions liabilities are expected to rise by 2040 to about 6.8 per cent of GDP in the U.S. In Greece, the figure is 25 per cent—i.e., total societal collapse.” (My emphasis)
[Add to the above, the most obvious drawback: labour legislation in Greece, practically forbids temporary employment, part-time employment, occasional employment, home employment, contractual employment, and complicates overtime. It also institutes humongous fines immediately payable -- say, 30.000 euro on a point of bureaucracy regarding one employee's holiday.... But a passenger ship that does not execute its scheduled trip may be fined 1.750 Euro! Porn is in the low VAT category, but baby milk is in the middle category]
Four years on, thanks to Obama in Washington and business as usual in Athens, the situation has worsened. Yet in a sense the comparison is academic: whereas America still has a choice, Greece isn’t going to have a 2040. The mob is rioting for the right to continue suspending reality until they’re all dead. After that, who cares?
Greece has run out of Greeks to stick it to. So it’s turned to Germany. But Germany too is in net population decline. The Chinese and other buyers of Western debt know that. If you’re an investor and you don’t, more fool you. Tracking GDP versus median age in the world’s major economies is the easiest way to figure out where this story’s heading.
Traditionally, a bank is a means by which old people with capital lend to young people with ideas. But the advanced democracies with their mountains of sovereign debt are in effect old people who’ve blown through their capital and are all out of ideas looking for young people flush enough to bail them out. And the idea that it might be time for the spendthrift geezers to change their ways butts up against their indestructible moral vanity. Last year, President Sarkozy said that the G20 summit provided “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give capitalism a conscience.” European capitalism may have a conscience. It’s not clear it has a pulse. And, actually, when you’re burning Greek bank clerks to death in defence of your benefits, your “conscience” isn’t much in evidence, either.Let us take it as read that Greece is an outlier. As waggish officials in Brussels and Strasbourg will tell you, it only snuck into the EU due to some sort of clerical error. It’s a cesspit of sloth and corruption even by Mediterranean standards. On my last brief visit, Athens was a visibly decrepit dump: a town with a handful of splendid ancient ruins surrounded by a multitude of hideous graffiti-covered contemporary ruins. If you were going to cut one “advanced” social democracy loose and watch it plunge into the abyss pour encourager les autres, it would be hard to devise a better candidate than Greece.
And yet and yet . . . riot-wracked Athens isn’t that much of an outlier. Greece’s 2010 budget deficit is 12.2 per cent of GDP; Ireland’s is 14.7. Greece’s debt is 125 per cent of GDP; Italy’s is 117 per cent. Greece’s 65-plus population will increase from 18 per cent in 2005 to 25 per cent in 2030; Spain’s will increase from 17 per cent to 25 per cent. As lazy, feckless, squalid, corrupt and violent as Greece undoubtedly is, it’s not that untypical. It’s where the rest of Europe’s headed, and Japan and North America shortly thereafter. About half the global economy is living beyond not only its means but its diminished number of children’s means.
Instead of addressing that basic fact, countries with government debt of 125 per cent of GDP are being “rescued” by countries with government debt of 80 per cent of GDP. Good luck with that. Alas, the world has deemed Greece “too big to fail,” even though in (what’s the word?) reality it’s too big not to fail. And the rest of us are too big not to follow in its path:
“Another reform high on the list is removing the state from the marketplace in crucial sectors like health care, transportation and energy and allowing private investment,” reported the New York Times. “Economists say that the liberalization of trucking routes—where a trucking licence can cost up to $90,000—and the health care industry would help bring down prices in these areas, which are among the highest in Europe.”
Removing the state from health care brings down prices? Who knew? This New York Times is presumably entirely unrelated to the New York Times that’s spent the last year arguing for the governmentalization of U.S. health care as a means of controlling costs.
The EU is now throwing an extra trillion dollars at countries which by any objective measure are insolvent, and are unlikely ever again to be anything but—at least this side of bloody revolution. How do you grow your economy in a remorselessly shrinking market? That’s to say, Greece is a land of ever fewer customers and fewer workers but ever more retirees and more government. How do you increase GDP? By export? Where? You’re entirely uncompetitive; you can’t make anything at a price any foreigner would be prepared to pay for it. More to the point, foreigners already own your debt, and just servicing that in the years ahead will gobble up around 10 per cent of GDP—which you’ll have to try and make up domestically. How? You’ve got some of the lowest productivity rates in Europe, and a “workforce” that would rather rouse itself to murder bank tellers. [Not quite; one of the reasons Greece is un- everything, is that employment is so expenbsive. In open parlance, a quick way to reform the country would be, a) to eliminate Unions and discredit them (i.e. expose them for what they are, self-centred vote peddling Komsomols) in the eyes of the people and b) eliminate all labour law and regulations except for the basic definitions of employment, social security, and income tax. For starters.]
Greece, wrote Theodore Dalrymple, is “a cradle not only of democracy but of democratic corruption”—of electorates who give their votes to leaders who bribe them with baubles purchased by borrowing against a future that can never pay it off. The future is now here, and the riots will spread. ''
Thus wrote eloquent Mr M. Steyn.
'''One reader commented the following:
John Gordon says:
In the Paris Reparations Agreement of 1946 the German war crimes against Greece were billed at 7.1 billion US dollars. A few years later, under the threat of the oncoming Cold War, Germany was already needed by the Allies in the struggle against communism. For this reason, it was agreed in the London Agreement of 1953 that the recognised reparation demands against Germany should be postponed – until a final settlement in a later peace treaty.____Germany also during occupation (1941-1944) was given a mandatory loan from Greece (yes from Greece to Germany) to the size of 3,5 billions USD.____A total sum of 10,6 billions USD at 1938 prices, not today. Even at a modest interest of 4%, this money accounts to 130 billions USD, half of the total debt of Greece!__This war reparations does not take into account the cultural objects stolen of Greece stolen during occupation, neither the massacres of civilians – over 300,000 Greeks died during the occupation and ensuing civil war.__Before the minister of economy of Germany says that Germans are not liable of the faults of Greeks, he should pay back the faults of his ancestors, money that was lawfully is to be given to Greece, and then half of Greek debt will be paid. '''
OK, this was along post.
Friday, 7 May 2010
The "Troika" saves Greece & its government. How 'bout the Greeks?
A chant, commonly heard on the island of Mykonos, Greece.
"Olli Rehn,
don't touch my Cayenne"
O. Rehn is the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs. The cayenne is a type of pepper and also a model by a car manufacturer named Porsche. It is of course, the latter which is referred to in the chant.
Greeks, even the ones driving Cayennes (price new: Euro 80-110k) are under the misapprehension, and the media and their government are quick to confirm, that it is Commissioner Rehn, the bad IMF, President Barroso, and other hidden forces out there dictating austerity to the poor Socialist government of Greece which, in turn, cannot but conform. Because Greece needs the bail-out money!
I.e., there is no doubt that Commissioner Rehn dictated increase of VAT by 5 points and the inclusion of food in the high VAT rate! Perhaps he even contributed a recipe or two!
It is evident that Mr Thomsen from the IMF indicated that specific civil servants' pay must be cut across the board, he probably even chose these by name...
By the same token, it must be the same bad guys who suggested that wages be cut in the private sector too (why?) but the valiant Greek government resisted...
Or, even further, it must be they (referred to as "Troika") who imposed a law where all employment be restrictively put under labour union supervision and control, contingency labour be restricted, and temporary employment impracticable...
While, by the end of this year, redundancy will be simplified. So on one hand you lose your jobs, on the other hand legislation makes sure there are no other jobs to be had!
Is it stubbornness, or are Greeks incapable of waking up, what on earth are these people doing?
The country is bust, and the average pension in Greece was 765 euro/month before the cuts. Some people worked hard all their lives and contributed; they are going to lose part of their pension. Many fought in WW-2. Not all Greeks are lazy; indeed few are. These people will suffer.
* Despite everything, and when all is said and done, the civil service has remained the same in size and people and efficiency; new committees are being set up to supervise recruitment in the public sector...
* Access to jobs in the public sector has become more bureaucratic...
* Access to the dole has been boosted!
* Access to jobs in the private sector has become much more restricted... (as of this week!)
* A number of jobs has been eliminated by law.
* The money-market seems ready to dry up.
Does the Greek Premier cat know what his ministerial mice (especially the labour ones) are doing? As Mr Papandreou comes across as a decent person, the answer to the question seems to be: most unlikely!
Maybe Greece would have been much better off if, indeed, Commissioner Rehn, President JE Barroso, the IMF Greece team were as involved as they are made out to be...
Ultimately, Greeks deserve better.
"Olli Rehn,
don't touch my Cayenne"
O. Rehn is the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs. The cayenne is a type of pepper and also a model by a car manufacturer named Porsche. It is of course, the latter which is referred to in the chant.
Greeks, even the ones driving Cayennes (price new: Euro 80-110k) are under the misapprehension, and the media and their government are quick to confirm, that it is Commissioner Rehn, the bad IMF, President Barroso, and other hidden forces out there dictating austerity to the poor Socialist government of Greece which, in turn, cannot but conform. Because Greece needs the bail-out money!
I.e., there is no doubt that Commissioner Rehn dictated increase of VAT by 5 points and the inclusion of food in the high VAT rate! Perhaps he even contributed a recipe or two!
It is evident that Mr Thomsen from the IMF indicated that specific civil servants' pay must be cut across the board, he probably even chose these by name...
By the same token, it must be the same bad guys who suggested that wages be cut in the private sector too (why?) but the valiant Greek government resisted...
Or, even further, it must be they (referred to as "Troika") who imposed a law where all employment be restrictively put under labour union supervision and control, contingency labour be restricted, and temporary employment impracticable...
While, by the end of this year, redundancy will be simplified. So on one hand you lose your jobs, on the other hand legislation makes sure there are no other jobs to be had!
Is it stubbornness, or are Greeks incapable of waking up, what on earth are these people doing?
The country is bust, and the average pension in Greece was 765 euro/month before the cuts. Some people worked hard all their lives and contributed; they are going to lose part of their pension. Many fought in WW-2. Not all Greeks are lazy; indeed few are. These people will suffer.
* Despite everything, and when all is said and done, the civil service has remained the same in size and people and efficiency; new committees are being set up to supervise recruitment in the public sector...
* Access to jobs in the public sector has become more bureaucratic...
* Access to the dole has been boosted!
* Access to jobs in the private sector has become much more restricted... (as of this week!)
* A number of jobs has been eliminated by law.
* The money-market seems ready to dry up.
Does the Greek Premier cat know what his ministerial mice (especially the labour ones) are doing? As Mr Papandreou comes across as a decent person, the answer to the question seems to be: most unlikely!
Maybe Greece would have been much better off if, indeed, Commissioner Rehn, President JE Barroso, the IMF Greece team were as involved as they are made out to be...
Ultimately, Greeks deserve better.
Monday, 3 May 2010
While my guitar gently weaps...
Speeches were made for political expediency (unashamedly!) by the Prime Minister of Greece and crocodile tears were shed following the announcement of the first batch of austerity measures on Sunday 2nd May.
"Sniff, it's their fault (the ubiquitous "others" again) not ours";
"Sniff, patriots, simple people are ready to up their whole salary to help (good, because I won't -- what, you crazy?)".
"In these times we will pull through together (you put up the money and I'll do the clapping). "
Amen,
Amen,
Amen.
Instead this man should have said:
- The ones called upon today to foot the bill are mostly those who benefited little, benefited indirectly, or not at all from the spending spree we politicians started at the country's expense decades ago;
- For years, we the politicians have been hoodwinking you with simple communication techniques; we have successfully appealed to your emotional side;
- We have been deceiving you -- but of course politicians are hardly expected to tell the truth, are they?
- Those who have benefited greatly are not much affected by this crisis; they have enough stashed away to survive and retain their lifestyle -- albeit with some changes. Changes are exciting.
- Do you all know that ever since my father's reign, we have lived well beyond our means, we have turned many EU subsidies to personal profit, we have bought votes;
- We have lost part of these subsidies because we never actually applied for them! Why? Because while the interested parties were fighting over the split deadlines were lost -- so the loot is gone!
- Some of you rallied to this racket patiently hoping for your turn to share the loot! You are the ones who accepted the racket as a means to make a quick buck;
- Rather than rely on work to create wealth, net worth in Greece was gained the back door of state subsidy or state contracts -- which we, the politicians, controlled; Either that or you inherited real estate! So why work? It did not lead anywhere.
- Basically, we spent money but created little or no wealth! No added value.
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