It's a Greek Tragedy far more poignant than
anything Sophocles & Co ever could have written.
I cannot imagine that there has ever been a
civilization in human history in which, year
after year, young people have accumulated with no
occupation, and no hope of it either for years to
come. In Greece and Spain, unemployment of 15-24
year-olds is now over 50% -- and growing -- and
in Portugal, Italy and Belgium it's over 30% --
and growing. The intransigence of the Eurozone
politicians and bueaucrats is beyond description.
Keith
At 10:12 08/04/2012, Mike wrote:
-----Original Message----- From:
[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sid
Shniad Sent: Friday, April 06, 2012 3:42 PM
Subject: Tsolakoglou (reflections on the crisis
in Greece)
*http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/tsolakoglou/
Tsolakoglou by Michael Robert * I know many have
already commented on what happened last week
outside the Greek parliament building in
Athens. But itâs difficult not to exprxpress
a feeling of anguish and anger together. A
cash-strapped Greek pensioner shot and killed
himself outside parliament in Athens on
Wednesday. Dimitris Christoulas was a retired
chemist, with a wife and a daughter, who had
sold his pharmacy in 1994. In a suicide note
found by police, he said: *âThis Tsolakoglou
government has annnnihilated all traces for my
survival, which was based on a very dignified
pension that I alone paid for 35 years with no
help from the state. If one Greek had taken a
Kalashnikov into his hands, I might have
followed him and done the same but because I am
of an age that makes it impossible for me to
take strong action on my own, I see no other
solution than this dignified end to my life, so
I donât find myself fishing through garbage
cans for my my sustenance.âÂ* Tsolakoglou is
a reference to the wwartime Nazi
collaborationist Greek government. George
Tsolakoglou was a Greek military officer who was
appointed by the Germans in 1941 as Greek prime
minister. Mr Christoulas correctly identified
the nature of the current banker-led Greek
government that has agreed to a crippling
destruction of Greek living standards, public
services and jobs in order to bail out
Greeceâs creditors, EurEuropeâs banks,
insurance companies and hedge funds Ãs ââ
and to lie down before the neoliberal policies
off the dreaded Troika (the EU Commission, the
ECB and the IMF). In his last statement to the
world, Mr Christoulas went on: â*I believe
that young people with no fututure will one day
take up and hang this countryâs tr traitors
in arms in Syntagma Square just as the Italians
hanged Mussolini in 1945.âÂ*
Unfortunately, Mr Chrisstoulasâ act is not
an isolated one. The suicide re rate in Greece
used to be the lowest in Europe but it has
soared during the crisis. The latest data shows
suicides jumped 18% in 2010 from the previous
year as rising unemployment, higher taxes and
shrinking wages drove ordinary Greeks to
despair. Last year, the number of suicides in
Athens alone jumped over 25% from a year ago.
*âTThis is the point to which theyâve
brought us. Do to they really expect a pensioner
to live on 300 euros?âÂÂ* asked 54-year old
Maria Parashou, who rushed to the square to pay
her respects after reading about the
suicide. *âTheyâve cut our salaries,
theyâveââ¬â¢ve humiliated us. I have one
daughter who is unemployed and my husband has
lost half of his income, but I wonââ¢t allow
myself to lose hope.âÂ* I remind you of
a previous post (*Greece: a Sisyphean task*, 13
February 2012) that repeated what Greeceâs
top bishop said ab about the state of Greek
society under the jackboot of the Troika and the
collaborationists. Archbishop Ieronymos of
Athens and All Greece sent a letter to the
banker prime minister Lucas Papademos saying
that *âthe phenomenenon of the homeless and
the famished, a reminder of WWII conditions, has
taken the dimensions of a nightmare,âÂÂ*
adding that *âthe homeless increase by the
thoususands everyday, while small and
medium-sized enterprises are forced to go out of
business. Young people, the countryâs best
minds, choose to emigrate, while our fathathers
are unable to live after the dramatic cuts in
pensions. Family men, particularly the poorest,
those with many children, wage earners, are in
despair due to repeated wage cuts and unbearable
new taxes. The unprecedented tolerance of the
Greek people is being exhausted, rage pushes
fear aside and the risk of social upheaval
cannot be ignored anymore by those who are in
the position to give orders and those who
execute their lethal recipes.â * HHe went
on: *âin these difficult and undoubtedly,
crcrucial times, we should realise that every
Greek home is plagued by insecurity, despair and
depression, which unfortunately, have caused,
and sadly enough, continues to cause the
suicides of those unable to bear the ordeal of
their families and the pain of their
children.â * Eleections are about to be
announced after Easter. The date is likely to
be 6 May. The two main collaborationist
parties, the conservative New Democracy and the
laughingly named âsocialistâ PASOK are
desperately tryin trying to drum up enough votes
to keep the bankers government in office. Given
that they will get most of the TV time and have
the overwhelming backing of the main newspapers,
they may yet succeed. Thatâs partly because
the he anti-austerity parties, although doing
well in the polls, are hopelessly divided and
refusing to work with each other. The horrible
irony that proves Mr Christoulas so right is
that whatever the pro-austerity coalition does,
it will not be able to meet the draconian
demands of the Troika. The Greek capitalist
economy is diving at about 6% yoy and has
contracted by about 16-20% since its
peak. Unemployment is accelerating towards a
24% rate, with youth unemployment heading
towards a staggering 60%. Those who can leave
the country are doing so. There just wonât be
enough to squeeze out of the Greek people to po
pay the demands of the Troika. The government
will fail to meet the fiscal and spending
targets and then the Euro leaders will have to
decide whether yet another âbabailout
packageâ must be formulated, with yet more ce
conditions or whether they will decide to
âlet Greecece looseâ. The Euro leaders do
not want to do the he latter because of the
âcontagionâ effects thcts throughout
Europeâs financial markets that would lealead
to Portugal and Ireland also failing and more
important onto Spain and Italy, which are also
struggling under the heel of austerity. So the
leaders may opt for another package ââ PM
Papademos and friend of neoliberal eeconomist
Mario Monti in Italy, has already hinted that it
may be necessary. The May elections are the next
twist in the Greek tragedy, which has already
spilt the blood of many.
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
