The stuffed eggplant lays a bit heavily in my stomach and I firmly believe that it is time to make a confession hoping for some relief. I suffer from an incredible difficulty to resume posting on a daily basis. My mind is filled with images of villages and seas, my ears still ringing of waves and crickets. Not that we don’t have crickets here in the neighborhood. August is the month when all these noisy creatures of God go really crazy. I just have difficulties with the transition: from the guileless nature to a miserable reality. From an inspiring thinking to a prosaic writing.
Who said that there are no news in August? The maxim has been attributed to Italian linguist and writer Umberto Eco. Obviously he came to this conclusion in the years of the European prosperity. Because this August of 2011 the stock markets around the world experience a rogue they never saw before. Billions of euros, dollars and yens around the world disappear in unknown directions. Stocks lose value and people get broke within a single morning.
Having stood away from last weeks developments and events in the USA and EU, giving priority to sea rather to stock plunging, I turned on the television after a week and tried to understand what’s going on. I hear about the plunging of stocks in Japan and Germany, in Athens. The ASE went down to -4% and it recovered with a marginal profit of +0.19%. I watched the report about the ‘financial Armaggedon’ for almost 20 minutes. And yet, nobody in the Greek state television bothered to explain me why all this is happening. Most probably they thought ‘developing stories’ are TV serials were all the key roles and the main plot has been shown in the first two episodes…
Here is to mention that while watching the news, I heard a sound like a whirling washing machine. Mine was off. I zapped around on several television channels. They were ‘washing’ their clothes just at the state TV.
Among us: Later I found out on the internet, there were rumors that rating agencies are to downgrade Great Britain. Furthermore that there is sharp criticism on the EU-leaders delays to proceed with the second Greek bailout and the private investors participation. The rating agencies take advantage of the power they were given and nobody is able to stop them.
There is a major question concerning Greece and the stock exchanges: if stocks plunge, how will Athens manage to proceed to the Troika-enforced privatization of state-run enterprises. And at what price?… Definitely, a lower one than originally planned.
The government is penetrating people’s pockets with frenzy speed. As of September 1st, the Value Added Tax on several basic items and services will rise from 13% to 23%. You will pay more for coffee at a cafeteria, more more lunch or dinner at a restaurant, more for overnight in hotels. This is a real blow to all enterprises, especially the small and middle scale ones. Not to mention the consequences for the tourism industry. I will report more thoroughly … tomorrow. Well done, new economy minister!
More austerity measures have been prepared and will hit the average Greek day in, day out. Where will we find all the money to come up for the stae expenses is something that nobody tells us. Taxes, taxes and more taxes. The government even considers to force people to declare their bank savings in the tax office. I am sure one day we will have to undergo an underwear check, and pay a hygiene-tax.
According to data released today, bank savings of private people and enterprises were decreased by 1.9% in June. From the beginning of the year, the decrease is at 10% or else, 21 billion euro. The explanation is near: monthly income has decreased, people grab their savings to come along and cover daily needs.
In the context of changing laws every once in a while, the Defense Ministry is considering to increase the military service that was …decreased a couple of years ago by the conservative government.
The West Nile Virus transported by mosquitoes is expanding into an epidemic. State authorities were late in spraying areas where mosquitoes lay eggs. Now they do spraying and advice citizens to kill mosquitoes and wear long trousers and sleeves. Furthermore there is a current blood-transfusion stop because the disease can be transferred by human blood to human blood.
In the wonderful city of Athens, the contracts of 455 temporary workers expire. Because they happen to work at the garbage collection, be prepared for picturesque mountains of smelly plastic bags. Due to austerity, temporary workers hardly get replaced by new labour forces.
Keep tuned with KTG – Posting can only get better 🙂
im guessing that the national service duration increase is a desperate measure to massage unemployment numbers. a person serving his country doesnt count as unemployed, so if instead of 1 year the NS goes to 2 years then you take all new young highschool and univeristy graduates out of the labour force for 2 years and that way as if by magic unemployment looks better. if it goes through i can bet you that son after the goverment will be dancing and singing about how unemployment has dropped cos of their new growth initiative or whatever they call their half baked decisions. on the plus side i guess you can say that some young people will have room and board for 2 years.
officially they said they do it because they are unable to hire professionals due to the crisis. But the aspect you mention is really worth! thanks
the reason they give is valid too in a way. a conscripted soldier gets paid nothing or at least when i did it i was paid around 5 euro a month, in theory that was after deductions for food and board. but a professional would be paid in full with all the benefits and expenses and so on. in that regard they cant afford to pay. its also worth noting that most trouble caused in protests is by young unemployed people if a number of those people are safely locked in army barracks and naval bases it means less angry young people at syntagma. it also means though that if major trouble starts and the police cant handle it there is almost no chance they can trust the army to follow orders, since most of the soldiers will be conscripts and more likely to join with the protestors. but judging by our politicians track record i wouldnt credit them with overthinking situations, you can trust them to consider things in the short term and only inasmuch as it affects party politics anything to do with long term or national issues our “wise” and “all seeing” leaders will pretend they dont exist and blame their opposition for how they left them with this mess from back in 1900 and there wasnt enough time since then to fix things.
Rising taxes, falling income… It is so simple. But not for the Greek nomenklatura. Just one question. Why do we need to raise the VAT? Where will that money go? Not to pay of debt. That’s for sure. Who will get that money?
One example how it will hurt the tourism industry. We are now making programs for foreign tour operators for 2012. And we are still not able to tell them what the prices will be. Because the VAT could be 23 or 20 percent. And as we just saw, foodprices will rise by 10 percent. Or will they???
Everywhere in the world business is planning almost a year in advance. Prices are set, brochures are printed, strategies are made. But here we are still waiting and waiting. Until those travel agents will just cancel Greece for next year.
Stuffed eggplant is really to heavy in this time of the year. We should stick to gemista. But sometimes one just longs for it… and afterwards I dream about reading in the papers that Greece has been canceled. Not only for 2012, but for ever… So I will stay of the stuffed eggplant for now and dream pleasant dreams: sea, mountains with pristine forest and biocompost not made of industrial and toxic waste…
Frustration can be very inspiring, right? officially the increased VAT goes to state cashiers to pay loan interest rates as revenues go not according to plan. On the other hand I surely understand the frustration of not being able to give tourism prices. This will kill Greek tourism industry in favor of more competetive countries.
A stuffed eggplant is a ‘gemista’ in our family.