To Europe…
The state of the Greek economy today is with no doubt a product of our behaviour as Greek citizens and our corrupt politicians… For thousands of years Greek leaders have gone down in history as leaders who saved and preserved our nation. These guys are going down as the ones who just sold it to Siemens…Indulge if you will and you will understand what I am trying to say.
Let us list only a few projects involving various of our European ‘friends’..
Athens airport ‘Eleftherios Venizelos’ and Attiki odos, the road leading to the airport. One of our European friends making huge profits out of these projects is HOCHTIEF (Germany). To mention one.
How about the Athens Metro construction/management. Was the UK company VINCI not involved in this project? This is some of the tubes’ rolling stock:
• 28 six-car electric multiple units made by Alstom-Siemens-ADtranz (2000 France, Germany)
• Four service hybrid locomotives made by Kaelble-Gmeinder-Siemens (Germany)
• One rail-road Unimog (Germany)
The Rio-Antirrio bridge in central Greece, a superb and expensive structure, was constructed by Advitam (France).
Now…come to think of it all these public works sort of started when we were given the Olympic games of 2004!?? And here I have to laugh with the phrase ‘we were given’ for very obvious reasons. The Executive Board of the International Olympic committee gave us (lol) the Olympics while knowing we were seriously unequipped to handle the enormity of what the event has now become.. Why?
Germany lent us money and then sold us a few submarines… Tilting submarines by the way. This is a link to the article ‘The Submarine Deals That Helped Sink Greece’ in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, by Christopher Rhoads: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703636404575352991108208712.html
Now let us get back to our very very corrupt politicians… Was the fact that these guys were receiving huge ‘favours’ from Siemens ever in the news in the rest of Europe? Was an €885 million profit Siemens made from dealings with OTE, our National Telecommunications Company ever mentioned anywhere?? Why were extortionate terms of the Siemens-OTE deal accepted by these politicians? For the interested: http://www.scribd.com/doc/14433472/Siemens-Scandal-Siemens-Hellas
Are the dots starting to connect yet?
I am not forgetting the first reason I mentioned as a factor leading to what Greece is today; our behaviour as citizens. You are right in anything you say for the majority of citizens. I have a question regarding this, though. Why is it that the Ministry of Education, a few years ago, decided to stop teaching pupils things like how the constitution of our country can or can’t change and subjects like Macro-economy (inflation, unemployment, economic cycles, budget, gross domestic product..)? Why?
And now back to money, as this is a financial and not political game. Greek people in the streets are demonstrating against the ‘financial Attila’ that is taking over Europe.
Recently, German Journalist Walter Wuellenweber wrote a piece on what expensive friends we are... I’ve translated part of the answer he received by a Greek citizen, George P. Psomas, published in the German journal Stern and referring to the €200 billion borrowed by Greece:
“Well, Walter, over half a century has elapsed since the end of World War II. Since Germany should have taken care of its obligations towards Greece.
These debts, which only Germany refused to repay to Greece (Bulgaria and Romania have already arranged their respective obligations), consist of:
a) Debts of 80 million DM from the First World War.
b) Debts from the ‘clearing’ difference in the interwar period, totalling $ 593,873,000, which was ruled against Germany.
c) The forced loan deals the Third Reich made with Greece, amounting to 3.5 billion U.S. dollars, during the occupation.
d) The damages resulting from seizing, looting and destruction that took place during the Third Reich occupation period, amounting to 7.1 billion U.S. dollars, as ruled by the Allies.
e) The incalculable obligations of Germany for ending of 1,125,960 Greek lives (38.960 executed, 12,000 dead from stray bullets, 70,000 killed in battle, 105,000 dead in the camps in Germany, 600,000 deaths from starvation and 300,000 of losses from low birth rates).
f) The priceless moral insult towards the Greek people and towards the humanitarian ideas expressed by the Greek idea. This problem is not financial, it is of an ethical nature; the ethics of highest moral.
I know Walter, you are disturbed by what I write, but I was disturbed too by what you wrote! But what bothers me more are the things you think and want to do for me and your 'compatriots', the Greeks!
Walter, beloved Walter, 130 German companies operate in Greece, including almost all German giants and they accomplish an annual turnover of 6.5 billion.
You know Walter, soon I won’t be able to buy German products, because I won’t have money. Walter, I grew up with very little and I will be able to bear this.. And do not worry about the young people in Greece. There are still many old folk around to help them adapt to the new situation. But..Walter, dude, how are you going to deal with your unemployed, resulting from the situation you have created in Greece?
Tell me please. I wonder: we Greeks have to leave Europe, the Eurozone (and from wherever else you want us to Germans, Swedes, Dutch and other 'compatriots’). We must go to save ourselves from a Union in appearance. From a group of speculators. From a team in which we are team mates, but only when consuming the products of our other team mates!
I, beloved Walter, believe that Greeks should stop buying Mercedes, BMW, Opel, Ford, Scoda, allied products, etc., They cannot and should not! ... Not worth it. They must stop shopping from Lidl, Praktiker and IKEA. Because they won’t be able to buy these products anymore bro; what can we do?
Beloved Walter we should also arrange some other "details". If I have your permission, of course, as you are the "creditor" of my life. Walter dude, I want my CULTURE back, the one you stole (not you of course, but some of your people), I want the IMMORTAL CREATIONS OF MY ANCESTORS, which are found in the museums of Berlin, Munich, London, Paris , Rome! I want it now, now that I may die, but I want to die close to my fathers!
HELLAS”
(This is a link to the full dialogue, including the original letter by Walter Wuellenweber. http://www.tydky.gr/news/news/eine-unglaubliche-dialog-in-griechenland-von-der-deutschen-zeitschrift-stern.html#english The problem is that the translations from Greek are automated and it doesn’t make too much sense. However, it is easy enough to find what you need and google it.)
As I said earlier on, under no circumstances am I denying the responsibility of the Greek people; in the words of my uncle ‘a nation that has borrowed its way to “prosperity” over the last 30years and a nation that has never produced anywhere near enough economic value to justify the standard of living. It was a massive Ponzi scheme (pyramid racket) that everyone went along with: politicians, suppliers, the EU, but mostly citizens, because they have to be held responsible in a democracy.’ . However, in the words of Aristole ‘democracy seizes to exist when citizens are stagnated and do not take part in the decisions that concern them’…
And that’s all I have to say about that.
