I really didn’t know that Greece had such a healing climate. Apparently it does. And thus with the effect that blinds can see, and paralyzed can walk. This can be the conclusion when one reads the news about the scandal of ‘fake disabled’ Greek fraudsters who used to extort real social benefits for quite some years. The scandal was uncovered when the Health Ministry was forced to cut expenditure under the Damocles sword of the Troika and finally proceed to controls.
Blindness Epidemic
In Zakynthos an active taxi driver was receiving ‘blindness’ benefit, while in Athens another ‘blind’ pointed with the finger at the circular and advised the municipality worker how to fill the blindness benefit request. “Look there!” the blind reportedly told the public servant who reported this medical miracle to her supervisor.The blindnessepidemic had hit also a senior journalist, who was receiving a benefit but he had transferred to a third person, although it is not allowed by the procedure. In Pieria, 50 blindness beneficiaries were holders of driver’s license.
A woman had received a total of 17,000 euro in blindness benefits for her dead mother. She said, she had forgotten to declare her mother’s death. another 40 people in Iraklio, Crete, seems to suffer from the same syndrome, as they had also forgotten to declare the death the beneficiary and kept collecting the benefits.
Cross-Checking Impossible
One woman had been receiving a total of 17 different benefits and another a total of 9 different benefits. This was possible, because of the lack of a computerized system in the health and social welfare sector. For example, an Athens resident can receive several benefits and also additional or even the same benefits in his hometown, let’s say in Patras or village X. Every welfare section in both cities writes carefully and approve the request. All nicely written by hand. Cross-checking impossible!
Gynecologists Examine Men
Of course, the dark corridors of illegal social benefits presupposed a tight intermingling of doctors, who confirm the disabilities, public servants who approve and tricky, greedy and fake “patients”. A lung specialist confirmed mental disability to a ‘beneficiary’. A gynecologist confirmed Asthma suffering to a man, while another gynecologist confirmed to another man depression (post-natal depression syndrome? lol). Deputy Health Minister Markos Bolaris spoke of one single doctor who had used 300 disability confirmations.
Relevant news going public these days, claim the doctors would receive their shares for issuing a fake disability confirmation. In the IKA scandal, the fraudsters-employees used to get up to 80% commission from the benefits.
Stelios Bozikis, mayor of Zakynthos, told private broadcaster Mega TV on Tuesday morning, said that on the island of 40,000 inhabitants, there were 700 ‘blind’ people. “For all of them, the blindness confirmation has been issued by the same [public] doctor,” Bozikis claimed and stressed that the doctor had to be suspended from duty immediately. Bozikis also blamed the prefect of the area for trading ‘blindness benefits” for votes.
Disability in Gerographic Criteria
Ok, the community of Zakynthos seems to have some major issues for the time being, but the data from the Health Ministry revealed that some disability benefits had … geographical criteria.
In Lasithi, Crete, 1.22% of the residents have been receiving disability benefits, in Fokida 0.93%, in Cyklades 1.12%, in Rodopi , NE Greece, 3.34%!
Blame the Others, Instead…
For how many decades has this ‘fake benefits industry’ being flourishing? Nobody told us so far…. Also nobody told us so far who are the public servants, doctors, and the other ‘good fellas’ involved in this dirty scandal, that allowed bunches of fraudster to exploit public money and deprived real needy from the welfare.
Greek Health Ministry claims to claim all these illegal benefits worth at least 111 million euro back and take legal measures against the doctors.
Will the Health Ministry claim this money by taking these people to courts? Will Greek tax payers have to come up for 37,000 trials????
By making public only the cases of the false beneficiaries, the Health Ministry just plays pre-elections games trying to impress the public opinion. The problem has much deeper roots…
Health Minister Andreas Loverdos ( Health Minister since Sep 2010/ Labour & Social security Oct 2009-Sept 2010) told Skai TV that the municipalities and the doctors are to blame for the illegal benefits. This morning I heard his deputy Markos Bolaris also on Skai TV- Tsapanidou’s programme. More or less, Bolaris claimed, the others are to blame for these benefits. A tiny little green Marsian appeared on the right upper corner of my TV screen and then I understood whom he meant…
I have always wondered if corruption and fraud comes from the bottom of society and works up or whether from it comes from the top and works down……
Its a sure fact that when people see their elected representative fiddling millions with impunity they find personal justification in dipping their own hands into the till.
The sad fact is that whether this corruption takes place at one or both ends of the scale the poorest in society and those with the greatest needs are those that carry the burden and suffer.
I think a human gene is becoming defunct its called compassion.
I think if the poorest of the society had access to certain circles they wouldn’t be that poor. sorry for my cynicism
Scientific studies have shown that empirically, the lower income folks have stronger ethics and show much solidarity. Seems to confirm the view that money and power corrupts the mind, and thus leads to other corruption, too.
Communities with more than 3000 members will never work fine and that’s the reason you will hardly find big cities of people living with and not against nature.
Capitalism and also so called Communism are both founded on exploitation by doing a job for someone else and being forced into it by destroying all independent ways of live – like increasing the hunger to force nomads into factories. People get born into it and nobody ask them if they want to live (in it) or not or teach depressed how to commit suicide; instead they force them into pain of life and wage slavery. And instead of earning a life as a farmer that would be the most logical way people get paid to don’t ask questions and when they’ve stop asking anything the wages will decrease. No wonder people look for tricks to get away of it especially then there’s no welfare state at all.
All back to farming and depopulating cities? Sounds a bit like a page out of the rule book of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, from 1976 to 1979, to me.
Will I still be allowed to wear glasses? Or would that make me a person that had to be killed off? Must be fun here in Greece, with all those people with their enormous sunglasses. 😀
Well, in Cambodia there was mentioned total exploitation too, so i give you back “a closer reading” and “depopulation of cities” is already happening in Greece without any sledgehammer Pol Pot argument against it but properly you might think the song “Holiday In Cambodia” fits brilliant as a Levi commercial (“Well you’ll work harder/With a gun in your back/For a bowl of rice a day/Slave for soldiers/Till you starve/Then your head is skewered on a stake”):http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday_in_Cambodia
I know that cityfolks are coming more and more ‘back’ to their ‘roots’. It is getting awfully crowded around here lately. And more and more you hear car alarms going off in the night.
Great when they depopulate the cities voluntarily, but couldn’t they do it just a tat more quiet and civilized, please???
I don’t remember the noise these minimum 5% of the people of Athens, Salonika and other cities made when leaving to get to be farmers in 2011 but i’m sure that hypocrites will be thankful to figure out that food isn’t coming out of the fridges and that there were some people in Greece fighting against hunger early enough. These folks are the people who need to get support out of 12 billion EU-funds but i doubt that. More realistic will be to puke all fields with solar parks and steel-concrete windmills and for tourism of Troikans gulf gardens. But you know what? After the revolution there will come thousands of people from all around the world to help the farmers just like in Nicaragua or Cuba. And regarding biz i have brilliant ideas for cruiser tourism: Historical Galleys with pedals for workout – 6000 per week and if one needs some to whip pays extra.
As a German citizen, this reminds me of the Morgenthau plan in the first place, but your historic example fits better, Antonis! 🙂
Morgenthau… Monrgenthau… remind me pls
Morgenthau was an official of the US state department at the end of WWII, who came up with a plan to dismantle all German industries and turn the country into an agricultural society. Gladly, most other US officials involved in the planning noticed that Germany simply is too densely populated to produce food for the large population, and that the Morgenthau plan would have lead to millions dieing of starvation. Cooler heads like George C. Marshalll prevailed.
thank you!
As this state should have been completely abolished or should be owned by its victims because of the war crimes Morgenthau would have been much smarter. And i guess it would also had levelled down the arrogance and they wouldn’t have stopped paying their war debts in 1990. But who knows, may be it will happen as all German laws and acts are illegal because there was never any constitution established by the people.
The countries in the Eurozone which are in difficulty at present (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) are all either Catholic or Catholic Orthodox. They have the wrong basic mentalsoftware and do not feel or fear long-term consequences for their actions
Except the Greeks being Greek Orthodox 🙂
And you Robert are…? Protestant or some other denomination that thinks that people are born sinners and will die sinners and therefore it does not matter what you do in life, you will end up in hell anyway?
It might be the reason why so many of those countries have such a rich history in pillaging and murdering???
I was baptised as a catholic-in Ireland-and gave it up when I matured. I see religion as a devisive factor in human society. The religions which came thru the reformation emphasise the right of the individual to personal interpretation. They are just more accountable as individuals….but still believe in nonsence.