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Action! “Fly A Kite For Greece”
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society
This is one more initiative aimed to support Greeks in the context of “Give Greece A Chance”. Fly a kite and write the support slogan on it!. This is an action organized by a Facebook group – one of the many nowadays.
Monday is Clean Monday in Greece, the start of the Lent till Easter. Tradition has us flying kites all over the nation. Please this year get a cheap white kite on which you write Give Greece a Chance!. Pictures and videos will be posted on the net. Join us in this silent and peaceful effort of uprising. Thank you!
FB “Fly A Kite For Greece“: Here you can upload your pictures and videos for the kites supporting Greece.
PS As it may be difficult to find a white kite, I believe it wouldn’t be a problem to ”Give Greece a Chance” on a multi-coloured one :) My favorite kites are those in rainbow colours.
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Greece would be much better off if every one of the supporters would buy a bottle of Greek ouzo or olive oil! I do have both, btw.
I heard the germans want to replace the souflaki stands with brautwurst stands so they will feel at home. By the way how are protests in de faterlaund going for higher wages. Funny when a country can control the media not too much gets out to the public. One of the freedoms here in Greece is you are free to leave anytime time you like gary. Na’se kala.
Huh?
1. Most people who spend their holidays abroad want to have new eperiences, not the same old stuff they know from home. That includes the food. If the Greeks open up more Bratwurst stands, they’re very much mistaken about what tourists want.
2. Germany controls the media? Do you confuse us with the Russians, maybe?
3. I’ ve read countless young and well qualified Greeks used that fredoom recently. And there’s folks in Germany who seek a fortune abroad, too. Everyone to his liking.
“New experiences” on holidays? Prostitution will get cheaper and cheaper!
Fact is that the typical Ballermann Herrentourist on Crete hates that “The ‘Zazikis’ don’t make Currywurst!”
Fact is that German media completely brainwashed the minds: They never show Papoulias’ words or a few swastikas as a reaction. Instead they feel insulted like the Queen by the Sex Pistols. They even don’t try one time to think about the truth about never paid war reparations. Instead they call that conspirational theory and claim “what do these unthankful creeps want, we did holidays there!”
Anti-Greek campaigns since years with “Focus” Markwart pointing out that a certain computer virus should be called “Greeks” because they sit in the horse and racist shit like “Greece is stone broke since 180 years” while ignoring that 1st) she was occupied 400 years and 2nd) that 180 years ago Greece was much smaller than now.
Best one yet was made by NTV disorientating “Moutza” in Ioannina as “Sieg Heil” by uniformed protesters!
This press campaign gots the same aim like the “Das Boot Ist Voll” (Spiegel) press campaign in beginning of the nineties: Pogroms by Nazis!
Schäuble also tries to fish the votes of the NPD for the case it gets forbitten.
I must see the ‘ntv’ report. any link?
Here is the link. Have a nice time visiting these arseholes in their Athens office – they belong to RTL.
http://www.n-tv.de/mediathek/videos/wirtschaft/Steuerzahlerbund-warnt-Bundestag-article5560256.html
SUPER! Unbelievable! here speaks the German …Freud!
“They never show Papoulias’ words or a few swastikas as a reaction.”
What do you mean? German media reported both about Papoulias weird outbreak after Schäuble voiced a lack of confidence in Greek politicians (as if the Greeks trust those guys!) and about the widespread Nazi comparisons in Greek TV and papers. What’s your point?
Then, Germany DID pay war reparations! Instead, the controversy is about the money Nazi Germany “borrowed” (it was more like a robbery) from Greece. If there were reasonably negotiations about that, I’m sure there could be a solution. But nowadays Germans, the vast majority born long after the war, won’t react positively on stupid insults or to being illegally dragged into court. That was very contraproductive for any agreement.
Now, Markwort? I don’t like that loudmouth, neither, but he’s harmless compared to Trangas.
But you’ve got a point with the NTV story, of course it’s embarassing that a German TV channel got confused about pictures like this one:
http://www.sott.net/image/image/s4/88669/full/eu_nazi_flag.jpg
So, those protestors aren’t mocking Germany with a Nazi salute, but with a genuinely Greek insult? What difference.
Really, I wonder why our German politicians still want to waste dozens of billions on you folks. You criticize everything we do or propose, so it’s obvious you believe you can do better without us. We should stop that kabuki theatre, let you default, and then you can show us how wonderfully you get along on your own. That most probably would be better for both sides.
oh, there is a big difference between a Nazi salute to mock Germany and a nice Greek moutza directed against the local politicians as a means of protest the hazardous policies of the last decades. Furthermore, high school students have 1,000 reasons to be angry. One of them is that his year, they hardly received textbooks by the Edu ministry.
Anyway, I’ve learned something. In Greece, NEVER wave at someone with the fingers widely spread! This may help me to stay out of trouble some day.
of, sometimes people do it here lol didn’t you see all these protesters outside the parliament last spring and summer?
The point was that this “fat, lazy Greeks” propaganda goes on for years and that Schäuble was talking into elections and therefore came Papoulias reaction. In 99% of German media “news” it all happened with Papoulias being the first, they first covered the “elections”-INSULTS and later on tried to schedule it wrong.
Also “defending Europe” was totally mistaken cuz he was talking about antifaschist resistance just like Manolis Glezos said that “Greeks died so Germans can live” (detailed interview about the reparations in Athens News in English)
Without Greek and other partisans there would be still the 3rd Reich.
Well, Schäuble isn’t much of a populist, but known for not talking around the facts. Don’t expect too much diplomacy from that guy. But I don’t really see the insult in his remark about not having much trust in Greek politicans standing by their promises after the election. For heaven’s sake, the Greek voters don’t have much, if any, trust in those politicians, too! What was Papoulias complaining about, that a foreign politician dared to tell the truth? Ridiculous.
this is a worldwide reality: people can criticize their politicians but foreigners cannot. Papoulias was right in the sense that Schaeuble had gone too far in his criticism, he was even bold. I mean, if you treat your ‘EU partners’ in such degradating way, what’s the purpose to be in the same club? That the country is in deep debt , it shouldn’t allow EU partners hurt our national pride. It is hurt anyway..
Ok, I admit it was undiplomatic. Maybe this helps you understand why Schäuble never was considered as a foreign minister during his long carreer. Everybody knew he isn’t the right guy for that job and shouldn’t be send abroad. As the minister of the interior, or that of the finances now, his outspokenness wasn’t such a flaw. Quite to the contrary, it can be argued that it’s positive if a politician doesn’t “beat around the bush”. Imho the much more dire shortcoming of Schäuble is that he’s such a horrible hardliner who doesn’t care much, if at all, about citizen rights. That has become worse after the assasination attempt confined him to the wheelchair, I’m afraid…
well…..
You don’t seem to understand. Everybody involved in ripping Greece off understands perfectly what is going on. This is a deliberate scam, and looting of a nation. It is a criminal act.
The only message that will be understood by these monsters, if written on a kite, is if the message says “this is what happens to traitors” and the kite string is wrapped around the neck of a corpse.
What’s there to be worth looting? It’s a bottomless pit instead.
Now, if you had written this is about the bankers saving their skin at the expense of everybody else, that would have been a debatable point. But this “looting” conspiracy theory is utter nonsense. What does Germany gain from this mess, really? It only costs us lots of our money, and all we get in return are insults.
It’s may be not esp. German companies cuz the multinationals don’t care about that too much but the longer the privatisations take the cheaper they get. And if Drachmas get put into the game it’s getting even cheaper.
So f.i. there would be VEOLIA who make money with the privatisation of drink water and trains. What that could mean one can see at Athens airport run by Hoch-Tief: In the last two holiday seasons it’s the only airport that took airport fees! In this case more looters beside them cuz all those travel companies never gave that spared fee to their (uninformed) costumers.
Next there will be someone to buy the refineries and the gas suppliers but may be potential buyers just wait what will be the results in oil and gas findings south of Crete and hope that they’ll get the licenses therefore cheap enhanced in the package.
Regarding insults it makes sense to think about how 500.000 Greeks in the German language area will feel about that. And exactly these people will have to care the most about all those “fortunate sons and daughters” looking for jobs in Germoney because what will they expect except from 400 Euro slave labour? Luckily they’ll find a couch for free and send 200 home…
You folks should vehemently protest against any privatiziation of water supplies! The Brits made very negative experiences with that. Not very surprisingly, since it’s almost never a good idea to privatize a monopoly. However, I haven’t heard that this is included in the Troika list, is it?
As for the trains, come on, be serious, what’s there to privatize? The Greek public railway is a hopeless case, it would be much cheaper to simply give the passengers money to hire a taxi. I doubt anybody is interested in that “business” under these conditions.
Athens airport is the only one that took airport fees? In Greece, you wanna say? They are totally common virtually everywhere in Europe. But I agree that that “investment” deal looks a bit fishy, the numbers published so far don’t make much sense. Probably yet another one of those crookeries where lots of money vanished in the pockets of corrupt officials. It’s high time for harsher laws and a special anti-corruption agency to fight such defrauding of the taxpayers. Is there a Greek party that has already put this on their program?
I’m not so optimistic about the other privatization deals allegedly in the pipeline. It’s an open secret that the responsible agency is totally understaffed (apparently only a dozen or so officials). Even more disturbingly, recently one official declared the license for the state lottery business may be sold in 2013. Foir heaven’s sake, with a simple auction this could and should have happened more than a year ago! That’s one of the most simple trasnactions, if it takes that long, that’s a bad sign for all those other deals. And in the meantime, those assets continue to lose value, just like the OTE shares that were sold for about half their original price! So, no good reason for optimisim, sadly. Those 50 billions will be worth maybe 20 billion next year, under the impact of more and more investors becoming weary because of the ongoing recession. All those strikes and riots crippling the economy don’t really encourage any buyers, neither, btw.
As for Greeks moving to Germany for better job oppportunities: Qualified folks who happen to speak German will have good chances right now. Others, not so much, since a part time 400 Euro job here is really only something for students supported by their parents or for families where one parent has a full time job. Indeed, that whole part time employment market is something that desperately needs reforming. The replacement of full time jobs with temporary workers has to be stopped. If only our politicians wouldn’t be so occupied with Greece, we German voters might be able to push them into correcting that problem!
It was an official try by Papandreou to boost tourism leaving the fees away on all Greek airports – except Athens that is run by Hoch-Tief. That wasn’t covered in German media and so it’s just extra money for TUI.
Are you sure you live in Germany?
400 Euro Jobs is reality for millions of Germans, mainly women alone with kids. Just ask the girl working at Lidl!
It’s also mixed with public assistance and if the boss is ugly you’ll work 40 hours per week and get 160 netto per month and if you open up your mouth he’ll blackmail you at the job center for not being cooperative to cut your Hartz IV.
That’s the German medicine for the rest of Europe.
Students have their own job center agency and i doubt they do that much 400 Euro Jobs, instead they steal away normal workers’ jobs for their carrier or long holidays.
Brilliant idea to steal away well educated youth from Greece and Spain so that Germany doesn’t get too much problems with Green Cards for Indians!
But i guess lots of these people once stranded in Germany will end up in lousy job conditions or don’t get paid as so many Polish and other folks.
So in the end Greece seems to be also responsible for that the German unions are too friendly and that there’s no workers rights movement, haha. Junge, Junge…
Beside that in Eastern Germany there aren’t that much unions anymore and that temporary slave labour after years of sleeping went important only since the reunification i remember that the unions are more into forbitting grassroots unions to call themselves unions – in cooperation with “DIE LINKE” (=”radical left”) against FAU.
“That wasn’t covered in German media”
Well, imho it wasn’t covered in English language Greek media, neither.. At least I don’t remember that. Really an interesting exception. Well, as I said, that whole AIA deal looks fishy…
Iaourti, you sure you understand English? Imho I rather clearly stated that the whole 400 Euro job program is a problem and responsible for countless full time jobs being replaced by such temporary workers. And, indeed, you can’t survive on this without additional welfare support. However, afaik, newly arrived Greek folks won’t be elligible for that support, so those lowly qualified jobs really are not an option for them.
As for German unions, they act responsibly and don’t kill the economy that provides the jobs, after all. Quite differently than the Greek unions who are drunken with power and don’t think twice before damaging the economy every other day. Apparently no insight at all into the very obvious fact that they’re sawing the very weak limb on which they themselves are sitting. Irresponsible.
Dear Grey!
About the airport fees it was on griechenland.net, grreporter, athens news, ekathimerini and a few indymedias and i think if ome goes to the Greek tourist information in Germoney or ask at a serious travel agency they know all about it.
Just like it was in Greece the number of people who are forced to work more than one job is growing. So indeed there are folks making their life with 400 Euro Jobs, also they may get something under the table to survive and there are also 800 Euro Jobs and other models around. Why that shouldn’t be a reality for Greeks if it’s a routine for Polish (who have less “European” rights) i don’t see. Also as one can see that Bulgarians and Romanians get hired as “independent contractors” “small businessmen” without health care or not getting paid, ending up in trouble with the antisocial language of the tax.
Hopefully Greeks will be better organized:http://neoskosmos.com/news/en/United-to-help-our-new-migrants
Most Greek Unions aren’t more radical than German Unions, they are both sell out “social” democrats. The problem with the Greek unions was that they only reacted to the pressure their members put on them and instead of organizing a real general strike they came up with such symbolic 24/48 hours fake. If a general strike isn’t indefinite it’s not a general strike at all! Only general strike can stop measures like this.
If terror measures like in Greece would have happened in the same velocity to the working classes in Germany you wouldn’t believe how fast these unions would be outdated as traitors and wildcat strikes would spread like in Wolfsburg 1969 or Cologne 1973.
From Italy will come the reply of the working classes: VIVA AUTONOMIA! VOGLIAMO TUTTO!
Well, damn, even though I read many of those sites quite regularly, I must have missed that. At least I don’t remember. Thx for the info, iaourti.
Now, the 400 Euro job misery is first and foremost a problem for the German people. And of course this whole nonsense urgently needs reforms. Afaik the social democrats and the unions are pushing for that, too, but they lack the political power to prevail against the conservatives. Imho the whole special rules for those jobs need to be terminated, and instead there should be a reform that leaves more money in the pockets of ALL low income folks, for instance by the state paying their share of the social insurances. Virtually all German parties have paid lip services for “mehr netto vom brutto” (higher net incomes) for decades now, but nothing has really changed for the better. What an effing hypocrissy.
As for the Greek unions, sorry, but I can’t support your view. Sellouts? Are you aware that Greece is leading in the EU when it comes to the number of strikes every year, by a wide margin?
Lastly, I’m not sure what you mean with those cryptic remarks about “terror measures”. “Velocity”? 69, 73 (who cares anymore?)? To me it seems Greece is less “law and order” than Germany, and the protestors can’t reasonably complain. Firebombs, people killed in burning buildings? Indeed, that would lead to consequences here. And rightly so, imho. Violence is NOT an acceptable way of protest in a democracy. Not in Germany, not in Greece, and not in Italy, neither.
“Are you aware that Greece is leading in the EU when it comes to the number of strikes every year, by a wide margin?” – No wonder, Greece is also leading in the EU in austerity measures…
It is not a “bottomless pit”. You need to understand the temporary and long term benefits (and losses) of all parties involved throughout this entire criminal enterprise.
In the beginning, in the short term, the benefit was all around. Greeks could live beyond their means, German workers and companies made great profits because they had more buyers for their products, and financiers from both sides of the fence profited from an upswing in business and all that came along with it.
In the medium term (now), Greeks and German citizenry/taxpayers are suffering. Greek living standards are plummeting, while German taxpayers, some yet unborn, are dispossessed.
The real winners here are the financiers and oligarchs who engineered the explosion of easy credit, who profited along the way with increased industry and earnings of fiat money, and who now profit by the claiming of real, tangible Greek assets, as well as future revenues from Greek and German citizens.
Claiming that Greece is a “bottomless pit” is myopic in the extreme.
Greek infrastructure is real, and valuable. Greek real estate is real, and valuable. Greek mineral and oil reserves are real, and valuable.
The situation is only a bottomless pit in terms of fiat currency. In terms of real assets to steal, it is rich booty indeed.
thus it becomes ‘bottomless’ because of the mismanagement. it becomes bottomless for the people who really have to contribute to save their country.
Ktg has a resonable point, George. When a situation is unsustainable because the expenses exceed the income gennerated by the productive parts of the society, then this is a bottomless pit. Throwing more money into this CAN’T have a positive effect. You have to reform the whole system first in order to steer the money towards more productive use. Ktg and I may disagree on who the productive parts are, and what the most productive use may be, but the general point is still true.
@iaourti iaourtaki, i’m not sure if you know this but the Germans have no obligation to pay the war reparations because when the USA gave Greece and other countries the US Marshall Plan, one of the stipulations was that Germany would be relieved of any reparations. So, I understand your sentiment, but the reality is legally they are under no obligation. From Greek-American friends I know they say they don’t teach the US Marshall plan history in Greek schools anymore, and this could be the problem with Iaourti and others who are unaware. Maybe a refresher on the US’ effort during the post world war II era would be a good idea.
No double shifts allowed in German factories, state law limits the maximum hours that may be worked and requires regular breaks. In a typical German fashion, that regulation goes very much into details:
http://www.arbeitsschutz.nrw.de/pdf/themenfelder/durchfuehrung_arbzg_030308.pdf
Maybe that’s overregulated, but better that way than allowing the exploitation of workers by unscupulous employers. Btw, I actually once worked for a company that was fined for violating the law, and the management too that dam seriously. We literally were forced to stop everything we’re doing after 11.5 hours even at a time of severe shortage of labor (flu outbreak, high demand periods).
As for guestworkers allegedly buying real estate back home: Good for them! But I doubt 80% of Greeks have been guestworkers in Germany.
Contrary to Turks the average time of Greek “Guestworkers” (btw:this word remained from the 3rd Reich) was 18 months in Germany. This means that many Greeks worked in Germany and that’s also the reason many Greeks can speak German and kids can learn that at school. And sure these folks did double shifts but this didn’t happen in the same factories; that was in the seventies and eighties.
Never heard of Italians aged 30-40 still living at home? Putting your 80% against 50% you’re just trying to create a picture of rich Greeks by totally ignoring the reality of South Europe.
I didn’t say that 80% slaved in Germoney, that’s just a picture for hard working people.
That reminds me of tourists in Greece who claim about the sins of half errected buildings disturbing the landscape, never realizing that because of earthquakes only the steel concrete cost 1/3 of the budget.
Some day it will be finished…
I bet most of this information you will find in Germann universities as people write diplomas about that!
ENJOY!
Excuse me pls, but isn’t it rather well known that those houses stay unfinished because that’s a way to avoid paying taxes on them? Maybe the tax collectors are the “earthquakes” you mentioned?
off topic, before i forget about a coincidence: 360 Euro public assistance sounds like 364 Euro Hartz 4 in Germany… just for the German masses who don’t know about the limitations and get their rent paid.
Well, those Greeks who happen to own real estate (according to statistics, about 80% of you people, but less than 50% in Germany) should manage to get along with that for a living. However, that those benefits are limited to 12 months in Greece is a dire problem, I agree.
How can South Europeans benefit from “real estate”, from a house three generations forced to live together in, more than “sometimes” with cut electricity?
For most of these “real estate” people of Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy were working double shifts in German factories as “Gastarbeiter”! What do you want? Sell it to rich Central-European pensioners and the families shall put a tent on the beach to “scare” tourists?
How? With tolerance, creativity and good humor, maybe? How do the Bulgarians manage to do that, while having an average income that is way below that of the Greeks?
maybe because the cost of living in Bulgaria is much cheaper? it’s not fair to compare only wages and leave out other factors.