It was televised live on several national telveison networks. Greece was the victim of an economic coup d’etat and there was hardly a murmur from the population. Just as Mussolini gave Metaxas the ultimatum of submitting to Italy or face the anger of Italy, this time the ultimatum issued by the international bankers was submit to our control or face our wrath. This time the Greek politicians voted Yes, people who allegedly represent the interests of the people over all else, voted to give up control over large parts of their country. And what did the Greek do in response?
Apart from demonstrations on the day of the vote (that was put down by the armed forces of the state), not a lot. There have been instances of residents holding protests outside the homes of politicians but nothing on a national scale. There appears to be no real resistance to giving up soverignty to international bankers, Germany and the EU.
What exactly did the Greek politicians vote for on behalf of the people?
1. They voted to sell off vast tracts of Greek land to international bankers as quickly as possible (and there is nothing a buyer likes more than a seller who is under pressure to sell quickly)
2. They voted to sell off Greek islands to international bankers as quickly as possible
3. They voted to sell off the Greek power infrasturcture as quickly as possible
4. They voted to sell off the Greek water companies as qucikly as possible
5. They voted to sell off the state betting firm as quickly as possible
6. They voted to decrease the wages of Greek public sector workers
7. They voted to decrease the pensions of every person in Greece
8. They voted to impose an income tax on the lowest earners in society
9. They voted increase food prices by 10%
10. They voted to increase the cost of going out in Greece by 10%
11. They voted to make Greeks work longer to get their pension
12. They voted to increase the price to people’s homes by up to 50%
13. They voted to make it more expensive for pensioners to heat their homes
14. They voted to hand over the control of the sales of state property to international bankers
15. They voted to give the children of the Greece the responsibility to service a much larger national debt.
16. They voted to increase the number of people unemployed
17. They voted to close down more businesses
18. They voted to increase the harshness of measures which have already shown to have a devastating effect on the Greek economy.
19. They voted increase the road tax further
And what was the apparent motiviation for these sacrifices? Papandreou would have the Greek people believe it is to save the country. Save the country from what exactly?
How about Papandreou saves the Greek people from these measures?
And despite all these attacks on the Greek people there is no concerted resistance.
The Greeks of today are from a different generation to those Greeks that fought in the second world war against the Nazi and Italian occupation.
If Hitler knew that to occupy Greece he just needed to get the Greek government into massive debt, the second world war would have been a lot more civilised.
Of course violence is not the answer. But Greeks need to identify that the problem are the politicians who voted to impose these measures on the people. The polticians need to be stripped of control and the only way to achieve this peacefully if for the government to be stripped of revenue with a direct democracy taking it’s place.
To show the incompetence of the Greek politicians, they are focussing their efforts on the rating agencies. I am sure some people are exploiting the ratings of soverign debt for financial gains but the fact remains that the reasons for the Greek credit rating is understood by everyone. For Greek politicians and EU polticians to be saying the priority is for the rating agencies to be stripped from their ability to rate soverign debt in the EU just shows the mindset of these people.
Their answer to problems of their own creation is to suppress the truth rather than to address the obvious problems. What else do these politcians do to supress the truth that the general public does not get to hear about.
The actions of the politicians in the EU and Greece re the ratings agencies shows that they would love to supress all bad news from the public domain. This tendency of the EU and governments in general is extremely worrying. This type of information manipulation will be familiar to anyone who has read 1984 and is familiar with Orwell’s Minstry of Truth
And again to show the incompetence of the EU, Athens News carries two contrasting stories in the same issue. The first is related to Santorini and how the government has made businesses there uncompetitive due to excessive regulations and taxation with the contrasting story about Brussels taxing EU citizens to give the money to Greece to increase competiveness.
I am sorry, but when was the last time governments have ever done anything to increase efficiency. Governments in general have ZERO track record of improving efficiency in the private sector so where do they get the idea from that they are qualified to help Greece?
The thought never dawns on governments that perhaps the best way they can help is to be less involved in people’s lives.
Today Athens News is a case in point. The government are absolute experts in breaking your legs, giving you crutches and then telling you if it wasn’t for them you wouldn’t be able to walk.
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