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?

Photos from Greece

I got back from Greece a couple of days ago where I had a great time. I met lots of my old friends, saw my family, went swimming and I also voted for the national elections. I'll probably tell you all about it in a following post. I took more than 80 photos. Here are some of them:

Leaving a rainy London behind, I went there with my parents for a coffee! 

One of the city's floating bars with great beer and views 

A lovely coffee place 

My mum's really happy with her roses this year 

So happy to be working on my tan (trying to ignore the massive gray hair on my beard) 

I was the king of this beach. It was early in the year for other people to join me. I'm not complaining though. I lovely every minute of it.

A beautiful sunset with the slight view of the mount Olympus at the back.

Walking by the sea...

Assemble

We went to the cinema last weekend to watch ‘Avengers: Assemble’! It’s called that in the ‘UK’ because of the original TV series ‘Avengers’ back from the sixties and the movie that followed.

Anyway, the movie’s very good for what it is. What you expect is what you get. You don’t expect to watch high quality cinematography, acting and intriguing plot. It’s an action filled movie with lots of explosions, high end visual effects and quick sequences. There are some funny moments in it with sharp dialogues and unexpected outbursts. It’s the perfect huge-cola-and-popcorn experience. Especially for someone like me who’s been enjoying Marvel comic books for decades, although I have to admit that I didn’t like many of the movies Marvel made in the past (like all Spiderman movies) .

Unfortunately watching a highly anticipated by fans movie like that has its drawbacks. The theatre was full, including a crying baby and a mildly snoring elder guy right behind ‘JJ’. Especially the crying baby (his parents) was really irritating! He or she was silent and calm during the commercials and trailers. However, the moment the first explosions happened and Hulk smashed stuff (that’s not a spoiler, you expect him to smash stuff) he/she went berserk crying and yelling! The father decided after a while (not immediately) to take the baby out of the theatre, only to return moments afterwards hoping that the baby would remain quiet or sleep. However, the baby would cry again and they would again open the door and go out.  That going in and out of the room must have happened around 4 times! What were they really thinking? That the baby would sleep during the amazingly loud and slightly scary for a baby movie? I can understand that they can get fed up and need a break and go see a movie, but having a child means responsibilities! Even with the distraction of the cries and the opening and closing of the door next to screen, I did manage to enjoy the movie. I will just need to get the DVD to watch some bits that I missed.