Keep Talking Greece Greek News in English, Blog, Wit & Drama

Urban Train-HSAP employees will be on work stoppage, tomorrow Tuesday, May 3, 2011. There will be no urban trains from 12:00 noon until 04:00 p.m. The employees are holding a meeting to decide about further actions as they protest the mandadory employees’ transfers to other departments.

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Cousins Spyros,35, and Costas,29, opened their own business three years ago: An internet cafe in Thessaloniki. The business was running good. In fact, it was running excellent! The internet cafe was open 24/7. They had even had two employees. Last October Spyros and Costas started to realize the economic crisis and the …

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Is Greece’s fifth loan tranche in danger? Will 12 billion euros be locked in the pockets of IMF, EU and ECB? Will we default? No, I don’t think so. Then it’s not in the interest neither of IMF, nor the EU nor the ECB to deprive Greece from life-securing cash. …

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A sharp increase in free meals demand by Greeks has been recorded by the Church  in recent months. Father Chrysostomos Symeonidis from the  Charitable Service of Church of Greece told news portal Capital that since last September the number of Greeks seeking free meals distributed by the Church has been dramatically increased. “While last year …

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 It smells lilac today on Good Friday – the day Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. In Greek Orthodox churches, at 12 noon the body of Jesus is taken down from Crucifix and laid to the Tomb; symbolized by the flower-covered Epitafios.  The bell …

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I don’t quite understand why people – media included- are upset about Greece’s Finance Minister flight to Washington with prime-ministerial jet. George Papaconstantinou, the finance minister of a debt-hit and disparaged country, had to attend the spring session of International Monetary Fund. Instead of taking a commercial flight, he jetted …

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 Devastated in Greece – What if the economic measures for the next three years were not explicit announced by the prime minister yesterday? Newspapers and television channels warn of lay offs, cuts in social allowances, benefits, more recession. At the same time academics demand transparency about the IMF contract, condemn …

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Are there modern slaves in Greece nowadays? Apparently there are! A human trafficking ring was unveiled that was forcing humans to work and live in squalid conditions. One Greek and two foreigners were arrested Friday in Ilia, Peloponnese for keeping field workers from  Romania under captivity.  The police operation revealed that ten foreigners …

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More and more of my female friends increasingly complain about the deceasing performance of their husbands and boy friends. These women, whether married, in relationship or singles, they all unanimously blame the economic crisis and the austerity measures for the poor libido performances.  Greek men seem to be exposed more to IMF-stress than …

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A hooded, unidentified young man tried to hit  the so-called father of the DNA, Nobel laureate for Medicine and Physiology, Professor James Watson , 83, during a conference at the University of Patras. While Watson was speaking to students, a group of some 20 young people entered the conference hall …

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Former Minister Tassos Mantelis was given a three-year suspended jail sentence for failing to submit his source of income declaration for the years 2006 and 2007.  Controllers had found a difference between the income declaration and the real assets. Had the Athens court given him the maximum sentence of four …

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Unemployment in Greece reached with 15,1% a new historic record in January 2011 – in comparison: 11,3 % in January 2010, 14,8% in December 2010.  According to Greek Statistics Authority data released on Thursday, the total number of jobless reached 756.795 people. The total number of employed is 4.267.584 people. Within one …

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