“The first job of a true patriot is to question the Government”
~Thomas Jefferson

Protests to be organised

Protests have been organised for today and Wednesday. Todays protest is organised by the United Anti-Capatilist Left, at 19:00 at the ProPylaia - which is in front of the Old university (Panepistimiou) opposite Korai Square... actually the Panepistimou exit of the Metro. Their chant 'To stop the Murderous Arsonists' No to the removal of protection of forests.
Wednesdays protest i believe is organised by bloggers. (can someone help me verify this) at 19:00 at Syntagma square.

Meanwhile Greenpeace Greece has estimated 500,000 acres (200,000 hectares) of the country's forests and vegetation have been wiped out in this summer's fires.
Nikos Haralambidis, director of the environmental campaign group, has been quoted as saying...

``The government shouldn't take arsonists as an excuse,'' Haralambidis said. ``There was no proper coordination to extinguish the flames.''

Here are some links to see what other blogs are saying on the fires...

http://americaninathens.wordpress.com/

http://kassandrapoised.blogspot.com/

http://ellasdevil.blogspot.com/

Why fight fires when you can shift the blame

Today's edition of Eleutheri Ora has as its headlines "Olympic champions of incompetence and irresponsibility" in reference to the Government ineptitude we have been watching these past few days.

Don't worry if your village is on fire, if you're loved one has been burnt to death, after three days of inaction the government has finally leapt into action with a fervor. After hours of brainstorming they have compiled an impressive list of who is to blame for the fires. Instead of organising a comprehensive response to the fires, they are busy trying to cover their own backsides to wash their bloody hands of the guilt they have.

The government has not named any groups but are heavily hinting at the opposition parties. Here is a list of the groups they are trying to blame through proxies and innuendo:

Anarchists - Urban firebugs who historically only burn government buildings, surrounding areas, Exarhia and politicians homes
Left Wingers - Since no one believed the Anarchists did it, lets broaden the net
PASOK - These bastards might gain from the governments loss, lets throw mud at them and hope it sticks
Americans - If all else fails, Americans are a popular standby to cast blame on, apparently so the conspiracy theory goes, they started it with a new Laser they are testing, in revenge for Greece signing the oil treaty with Russia. Oops... hang on, they are also tourists here, bugger, quickly on to someone else
Freemasons - Seriously, you want us to believe that an old mens club did this! Electric wheelchairs don't go up goat paths!
Jews - can't forget these guys, since we named everybody else, lets see if this will catch, Whats that? They left after WW2? Bugger... who's next we can think of...
Turkey - Yeah these guys, What's that... you want evidence? umm... and lastly
The Shepards are to blame!

Yes thats right, police are investigating the role of shepards in all these fires. They seriously want us to believe that the Shepards of Greece coordinated themselves into lighting these fires? Shepards of Greece Unite, Long live the sheep!

I am in fact heartened by this list, i am heartened because it shows that no one is believing this rubbish, this pack of lies. They are making up names hoping that one will stick. But none of them are sticking because the average person can see through these lies.

And lets say it is true, that the villanous shepards DID do it, WHY did the government DO NOTHING! Why did the assist with the destruction of Greece by DOING NOTHING!
Notice the pattern here... the government DID NOTHING! and that more than anything has gotten the people angry and made them wary of their lies.

MEDIA BLACKOUT FOR OPPOSITION PARTIES

For some reason a live press conference by PASOK was only shown by 1 out of the 5 channels showing the news. Other small parties, whenever their candidates have appeared have been talked over, that is when they have appeared. Is this how the government and their media lackeys are going to convince the people that they are doing a good job, by silencing debate?

Meanwhile on Alpha the wife of the minister of Communication, a 'journalist' Mara Zacharaia (ethics? conflict of) has gone from happy at the change of subject away from talk about government corruption surrounding the Bonds scandal to despair again. Why is it i cant take her seriously whenever she asks "Why hasn't local government acted to stop the fires" Oh that's right, she's a bottle blonde, that's why i can't take her seriously.

Oh my, she just tried to compair what happened here to Australia. Yet another Idiot! Australia faces fires the size of Greece, and yet has in place an organised structure to deal with it, and when it fails it tries to learn from its mistakes. People are charged with long jail terms for arson and do not reward illegal construction. If Mara doesn't know, she shouldn't talk!

Minister flees as he tries to fool the people

THIS MAN IS A VLAKA (an IDIOT)

The minister of Culture, Mr Voulgarakis proudly called a press conference to announce that the buildings at Ancient Olympia have been saved. Things would have been fine if he ended it there, instead he added "eh and a few little trees were burnt" referring to the ancient trees surrounding the buildings.

He fled the scene chased by a group of enraged citizens.

What is even more tragic is that the local mayor warned the government that the site was in the fire path from Friday 24 August.

Ancient Olympia in Flames

Ancient Olympia is now in flames and are now 200 meters away from the museums and ancient Olympic Stadium, Archaeologists and museum personnel are fighting the fires with buckets and garden hoses. Villages are encircled by flames, police services are still missing and are no where to be seen, leaving villagers in confusion as to which way to escape.

Pictures taken from SKAI TV. A Nation waits with bated breath to see if its culture will be added to the death toll

Greece: Fire Sale, everything must burn!

Greece is in a state of mourning and shock. For the past two days now fires have raged all across Greece, murdering over 50 people and destroying numerous homes and villages. All of the Peloponnese is on fire, threatening ancient Olympia, mystical Arcadia and brave Laconia. Gone are the beautiful beaches of Euboea. Amidst all this death and destruction, the media is trying to put their own rules on place and the government, a positive spin.

That self righteous journalist Terence Kuik on Alter demanded that no politician speak, and shame on any member of the opposition party who uses this tragedy to blame the government, how dare anybody profit from this tragedy, then without skipping a beat, he added We will tell you now which villages are threatened by the fires, but first a commercial, stay tuned. Obviously benefiting on the pain and suffering of others is a monopoly only for journalists like himself.

Another Idiot journalist stated 'A tragedy of this magnitude could not have been foreseen so lets not blame the government' Why did he LIE so blatantly? The media and government are desperately trying not to blame the government.
I am SICK AND TIRED of incompetent journalists refusing to tell the truth for fear of being critical of the government. They are so incompetent, they believe that being balanced means blaming the previous government as well. So you hear on TV the inevitable response to the charge that the response to the fires were uncoordinated 'And the previous government was just as bad'. That is NO answer! That is NO justification for what happened. We need to be mature, not kindergarten children, and Deal with the here and NOW.
FACT: We had a CHANGE of government because the people wanted a CHANGE, if they wanted the same, they would have kept the same.
FACT: A response to just such a tragedy had been planned for in the run up to the 2004 Olympics. Therefore the government and response teams knew EXACTLY what they should be doing!
FACT: The government removed professional emergency response leaders who were familiar with this plan,
Their replacements are OBVIOUSLY INCOMPETENT. (Are they also just political appointees?)
FACT: Professional emergency response leaders who were waiting to be called were ignored by the government, exacerbating the tragedy.
FACT: THIS is EXACTLY what the people were protesting against months ago. They knew that if the government did not charge anybody with arson and banned all building on burnt ground that this would continue.
FACT: The Government ENCOURAGED the continued arson attacks by bringing illegal building into the city planning.
FACT: The Government is removing the protection on forests, further encouraging the arsonists
FACT: PEOPLE HAVE DIED because of somebody's incompetence.
FACT: The minister of the Interior was more concerned with hiring 'Agrofilakes' a do nothing job (see previous postings) than hire fire-fighters.

It should be noted that it took the personal appearance of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Works to the devastated areas, and personally kick start an organised response, before them everyone was running around like headless chickens. But it was a response too late.

While journalists are warning opposition parties away from commenting on the death and destruction around us, they are allowing the government to say how well they are dealing with the crisis, apparently the Foreign Minister appeared on BBC to say how everything is under control.
yeah right... great Tourism slogan, oh hang on, what was this years big tourism push, come and purchase land in Greece, what a coincidence...

Out with the old, in with New Democracy

Who/What is New Democracy? Ι start with these guys because they are the governing party and it seems fair that they go first.

New Democracy is the leading conservative party of Greece formed in 1974 by Constantine Karamanlis. He ran on a platform of 'Its either me or Dictatorship', needless to say, he won. It would be a more modern and progressive party than the previous right-wing parties that had gone before. This task was made difficult in that many right-wing politicians from other parties, joined him. As a result the current New Democracy party is formed of an amalgam of right wing ideas and people. You can find former Nazi-Military Dictatorship types as members, people who support the power of the Church in policy making, Pro-King and Anti-King, Free-marketeers, and those who believe that large enterprises should only be run by the government.

The party is now led by the founders Nephew, Constantine Karamanlis. (Greek politics are a family affair, more on that later) As far as policies are concerned, ND is not similar to the Tories of the UK, the Republicans of the USA or the Liberals of Australia, but more akin to the Christian Democrats of Italy prior to Berlusconi. It believes in a Paternalistic government which has a role to play in the economy. This is why it has not liberalised the market or made business any easier for entrepreneurs. It does have a platform of small government but since being elected it has gone on a recruitment binge increasing the size of the civil service, most of whom are 'administrative'. In other words only a few of those do 'actual' work like nurses, doctors, police or ditch diggers.

Despite their slogan 'Power in change' (if i translate correct) more than anything they represent the status quo. 'We will provide jobs to everybody' and 'continue farming the way you always have and we will subsidise you' is what they are saying. They represent a comfortable Greece. No fundamental restructuring of Greece's economy has been implemented by this party even though, one would imagine that being its domain.
That said it has made some courageous decisions. It has appointed a reformer to the head of OTE, one who is actually implementing reforms much to the chagrin of ALL employees, unfortunately change is not happening fast enough to please reformers, nor is it happening across the board in ALL public sectors (eg Olympic airways, other public utilities etc.) It has also tried reforming (more like tweaking) the education system and curriculum.

So which is true you ask how can it be a reformer and for the staus quo? Well its reforms are limited and on the edges, they are not bold and drastic. And bold and drastic changes ARE needed especially if the pension funds are to be saved. These changes have not been forthcoming. I also get the impression that the government is itself embarrassed by these reforms they have made and are distancing themselves from them instead of hoisting them up as an example.

As of this post ND has a lead on the leading opopsition party PASOK of at least 3 percentage points making this party the likely winner. If it does win, there is not much hope that they will make the reforms needed in agriculture, environment, public spending, health, education etc etc, and why should they if the public do not realise the need for change and we can get by the way we always have?

Election distraction

I think this is blog is just turning into a blog on Greece rather than specifically 'How to survive in Athens' which is how i started. After all i haven't written any helpful advice on what to do to survive the summer heat have i?

But recently i noticed a lot of misconceptions surrounding the parties, not only among foreigners living here but also among Greeks, so those from abroad shouldn't feel confused as they witness the election process. And it is easy to get confused, i mean why is the Socialist party always talking about fiscal responsibility? Why are the conservatives talking about increasing the size of the civil service? Surely these talking points are anethema to the respective parties. Well you would be right because they usually are, but to paraphrase the movie 300, this is Greece, and the opposite of what you would expect often occurs.

And this is why Communists hardly mention the average workers, why the Church dabble's in politics in contrast to what happens in other western countries, and so on and so forth. This is why i will attempt to shed some light in the following days on the parties and the elections here in Greece. The benefit to this is that i also have something more to write about, oh joy :)
Of course what i will write will be based purely on viewing their actions and their policies and should not be taken as a definitive guide.

Elections in Greece, the burning question

Schadenfreude - watching illegal villas going up flames.

This sums up my feelings when i saw the villas going up in flames last week in Pendeli. 13 years ago the suburb was the victim of arson, burning huge swaths of forest. Replanting did occur, as did illegal housing. Some of the land was also divvied up to the journalist pension fund, which explains why it was a huge news item when it went up in flames, and why illegal housing is a non news item. Distraught faces wept on TV as they saw their property burn. They also had the audacity to ask for government funds to rebuild. Thats what insurance is for... whats that? Can't get insurance on illegal villa's? You never tried getting insurance... well excuse me for mentioning the obvious, why should elite lawbreakers get my sympathy?

While Pendeli burned the government finally announced the election date, September 16. So from now until then the TV chanels are going to be full of yelling politicians - Woohoo!
Journalists are also waiting expectantly for the official announcement of the campaign slogans.
Who cares about party platform, policy statements or vision statements on the future of Greece, all we care about are the party slogans so we can chant them on the streets like soccer hooligans, which is what Greek elections are like actually.

But they are also fun and many things, such as the true character of Greece and its citizens are revealed in these days, which is why i will be watching expectantly this whole election process.
Already the dirty politics have begun with the governing New Democracy party blaming the PASOK government for setting the fires to divert attention from the election announcement. Oh yes this is going to be a good clean fight!