Πώς βλέπουν την Ελλάδα οι Άγγλοι ...
John Rotomano
Κάπως έτσι τελοσπάντων, διαβάστε από τους "έγκριτους" Τάιμς του
Λονδίνου, και βγάλτε τα συμπεράσματά σας:
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Party's over for Greek graspers
21 December, 2009, 07:36:10
Forget about British MPs putting the occasional duck house on
expenses. Sumptuous villas have sprouted around Athens on altogether
more lavish government spoils. The carnival of corruption and waste
has brought Greece close to ruin. "The party is over," said a senior
official in the former conservative government last week as fears grew
that Greece might default on its £270 billion debt and trigger another
global financial crisis. The former official, who now works in the
private sector, offered a candid assessment of the Greek malaise on
condition that he would not be identified. He slapped a newspaper down
on his desk and jabbed at it with his finger. "This is what it is all
about," he said. On the front page the newspaper reported that the
health minister was talking to drug companies about cancelling 8m
doses of swine flu vaccine. Her predecessor had ordered 16m doses,
considered excessive in a country with a population of 11m. Only
320,000 people have been vaccinated since the campaign began a little
more than a month ago. "It's a terrible waste of money," said the
former official. "It happens all the time. This is the Greek reality."
He estimated that hosting the Olympic Games in 2004 cost Greece more
than £12 billion, double what it would have been without "money flying
this way, that way and often under the table". Bribes are routinely
paid by Athenians to speed up bureaucracy. Tax evasion is also
rampant. As for the new, centre-left government of George Papandreou,
the prime minister, who is also the son and grandson of Greek prime
ministers, the former official was dismissive. "They're a bunch of
amateurs," he said. "Not one of them has ever earned a penny in the
private sector." The previous government -- of which he had been a
member -- was just as incompetent. He confirmed a rumour that Costas
Karamanlis, the former prime minister, spent long hours on a
PlayStation computer game at home when he might have been attending to
matters of state. No wonder Greece is in so much trouble. It is,
however, far from being the only one. Just as things are stabilising
from the last financial crisis -- and aftershocks such as last month's
announcement that Dubai World, the emirate's investment vehicle, was
delaying debt repayments -- experts can feel another quake coming. This
time the culprits are the Piigs -- Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and
Spain, some of the most economically troubled members of the EU. After
Greece's credit rating was downgraded this month, the government
pledged to do anything necessary to save the economy. Investors were
unimpressed by the measures announced last week and speculation grew
that the country might eventually be forced to go cap in hand to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) or, as seems more likely, the EU.
"The measures being proposed [by Papandreou] are too vague," said
Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative opposition, "and the more
he procrastinates, the more painful it will be in the end." There was
so much waste and misuse of funds, said Samaras, that Greece could
easily "cut fat" without pain. But it is feared that slashing perks
such as an extra month's salary, to which workers are entitled each
year by law, could provoke a repeat of the rioting that set central
Athens ablaze last year after a schoolboy was shot by the police.
Police have declared a "zero tolerance" approach to riots but attacks
on police stations with home-made bombs and the emergence of new
anarchist groups with names such as Revolutionary Struggle and
Conspiracy of Cells of Fire could presage more violence to come. There
are suspicions that 17N, the terrorist group that was said to have
been disbanded in 2002 after the trial of several of its members, may
still be operating behind the scenes. Talk of revolutionary groups and
an IMF bailout is not the only thing about Greece these days that is
evocative of a banana republic. Women were rooting in rubbish bins for
food in one area of Athens last week and children were begging in the
city centre. With only a few days to go before Christmas, the shops,
restaurants and bars seemed eerily empty in some districts. Many had
closed. "It's like a ghost town compared with before," said Yannis, a
waiter forlornly surveying an expanse of empty tables. Some of the
great sporting complexes built for the Olympics have today been
abandoned to weeds. A gypsy camp has sprung up outside one. For the
time being, though, the anger is directed mainly at the credit rating
agencies whose decision to downgrade Greece makes its bonds a less
safe bet for investors. This means it will be more expensive for the
government to borrow funds in future. Under such circumstances, the
debt risks ballooning even further out of control. "The credit rating
agencies have a real nerve to be giving us lessons when they didn't
say a single thing about the banks responsible for the financial
crisis," said Agamemnon Koliatsos, an economist, angrily pacing up and
down in his office and jiggling his worry beads. "Everyone should be
looking at themselves in the mirror. Not just us." He believes that
Italy, whose debt, according to some calculations, is even higher, is
in just as much trouble as Greece. Others sounded contrite over their
country's mismanagement. Announcing debt reduction measures on Monday,
Papandreou called corruption "the heart of the Greek problem",
adding, : "We will change or we will sink." A similar clean-up
campaign was announced by Karamanlis, the previous prime minister, but
this did not stop him from being voted out of office by a landslide 10
weeks ago after a series of corruption scandals in which several of
his closest associates were forced to resign. "People in power," said
Yannis Panaretos, the deputy minister of education in charge of an
open government programme, "were abusing it in a way that was beyond
any level of acceptability." A new, more austere regime will attempt
to convince the world that Greece is serious about putting its house
in order. Police are being brought in for the first time to combat the
twin scourges of fuel smuggling and tax evasion, which cost the
government billions in lost revenue each year. Private doctors will
think twice before demanding payments in cash so that they can claim
their incomes are only slightly higher than the rent on their
lucrative practices. An independent statistics office will be set up
to give more credibility to Greek economic indicators after complaints
that the country has hoodwinked the EU over the size of its budget
deficit. Samaras, the opposition leader, has proposed a law that would
allow officials to be pursued for corruption for 15 years after
leaving government. At present they have immunity once they leave
office and few government officials have ever been prosecuted for
corruption. That may soon change.
Source: TimesOnline, Document id: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6962790.ece
ionage
> οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ ... οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ ;;;;;
"οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½..."
...οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½. οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½.
Times οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ Guardian οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ "οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½" οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½
οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½. οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ (οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½) οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ "οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½" οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½
"οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½" οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½.
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ "οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½" οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½.
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ business as usual. οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, business οΏ½οΏ½
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½.
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½... οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ "οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½" οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½:
MANUFACTURING THREATS - SUDAN, IRAN, AND THE WAR FOR CIVILISATION
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/07/071218_manufacturing_threats_sudan.php
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½:
ionage
> οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ business as usual. οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, business οΏ½οΏ½
> οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½.
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½:
http://www.tanea.gr/default.asp?pid=2&ct=3&artid=4552399
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ Moody's οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½,
οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½1 οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½2. οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½
οΏ½οΏ½ 4% οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ Spreads οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½
Yianni
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zaicos
> οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½' οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½.
> οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½ οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½!
mia xara einai ta agglika soy Giannh moy.. swsta ta leei.