Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Latest news
On June 15th 2011, there was a planned general strike and organized protests which would meet on Sintagma square / parliament square along with the "outraged" movement protesters who are protesting for over 20 days straight.
It all started well and peacefully, with over half a million people on the spot. Then, approximately 100 people initiated violence against the cops which gave them the excuse to drop a few hundreds canisters of tear gas.
People understood this immediately to be a planned provocation and resisted the plan which wanted them "dispersed". They moved from spot to spot, evading tear gas canisters flying at them, and got back to the main square when the air was clearing up. The sense on the ground was that the government is at its death-bed. There is no way a "democratically elected" government to have over 5.000 policemen to guard them from the "people" in order to supposedly implement policies in their favor (which the people resist because they know different).
All in all, Greece has been moved to a situation of controlled bankruptcy for the last 13 months - while people were told the lie that they were being supported to exit the crisis or reduce the debt. Debt has climbed enormously, as have other indexes like unemployment, so peoples trust has diminished about the efficiency of the adopted policies.
Papandreou was about to fall on the afternoon of 15th - with rumors of his resignation very strong. At one point, there was an agreement between the PASOK (government) party and ND (opposition) under which Papandreou would relinquish leadership and form a coalition government that would more easily pass the "necessary" measures. However this did not eventuate and instead Papandreou came up with a government reshuffle (!). On the 16th another 2 of his parliament members resigned from their posts. The government reshuffle on the 17th hasnt convinced anyone - its just to steal time in order to vote for the second mechanism of controlled bankruptcy that was agreed with other countries - always behind the scenes.
At the moment, the media propaganda is enormous, either by shifting the focus from peoples anger and protests, or by not showing protests / giving them a negative spin of violence etc.
ReadThe RestEntry..
It all started well and peacefully, with over half a million people on the spot. Then, approximately 100 people initiated violence against the cops which gave them the excuse to drop a few hundreds canisters of tear gas.
People understood this immediately to be a planned provocation and resisted the plan which wanted them "dispersed". They moved from spot to spot, evading tear gas canisters flying at them, and got back to the main square when the air was clearing up. The sense on the ground was that the government is at its death-bed. There is no way a "democratically elected" government to have over 5.000 policemen to guard them from the "people" in order to supposedly implement policies in their favor (which the people resist because they know different).
All in all, Greece has been moved to a situation of controlled bankruptcy for the last 13 months - while people were told the lie that they were being supported to exit the crisis or reduce the debt. Debt has climbed enormously, as have other indexes like unemployment, so peoples trust has diminished about the efficiency of the adopted policies.
Papandreou was about to fall on the afternoon of 15th - with rumors of his resignation very strong. At one point, there was an agreement between the PASOK (government) party and ND (opposition) under which Papandreou would relinquish leadership and form a coalition government that would more easily pass the "necessary" measures. However this did not eventuate and instead Papandreou came up with a government reshuffle (!). On the 16th another 2 of his parliament members resigned from their posts. The government reshuffle on the 17th hasnt convinced anyone - its just to steal time in order to vote for the second mechanism of controlled bankruptcy that was agreed with other countries - always behind the scenes.
At the moment, the media propaganda is enormous, either by shifting the focus from peoples anger and protests, or by not showing protests / giving them a negative spin of violence etc.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
News of the last few days
a) January-June fiscal results:
The government claims that it is exceeding its expectations in reducing the deficit. However, this is only logistical. Increase of tax income is only in 7% and the goal was 13%. What the government is doing to keep deficit in check is not executing the budget in terms of expenses (!). The government is not paying or delays various salaries, internal debts etc plus it has cut down 3 billion from the public investment program.
So deficit is only achieved by not executing properly the expenses.
b) Political mutations:
With the left coalition of SYRIZA collapsing between its internal constituents, a new party is arising (Democratic Left) with mr Kouvelis as the leader. On the right, Mpakoyianni is trying to create a new right party after being separated with the main right party (New Democracy).
c) More taxes and pension reform:
More taxes have been activated (VAT 23% instead of 21% and pension reform has been voted.
d) In real-term economics:
A lot of small-mid businesses are bailing out of the market. The pressure is enormous. There are various quite commercial streets where you can see 10 or 20 shops in close proximity closed. A lot of ordinary people is facing problems in paying their taxes, their insurance or their everyday expenses. On top of that theres the pressure for the loan debts and theres been a constant stream of suicides (>400 per year).
e) Greece-Turkey
There has been a lot of tension lately, including oil research in the Aegean (by Turkey) which traditionally has been a point of extreme tension. Theres also tension through various incidents including airplanes/helicopters/ships, war exercises, rescue operations etc. The Greek side is generally diffusing / downgrading the tension.
ReadThe RestEntry..
The government claims that it is exceeding its expectations in reducing the deficit. However, this is only logistical. Increase of tax income is only in 7% and the goal was 13%. What the government is doing to keep deficit in check is not executing the budget in terms of expenses (!). The government is not paying or delays various salaries, internal debts etc plus it has cut down 3 billion from the public investment program.
So deficit is only achieved by not executing properly the expenses.
b) Political mutations:
With the left coalition of SYRIZA collapsing between its internal constituents, a new party is arising (Democratic Left) with mr Kouvelis as the leader. On the right, Mpakoyianni is trying to create a new right party after being separated with the main right party (New Democracy).
c) More taxes and pension reform:
More taxes have been activated (VAT 23% instead of 21% and pension reform has been voted.
d) In real-term economics:
A lot of small-mid businesses are bailing out of the market. The pressure is enormous. There are various quite commercial streets where you can see 10 or 20 shops in close proximity closed. A lot of ordinary people is facing problems in paying their taxes, their insurance or their everyday expenses. On top of that theres the pressure for the loan debts and theres been a constant stream of suicides (>400 per year).
e) Greece-Turkey
There has been a lot of tension lately, including oil research in the Aegean (by Turkey) which traditionally has been a point of extreme tension. Theres also tension through various incidents including airplanes/helicopters/ships, war exercises, rescue operations etc. The Greek side is generally diffusing / downgrading the tension.
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