Category: Greece

IT CAN NOT HAPPEN TO ME. CHAPTER 14

IT WILL NOT HAPPEN TO ME. GUESS WHAT? IT WILL!!

Chapter 14

Pity the Greek Citizens – Not the Politicians

What you see and hear about Greece will slowly come our way. Socialism is a great deal for the politicians as long as they can provide openhanded gifts to the populace. As long as they could borrow money and put off the consequences until they could leave office – fine.

Once when no one will submit bids for their debt the game is really over. They better have an escape route to Argentina ready.

Once they joined the European Union, they lost their freedom to default for they are now tied to everyone else. A simple solution would be debt holders to forgive interest and go for the principal only. This would cause severe pain among the bankers whose salary is paid. Right now they are still in control, but slowly losing it as citizens start to revolt.

Now dear reader, this is how it will happen to you. Hospitals that depend upon government assistance will start to run out of supplies because they can not pay. Try blood bags, plastic gloves used to stop the spread of diseases’ from staff and patients. Unable to pay staff and nurses, and to matters worse all medical plans must be p[aid in full first.

Utilities can not pay for gas from Russia’s Gazprom. Italians stop supplying for the same reason and also their need locally overrides the Greeks need.

Greeks import some 40% of their food supplies. All of its oil and gas is imported, and almost all of its drugs and elixirs.

Its main industries are tourism and shipping. With high unemployment and a rising crime rate their outlook is more than bleak.

There is not easy way out for the Greeks, and all the solutions would be long term. Necessity will force changes in life styles. It will not come easily either. What they need is a Pericles and or a Spartan Police force.

Meanwhile Portugal and Spain are not far behind. Then there are the Italians and then France. Eagan Jones has just reduced their rating of Germany to AA, they are a private rating agency that is a step above the rest in my humble opinion.

Another long term solutions is to have term limits for all politicians. This makes it harder for them to con the public. It is more interesting watching a newly elected official trying to win votes knowing that he has a short time to prove his worth to the electorate.

One thing is certain, the world wide economy will be slowing down as countries and their corporations prove their credit worthiness. This era is a “game changer” and we will need new rules and safeguards to protect us from the robber barons of yesteryear.

June 22, 2012
Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn says Istanbul will be Greek

More than 1000 Greeks gathered to commemorate for the loss of Istanbul to the Turks more than 550 years ago (!!!)Their leader made a speech in the street in front of 1000s and said that they will never rest `till the day they see Istanbul inside the map of Greece;

Quote: Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn says Istanbul will be Greek
The supporters of Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, which won nearly 7 percent of the vote in an inconclusive election on May 6, marched on May 30 chanting “Istanbul is Greek and will remain Greek.”Some 1,000 far-right Golden Dawn supporters gathered in Athens city center to protest the 559th anniversary of the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire and marked the date with a number of events held in the city on May 29.

Golden Dawn`s gypsy leader singing Greek national anthem;

Golden Dawn leader Nikos Mihaliolakos also said, “Istanbul is Greek and will remain Greek,” during the protest. The group chanted the national anthem and made the Nazi salute. June/01/2012 The gypsy neo-nazi speaks; The event ended with a moment of silence with nazi salutes of 1000s, then delusional Greek youth randomly attacked and injured five middle-eastern immigrant they found in the Athens subway in the same night, probably to soothe their anger on the weaklings;

Quote: Passengers of the Athens Piraeus Electric Railways (ISAP) witnessed several attacks against immigrants by supporters of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn.On Tuesday night, 30th of May, a group of youngsters attacked a Pakistani immigrant on St Nicolas Electric Railways station deck, causing him multiple injuries. According to eye witnesses, the perpetrators were shouting slogans of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. Police also examines that the perpetrators possibly came from Golden Dawn’s rally commemorating the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Subway passengers also witnessed other violent incidents against immigrants by supporters of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, who had participated earlier in their party’s rally in the Athens centre. Golden Dawn denied, in a statement, any involvement in violent incidents [1, 2 & 3]. Two days earlier (28.05.2012), a 33 year-old Bangladeshi immigrant was stabbed and robbed of 130euros in a wagon at Omonoia subway station. According to the Subway workers union, passengers witnessed the perpetrator shouting slogans of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party [1]. In another incident in Ilioupoli suburb, strangers attacked and injured an Iranian immigrant with a sharp object. Then, the offenders attacked and robbed a couple that was leaving in another floor of the building [2]. http://www.red-network.eu/?i=red-net…n.items&id=835

June 13, 2012
Turkey, Greece bridge cultural gap with romance

Romance and “clandestine relationships” between ordinary Greeks and Turks is again the vehicle for another big-budget Turkish romantic comedy. The theme is far from uncommon in real life.

By Menekse Tokyay and HK Tzanis for Southeast European Times in Istanbul and Athens — 21/05/12

”]“Iki Yaka Bir Ismail” (Two Shores, One Ismail), the new Turkish romance series — shot on location on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos (Mytilene) and in Aivali, across from the island in Turkey — was released earlier this month.

Playing on the theme of mixed marriage — this time between a Turkish fisherman and Greek island divorcee — it follows the wildly popular Turkish series “Yabanci Dama” (Foreign Groom), which debuted in 2004.

“For me, [mixed marriage] is no longer a taboo — I know of many Greeks now married to Turkish women, and quite a few Turkish men married to Greek wives. They live here in Mytilene, several in Aivali, in Larissa [in central Greece], everywhere,” according to actress Eleni Filini, one of the protagonists in the new series and a former beauty queen in the 1980s.

Take the real life couple of Aslihan Ozkara and Nikos Dimos, who met at a party a few years ago in Istanbul. In August 2008, the couple married in a surprise wedding held in the same Bosporus metropolis.

Ozkara told SETimes the fact that she and her husband hailed from different ethnic backgrounds meant nothing, as they are very similar as individuals.

Contrary to expectations, the marriage was well-received by their respective families.

“Probably because our families had lived abroad for a long time and were used to such mixed marriages, so it wasn’t perceived as something unusual,” she explained, adding that her husband’s family is also the product of a mixed marriage.

“So we, in a sense, continued a tradition. Nikos’ father was Greek and his mother Turkish. So, we didn’t see any weird reaction,” Ozkara said.

She added, however, that their marriage helped overcome certain latent and deeply rooted prejudices in their immediate social circles. “Through our marriage we tried to establish a bridge between these two cultures; to know each other and to understand each other in better ways,” she said.

Another successful “love story” from both sides of the Aegean is the Tsitselikis-Ozgunes family.

Meric Ozgunes and Constantinos Tsitselikis met at a Greek-Turkish civic dialogue workshop and currently live in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.

“Our respective nationalities definitely did not lead us to have a negative perception [of each other]. We were already involved in Turkish-Greek issues and open to dialogue; and a lot more than our nationalities united us. We were, in any case, against nationalism and cherished multi-culturalism,” Ozgunes told SETimes.

The couple was married during an official wedding ceremony in 2005, conducted in both Turkish and Greek, in Thessaloniki. As the parents of young children, they have neither baptised the children in the Orthodox Christian faith or ceremoniously circumcised them, as per the Muslim ritual.

“We will leave this decision to their will,” Ozgunes explained.

Asked about reactions towards the marriage, Tsitselikis said both families were very respectful of their decision, with the only queries coming from acquaintances or neighbours, who asked about the ubiquitous issue of religion.

“We had to face questions regarding what religion our children would have, if we were to have any,” he said.

Tsitselikis and Ozgunes said they believe the impact of such marriages can only be measured on their immediate social and professional circles.

“It definitely allowed some people around us, such as relatives and neighbours, to come into contact with the ‘other’, to put flesh and bone to a ‘Turk’ or a ‘Greek’, and therefore, it helped break certain stereotypes,” Ozgunes explained.

Ayse Gunduz Hosgor, an expert on mixed marriages from the Ankara-based Middle East Technical University, underlined that mixed marriages are a contributing factor to integration for at least one of the two partners.

“When we discuss mixed marriages amongst different ethnicities, the level of education and professional sophistication are determinants in laying the groundwork for potential partners [of different cultures] to meet each other,” Hosgor told SETimes.

Nevertheless, she also pointed to the importance of religion when assessing the sustainability of such marriages.

Beyond the interest generated by real life mixed marriages, “Iki Yaka Bir Ismail” is already generating a tourism boon on Lesvos via a cascade of reservations by Turkish tourists, according to travel agency owner Aris Lazaris, who helped co-ordinate the series’ shooting on the large island, which the locals call Mytilene, after the name of the capital city.

“We went from hell in the off-season, due to the repercussions of the economic crisis and cancellations of reservations by foreign tour operators, to our phones ringing off the hooks,” the Mytilene entrepreneur said.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.

via Turkey, Greece bridge cultural gap with romance (SETimes.com).

May 22, 2012
Islam versus Europe: Hordes of Muslim Illegals Invading Greece from Turkey

Everything in this report is consistent with the view that Turkey is deliberately facilitating this illegal immigrant invasion to further the islamisation of Europe. The Turkish government has signed visa-free travel treaties with virtually every Islam-dominated country.

Illegal Muslim Immigrants Invading Greece from… von V1683

Then they use their inaction over these illegal immigrants as an extortion tool to get the EU to grant visa-free travel to Turks! And Europe’s leaders are so weak they give in to this!

There is a clear solution to this problem. Whenever the system picks up an illegal immigrant who has made his way into Europe from Turkey, an invoice should be created for the costs of housing and processing him. Interest should be added and the invoice should be continually updated as new costs arise. Until Turkey takes the immigrant back, the costs continue mounting. If the Turkish government refuses to pay, the EU should impose import duties on all imports from Turkey and recover the money in that way. Within a few years of introducing a system like this, I estimate that the problem of illegal immigration from Turkey (80% of all illegal immigration into the EU) would largely have been solved. The problem only exists because the Turkish government tacitly condones it. But Europe’s leaders are paralysed by their own psychological weakness.

via Islam versus Europe: Hordes of Muslim Illegals Invading Greece from Turkey.

May 16, 2012
Greek and Turkish Debate Over Origins of “Koulouri”/”Simit”

It all started when US President Barack Obama called the “baklava” dessert “Greek” in a ceremony which took place in the White House for the March 25th National Anniversary. His statement caused a mini cultural crisis between neighboring countries.

As a national “retaliation,” the İstanbul Simit Tradesmen Chamber launched a process to get an international patent for the number one Turkish street food, the “simit” as Turks call it, same as our “koulouri.”

İstanbul Simit Tradesmen Chamber Chairman Zeki Sami Özdemir on Tuesday, April 3, filed a petition with the İstanbul Union of Craftsmen and Artisans’ Chambers (İSTESOB) and called on the chamber to take action and the necessary steps to protect Turkey’s national food, the simit.

The petition came after US President Barack Obama said he admired the taste of “Greek baklava,” which has been regarded by the Turks and the Greeks as their traditional dessert for centuries. It is widely acknowledged that “baklava” has its origins in Central Asia. Nevertheless the Turkish ISTESOB had to respond to the “inappropriate” public mistake of Obama.

“We will hold on to our simit and won’t allow Greeks to grab our simit too,” İSTESOB Chairman Faik Yılmaz said, adding that Greeks have been presenting Turkish traditional foods as their own for centuries.

“The simit is one of the most widely consumed food products in Turkey. Foreigners now know it as the national food of Turks. It sometimes serves as breakfast and even lunch for both the rich and the poor,” added Zeki Sami Özdemir.

via Greek and Turkish Debate Over Origins of “Koulouri”/”Simit” | Greek Reporter Europe.

April 15, 2012
Evros: The Greek Borders are “Protected” by a Single… Model Fence

3,000 illegal immigrants crossed the Greek borders during the first two months of 2012 only from Northern Evros, when last year the same figure totaled 1,609 –therefore minus 50%. Despite the public announcements of Frontex regarding the construction of the so called Fence of Evros, the only thing someone can see marking the Greek borders right now is… a model of the fence.

“I used every possible means to leave Afghanistan to get to Istanbul. From Istanbul I walked for 250 kilometers till Adrianoupolis where I met my ‘middle-man’ who would carry me to Greece. I paid 1,200 Euros. He told me it was too easy to cross the Greek borders, as long as I stuck to his directions. He assured me that no one would hurt me after I’ve crossed the borders. I waited for hours in the dark with other immigrants and at some point they took us all and transferred us on foot to Greek soil” explains Hamint, an immigrant from Afghanistan to the Greek newspaper “Proto Thema”.

“My compatriots invited me here. They told me I will surely find a job in Greece, from the ones that the locals won’t do”, Hamint adds.

For an immigrant to cross Adrianoupolis to Orestiada there is a fixed “tariff” of 800 to 1,200 Euros. There are hundreds of spots on the Evros borders where immigrants can illegally cross to Greece. They immigrants arrive in hundreds either by land or by the river of Evros, even during days with harsh weather conditions when the river gets dangerous, explains the Police official of Orestiada to “Proto Thema”.

Many immigrants get drowned in the river and never make it to Greece. Eleven corpses have been withdrawn from the river only during the last week.

There have been seven arrests of Turkish traffickers since January. Many of them are usually armed and won’t hesitate to fire against police. Last year they injured a Greek police officer after shooting him four times.

55% of the immigrants that get arrested are Afghani and the rest of them come mostly from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, according to the Police archives of Orestiada.

The coveted fence is expected to be 10.3 kilometers long, but the river of Evros will still be the biggest crossing point of the illegal immigrants. One month ago, Christos Papoutsis (former Minister for Citizen Protection) inaugurated the 3.2 million Euro fence, but the Greek government hasn’t yet proceeded with the construction. However the Ministry has left a… model fence to “guard” the Greek borders.

(Source: Proto Thema, Anastasia Karapatsia)

via Evros: The Greek Borders are “Protected” by a Single… Model Fence | Greece.GreekReporter.com Latest News from Greece.

March 18, 2012