End of an era... an act against democreacy and freedom of speech?

On Tuesday, Greek government decided to shut down the national Greek radio and television broadcasting. So, at around 11pm on Tuesday night, 3 state television channels (ERT, Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση, “Greek Radio-Television”) stopped working.

According to the news, the decision was taken extremely quickly. The PM met with his ministers who signed the document and in 3 hours the act was done. The other two parties of the coalition strongly object to this. The opposition is furious, since there was no law approved by the Parliament and they talk about the PM being a dictator. According to the decision, more than 2600 employees are immediately laid off and all state broadcasting ceased.

At the moment, there is uprising in the streets of the Greek capital. There are lots of former ERT employees still in the company’s buildings, occupying them, refusing to leave and still trying to broadcast. Lots of people have also gathered outside the main ERT building showing their support. The government is using riot police to take down state antennas to stop the transmissions and make people evacuate the areas. The journalist association has declared a running 48 hours strike to protest against the closure.

People outside ERT

ERT began radio transmitting in 1938. Television channels followed from 1966. Compared to the private TV channels it always tried to maintain a level of quality. There were very interesting documentaries, older movies and state programmes. Showing things like theatrical ancient tragedies and the philharmonic orchestra didn’t make ERT the most popular channel to the masses. That meant that the TV and radio channels weren’t profitable. The government had to subsidize it, apart from a little bit of money every household had to pay to ERT as part of their electric bill. In addition, ERT was used by previous politicians as a mean to get more voters. Lots of people were hired in ERT in the 80s and 90s for no apparent reason or qualifications.

The last news read from ERT

So, I agree that there should have been some kind of purification of the organisation. They could reorganise its structure, do some pay cuts or some layoffs. That would require a level of unwanted organisation and probably a little bit of money that the government didn’t want to spend. So, they instead decided on pulling the plug completely. TROIKA (European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF inspectors) are visiting Greece and the moment and had demanded fewer public sector employees, so the government made that stupid decision to please them…

ERT is part of the county’s history. And I can’t stress enough how important ERT’s archives are. The country’s modern history is recorded by them. Even during the military coup d’état in 1967, ERT wasn’t silenced. Think about the government shutting down BBC from one day to the next! And all these people made redundant…

Football vs Politics

It’s been a very interesting weekend for Greece. On Saturday, Greeks managed to beat Russia in the first round of the European Football tournament, Euro 2012. That’s probably soccer for some of you. From our Group, only we and the Czechs managed to pass, leaving behind Poland and the Russians! That means that we have one of the 8 best football teams in Europe! Well, being a bit lucky we had won the championship back in 2004. Football sometimes is something we do right…

Salpigidis, our number 1 scorer

While I never watch national tournaments neither here nor in Greece, international or global tournaments I find very interesting. I also love the general friendly banter between me and my fellow foreign colleagues. Since I am the only Greek in my team, I’m put in the position as the country’s representative anyway. I have to keep track of the changes and news.

On a very different note, with most Greeks really happy about the previous day’s match result, the national elections took place on Sunday! The major candidates were two: New Democracy (aka ND, the conservatives) and Syriza (left wing party).

Syriza is a relatively new player. They present themselves to be against the bailout, they want to renegotiate its terms and see if Greece still needs to be in the common currency. What they were saying appealed to the public and their popularity increased. However, the other side of the coin is that many believed that they were behind lots of protests and maybe riots that happened in Athens the last months. And don’t forget the poor people that got burnt inside a bank some months ago during one of these riots.

ND is an older party that was in power for many years. When they weren’t the government, they were the major opposition for PASOK (the socialists). Changing governments between ND and PASOK has been taking place ever since the mid 70’s. PASOK completely messed up the last couple of years, so ND only remained as a major player. They represent the need for Greece to remain in the Euro zone and they’ve agreed to the austerity measures. They are mostly liked in Europe and even Financial Times suggested in a controversial article for people to vote for them!

Our new Prime Minister

During the last national elections, ND won. They don’t have the absolute majority however and they will form a coalition with PASOK (their old enemy) and another pro-bailout smaller party. My mother’s been very happy with the result and I believe that Europe breathed a sigh of relief. Syriza declined their offer for a coalition since they want to be the opposition. And I don’t blame them. It’s much easier to put yourself out of trouble’s way and only point fingers instead of providing solutions. And I’m not in the new coalition’s side either. They are the ones that brought the whole crisis on the people’s head in the first place. I was reading again about the record unemployment rates and the fact that all civil servants’ salaries were cut by 40% since 2010. One in 5 companies has closed the last 2 years. However, I do agree with my mother that between the two, I prefer the coalition of ND and PASOK than the risk taker Alexis Tsipras who is the leader of Syriza.

The new coalition’s work is very tough though and the coming months challenging. The new government will try to renegotiate some terms of the bailout and cut back in the austerity measures. There will be trouble though. I fear that after summer, there will be a new wave of strikes, marches and even riots. Don’t forget that now the far right wing party of golden dawn (the neo-Nazis) are also in the Parliament. I’m not optimistic any more. The country’s economy is on decline the last 5 years and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.    

Political worries

I wanted to write briefly about Greece and the current political situation there. The national election results from last week were fruitless. The voters were spread among many parties, not giving to any of them the power to create a government. To give you an idea, the party with the most votes, only got 18.9% of the whole! Even the neo-Nazi party called ‘Golden Dawn’ managed to acquire 10% of the votes. (I truly hope that people didn’t know what they were voting for). Traditionally in Greece there were two parties (the democrats and the socialists) swapping governments for decades that created the current abysmal financial situation. This time around people got fed up with the current situation and decided to vote differently. In a way they tried to punish the two major parties but the outcome of the elections weren’t the best.

Power is thinned out and distributed to so many parties that no coalition government can be created. The second best party in the elections was the left winged Syriza with 16.8% that refuses to cooperate with any other party that follows the EU’s austerity measures. This idea is of course popular to the masses although they don’t actually say how the country will find the money to pay salaries and pensions or reduce its debt. Syriza tried to create a left wing collation government but the Communist party bluntly refused to work with them. According to them hard core Communists; Syriza is not really left wing, but a fraud. The rest of the parties (excluding the far right and left winged parties) can’t create a government on their own since they can’t create a coalition of at least 151 MPs.

So, after a week of fruitless negotiations, there is still no government formed. Most likely there will be other national elections in mid-June!  This of course costs money and time that the country can’t afford to lose. According to the existing financial minister, Greece is soon running out of money and will need the coming payment from the EU. However, EU mentioned that no money will be given to the country without a government supportive to the already agreed terms of financial aid. So, there’s a deadlock.

Looking and at what happened to Argentina a decade ago when it bankrupted, I believe that Greece needs to stay in the Euro zone. Otherwise, we’re talking about locking people’s bank accounts, having very small available bank daily withdrawals, closing the borders, isolating the country, skyrocketing inflation rates and prices of imported goods, non-existent development in the short term and public panic. I hope that a coalition government will be formed soon.  And since I can only wish, I hope for ‘Golden Dawn’ not to have any MPs. These people are scum.

Update: this is 'Golden Dawn's logo. Ring any bells?

Bad decisions…

When I was young I had the feeling that whenever something very good happened, something bad would follow. It’s like the action – reaction effect to equalise all phenomena. I’m not exactly sure how and when this notion started. I remember it vividly though. For example when a new birthday toy was given to me, soon afterwards I would have a massive fight with my brother or mother. This expectation wasn’t something healthy because it was taking away part of my excitement and happiness but I eventually grew out of it.

This memory came back to me when I spoke on the phone to my brother and mother. I was so happy coming back from work to my new home that I now share with JJ. However, the news from Greece were not very good to say the least.  In case you hadn’t noticed, Greece has been in a very bad financial situation for some years now. The country was bailed out and the current government issued lots of austerity measures to tackle the problem and minimise the debt.

For many reasons, some of which are the global bad financial situation and the series of bad governmental decisions, the austerity measures taken by the government didn’t work that well. Lots of families in Greece struggle at the moment financially but still the country’s debt is increasing. Last summer the country borrowed even more money from the IMf and the EU but that didn’t help much either.

Last week, on the 26th of October for better or for worse a 50% cut on the country’s debt was decided by the Eurozone. This decision was not easy and was made to strengthen Europe’s bailout fund and was well received by stock markets around the globe. It would work as a painkiller to Merkel and Sarkozy headache called Greece. In theory, it would work to loosen up some of the austerity measures. So, as far as I can see with my limited economic knowledge it would help towards finding a solution to the country’s problems.

However, yesterday the Greek Prime Minister decided that the people should decide on whether they should accept the debt write off with a referendum! I was shocked when I heard about it. After the negotiations last week and the deal already closed, he thinks that a referendum is the way forward that will take place after January!

In case people decide not to accept the debt write-off, Greece must exit the Euro and go back to its old currency, called drachma (lovely name, I know). That will allow the country to default with unknown consequences. All values will drop and people will be poorer than ever before, going back to a post war era. In addition, a country exiting the Eurozone might have unpredictable consequences to the value of the Euro, affecting other markets already in danger like Italy, Spain or Portugal.

Unfortunately, most people and unions oppose the austerity measures, the current government or the way Europe is handling things and might decide against the write-off and the Euro. They believe that going back to drachma will mean a new fresh start for the country. They’ve seen that the austerity measures have not been helping anyone and would agree to any other solution.

What surprised me is the timing of the referendum. Why now? What could have happened inside the government party to force the PM to take such a controversial decision now, when some progress has been made! That could have happened long time ago, before the series of bail outs. I can’t believe that the masses will see logic and support him. Also, the Euro leaders taking part in the negotiations last week will not see favourable the gamble that the PM is trying to play to cover his own back. Since he decided to join the dance with Merkel and Sarkozy, he should have kept the pace…

So, I had a talk with my mother and brother yesterday. My mother’s freaking out seeing her pension plan diminished and is very worried about her future during her retirement. My brother’s worried that the country might end up in an abysmal situation, much worse than now. He laughed about it saying that I could be sending him £100 a month to cover all the family’s expenses. That of course could happen if I can keep a work permit and Greece stays in the European Union. The Prime Minister is doing all he can to make more enemies than friends with the rest of the members at the moment.
 

Yet another post about this…

You must be so bored by it by now. The never ending saga of Greece’s political and economic situation is well… never ending. For me it has reached this critical limit when I can’t but laugh at the situation!

For the new bailout which is yet to be decided, the current government (the socialists) made some announcements about further cuts in salaries, subsidizes, increasing taxes etc. I understand that there is nothing else to be done to repay the debt. I can’t believe that the Prime Minister (PM) is happy to make these announcements. However, other measures to be taken, like privatisation of governmental companies and assets are not generally talked about. People once again saw their income diminished.


General strikes and marches are a norm these days. Similarly to what was happening in Spain, people are permanently in the main Athens square called Sintagma (= Constitution), in front of the House of Parliament. Yesterday, it was decided by most Unions to be a general strike day. Most general strikes do happen on Wednesday. It’s mid week and probably most people prefer not to work (but that’s my cynicism talking).

The demonstrations are crowded but at the time peaceful. However, the PM is greeted by the marching people with eggs and other seasonal vegetables thrown at his car on his way to meet the President. The situation escalates and the known ‘Anonymous’ people join the marches. I’m referring to the group of people with hoods, covered faces, sticks and Molotov bombs, who are in war with the Police. These ‘Anonymous’ people after suspiciously being inactive for the last days were ignoring the people staying in the Syntagma square. However, yesterday they tried and managed to destroy the peaceful demonstrations.

People outside the House of Parliament

What happened next can be described as simply amazing.

The PM is in contact with the leader of the opposition (the conservatives) to form a governmental coalition that will include financial experts outside political parties to solve the problems. The opposition leader states that he will concur only if the current PM is not the leader of that coalition! Surprisingly enough the PM agrees and yesterday afternoon the Greek PM resigns to the President!

George Papandreou - the Greek Prime Minister

It’s not certain what happens next. The leader of the opposition makes a statement about a personal victory over the socialists and how it’s proven that they can’t govern the country properly. The way they handle the situation I personally believe is arrogant and improper. The current government becomes furious on the opposition reaction and the Greek PM un-resigns to the President (I know that’s not a proper word, but I can’t explain it)! He withdraws his resignation and states that such a coalition can never happen, only mere hours after his resignation. He now states that he'll change the ministers, reevaluate the situation and maybe create two ministries of financial affairs with some no MP members...

This must be a world’s first!

The supporters of the opposition state that the Greek PM is simply dangerous and even mentally unstable. The supporters of the government state that the conservatives are immature and greedy, only trying to personally gain from the bad situation! The rest of the political parties declared that a coalition government is unconstitutional (which I think is true) and they would never support it, until a referendum or elections are organised.

The outcome of course of this whole fiasco is that nothing’s being done and the situation daily worsens. For the whole day yesterday almost the whole country was on strike. I can’t think of any scenario that this helps the country pay back its debt.

Europe Day

Cubby asked me on a previous post to talk a bit about Greece and the situation there. Since, I’ve been (happily) living in the UK for the last five years (has it been so long?), I don’t have the best picture of the situation, but I do read and hear about it and I try to stay up to date. It’s only appropriate since it is today ‘Europe Day’.

In a nutshell, I can say that the situation is not improving. The country had to be saved from bankruptcy with €110bn rescue loans last May, but continues to struggle to raise revenue as its economy shrinks.The government is trying to reduce the Deficit and the National Debt. The terms of the rescue loans are steep and the deficit is proven worse than expected. The European Union wanted a 9.6% deficit last autumn but Greece now hangs at 10.5%. Unfortunately, the country is stuck in a vicious circle with no easy way out.

The terms of the rescue loans and plans to reduce the deficit and debt demanded ambitious privatisation programs, letting off a number of public workers, reducing wages / annual bonuses, creating different more flexible working plans, increasing taxes and minimising governmental expenses. These terms however backfire.


To say the least, these terms increase public unrest with weekly strikes. The unemployment rates have increased and more people are now into benefits demanding more money from a government who can’t afford to spend, while the inflation rates have increased. People are reluctant to spend any money and the markets fail. There are no investments, no new construction projects and the stock market plunges.

For example, from one day to the next, Christmas and Easter bonuses were scrapped for all pensioners and public sector workers. Up until that point according to legislation, an extra salary was given on Christmas and another one before Easter. Also, lots of benefits and allowances were cut. Because of these decisions, my parents saw in a single night their pensions diminished by around 25%. Also, there was a massive increase in VAT and most products’ prices rose dramatically like the price of petrol. That left most people very worried for the future and unwilling to spend more money than absolutely necessary.


My parents are not well off but they are OK, being luckier than other families. They however worry for their lifetime savings in the local banks, in case the country defaults and the bank accounts are frozen. My mother admitted not going general shopping for months. I have old colleagues from the university who are well educated engineers with postgraduate diplomas unemployed, not being able to sustain themselves financially. It is very sad to see them move back with their parents because they can’t afford rent or live on their own and expecting pocket money from their parents to do anything. Driving around bigger cities, the number of shops which are closed is heart breaking. Only the city centres do see some movement but the commercial sector is dying. What’s more worrying is the fact that apart from everything’s being done, the situation is not improving, the debt is increasing and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Fortunately, the smaller cities, towns and villages manage to sustain themselves. Their economy does not rely too much on services. Also, they say that tourism isn’t doing that bad with popular destinations maintaining same figures as the years before. However, these good news are not enough…

I’d like to mention to this point the political games which are being played on Greece’s expense. I’m not an expert but I agree that the way EU tried to ‘help’ Greece is debatable. I believe that on one hand there’s Germany and on the other mostly France. The current president of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet agrees that Greece shouldn’t leave the EU and go back to the former currency. However, ‘Der Spiegel’ published a false article that the prime ministers had a meeting regarding changing Greece’s currency. That article alone made euro reduce dramatically its value today! There is a general panic at the media and the country’s credibility rate is degraded by organisations like ‘Standard and Poor’ not helping foreign investments invest in the country. Needless to say that Germany generally benefits from the steep interest rates of the rescue loans given to Greece. These are only part of the games played in a national level. The powerful of Europe are trying to take control of the countries in peril like Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

That's the Greek Prime Minister in the middle, the people on the right and Merkel on the left

I might be saying the wrong things and my analysis might be childish to say the least. Economists with the right knowledge will analyse things differently. However, these are some facts that I read and hear that sadden me tremendously. I do love my country which unfortunately has become the laughing joke of late.

Back from Greece…

I’m back and I had a really nice time.
Weather wise it wasn’t that great. I’ve noticed that Greece in general has the opposite weather from UK. When the weather here is warm and sunny, it’s crap in Greece and vice versa. That is why, most days of the year, Greece enjoys a nice, dry, warm weather. That didn’t stop me though from having a nice time.

walking around the city center

I hadn’t told most of my friends that I’ll be in Greece. I only saw two of my closest friends I missed the most and hadn’t seen during my last visit. I mostly wanted to stay at home, see my parents and get some rest, which is what I did. I even organised with my parents a day trip to a city called ‘Kastoria’ in northern Greece. That’s a lovely picturesque city by a . I hadn’t been there before and it was very nice to see. My parents loved the fact that we spent the whole day together.

Arriving in Kastoria

Walking around Kastoria

As expected, no serious discussions were made and the ‘gay’ issue wasn’t brought up. To be honest, that’s what I expected. As a family, we don’t easily discuss difficult, sentimentally charged topics. Especially, when my visits are short, a topic that might end up in an argument is not raised. I did however wanted to tell them about JJ. I know that my mother is keeping an eye on my facebook page and she must have seen the countless pictures. I’ll just give them more time…

View of the sea and the Aristotelous square from a lovely coffee place

The financial situation in Greece is abysmal. Driving through the city, the number of closed shops you see is frightening. Apart from the very city centre which is always busy, other major commercial roads are failing. The government in their attempt to minimize the national debt is taking measures that do not really help the market. Increasing yet again the VAT and the taxes made people afraid to spend. My parents for example are not wealthy but they are considered to be financial stable. They saw their pension schemes cut and the price of everything increased. My mother told me she’s terrified to spend more than necessarily needed, for fear of what will come next. The dark cloud of Greece defaulting is looming. When consumers are so scared, I can’t really see the situation improving any time soon.

Anyway, I’m back now and I’m as busy as ever. Work’s been interestingly challenging lately and I’m out of town tomorrow to visit a client. I love these visits because they’re a nice excuse to be out of the office. The place I’m going now is not that bad either and when I’ll be back, it’s going to be almost the weekend.

Being out of London means that I might not be able to take part in ‘5 on the fifth’ on time. I’ll probably upload my pictures on Friday…

The word in (almost) everyone’s lips in the country

Cuts! And I’m not talking about haircuts but I’m talking about governmental financial cuts that will affect everybody’s life here in Britain. What’s different about normal Budget cuts is the fact that the measures announced today will be affective for a number of years and not just for one.

People are talking about near 500,000 public sector jobs that will be lost by 2014-2015. The Defence Budget cuts were already announced yesterday (42,000 jobs to go by 2015). These numbers are so frightening. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of families that will be affected. We’re talking about whole communities.

Yesterday on the news there was a pub owner near an RAF base that will close in the near future. He had this pub for so many years and yet he will go out of business immediately when the military base closes. He broke into tears while talking. It was heart breaking…

I’m not exactly sure how and when this tide will turn. Such a hit on the public sector will definitely affect the private sector immensely. Construction, house prices, trade, inflation will all of course change. Unfortunately, I do believe that the people most affected will be from the lowest and middle incomes. Some people will have a difficult Christmas period or probably their last chance to enjoy it.

Your country needs you!

That is probably one of the scariest phrases ever used. I have it related with times of war, when ultimate sacrifices have to be made in the name of the nation. I instinctively think of World War II, bombings, sirens, hunger and depression.



That is the phrase that the British Prime Minister said yesterday to ask for people’s support on the economic crisis. He mentioned that there are tough times ahead of us and that everybody should do their bit to help the country! He believes that people should start feeling united and willing to help their country in time of need. He also implies that people shouldn’t complain (go on strike) but accept the situation and be patient when funding is cut or jobs are lost.

However, how far from the truth is he? Are the cuts that he is proposing justified? Are they going to be beneficial in the long term or not? Are the measures proposed too little or too late?

Of course, don’t expect me to answer these questions. Only time will tell. What I can’t personally understand is the fact that one day they mention they will cut /reduce child benefits from families and the other day it is mentioned that bank bonuses will ‘fall’ to £5bn! Notice that ‘fall’ bit. Last year it was £5.3bn. These people expected bonuses up to £7bn ($11.1bn) this year, so they are naturally a little bit disappointed… However, I think that some billion pounds can be used to save the economy, especially if the situation is so grim that it seems like ‘wartime’.

OK, I may be too naïve, simple minded or ignorant of the games being played or the situation. In the situation the PM is in, there is not much he can say when addressing the people. That phrase can also imply that we managed to overcome difficult times in the past, so we will overcome this one as well. There is a small hint of hope talking about unity or common purposes…

I might even be repeating myself, tiring you about economics. However, I think that ‘London Underground’ and ‘British Airways’ should be privatised and that the ‘benefits mentality’ of adolescent pregnancies or chronic unemployment should be dealt with…

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Anyway, I leave you with a shocking story I also heard today. Meet Clara Meadmore. She’s 107, one of the oldest women of Britain. She must have been through and have seen so much! What’s so different about her is that she is a virgin! Yes, she is. When she was young sex was only allowed after been married and she never did. Talking about a dry spell… And some people are complaining about it…