One of the many Greek miracles! A man has been receiving a 700-euro allowance on a monthly basis for being 100% blind. “What’s wrong with that?” one may ask. Nothing would be the answer if the man wasn’t a local champion in pool billiard! The man, who also happens to be a civil servant, has been well known among billiard players as ‘master’ dealing with unprecedented virtuosity with the cue.
It has not been known, for how many years the man has been illegaly receiving the allowance.
Tthe man is just one of “fake” disabled Greeks, who have been illegally pocketting social benefits and exploiting lack of control mechanisms in a collapsed, corrupted and indifferent state.
After the scandal of Zakynthos, where 1.8% of the island population was found to have been receiving allowance due to ‘fake’ blindness, the health ministry expands its controls in other geographical areas as well.
The ‘blind’ billiard expert has been residing in the city of Patras, Western Peloponnese.
In another scandal revealed last week, 35 children in Alexandroupoli, North-Eastern Greece, were granted allowance for being deaf-mute. A report showed that the children were neither deaf nor mute but properly normal and before their appearance to a health ministry committee they were taught how to behave and communicate like a disable child.
What do we learn from these recent scandals? That despite the two years of economic collapse and harsh austerity some people continue to illegally pocket public money at the expense of the rest of us.
Another question which remains open is whether all those fake blind, deaf, mute, and paralyzed will be enforced to return the money.
As long as those people are not forced to repay their illicate gains and those civil servants who signed off on these claims are not severely dealt with, Greece will remain a failed stated.
First of all thanks to keeptalkinggreece for keeping me informed, while heart wrenching to experience from a distance my heart goes out to the people of Greece and what they are experiencing right now.
I have read several stories recently of fake disabled people claiming benefits they are not seemingly eligible for obviously some are clearly cases of fraud. I accept that these practices occur and that it is not in the best interests of society for it’s citizens to wrought the system for personal gain. I may also concur, being of the Greek diaspora and not having personal experience (or very little) with matters of Greek life in Greece, that perhaps the Greeks are quite adept at the art of corruption which seems to be a common idea doing the rounds, I cannot say. Personally it something I abhor
What I do know from having lived my entire life evenly on the fringes of two western democracies is that corruption is everywhere and it runs deep. I have seen first hand so much distortion and manipulation of facts and figures from the staff in government offices through the police, solicitors, judges, attorney generals and prime ministers that I have come to the conclusion that corruption is a pandemic perpetuated by the wealthy elite. These stories are obviously spread by right wing Neo-Con (Anyone else notice the irony in this name, they even announce themselves as the “New Con” Artists) fanatics who want to continue to homogenise the worlds population and enslave them for their own profit and gain.
These so called fake claimants etc. are just but one symptom of a failing state. Greece being just one of many failing states including the largest failed sate of them all the U S of A. How can a country such as the US be even taken seriously as any kind of model for how to live. They are bankrupt, clear and simple. No need to try and work out how many trillions of dollars they OWE the rest of the world . In fact in all honesty, not knowing how one should evaluate a country, I would guestimate that the rest of the world owns the US already maybe even a few times over.
I didn’t want to turn this into a sermon but the bullshit I read and watch around the world makes me wonder what my ancestors would think of our lack of rationality. If these fake claimants didn’t receive payments what would be their alternatives in a country driven into the sea by the European/US Banking elite. I bet in many cases they are simply trying to find enough money to eat and provide shelter and probably spread the money throughout their community which is what the rich say they do, lol. Trickle down effect. It is more a case of wealth having a magnetic attraction to more wealth. I have rarely witnessed anything else in societies except when it is initiated by the community like the bartering proliferating throughout Greece right now.
Those in power want the public to focus on those few cases where citizens are ripping themselves off (They are society too) so as to obscure the scandalous theft they are currently in the act of. This is occurring Globally so try and focus on the prize and forget all the petty trivial crap that they use to distract us….Smoke & Mirrors
@OrBVIOUS66