While everyone waits for the Greek Government to make up its mind over the European Bail Out, Athens Burnt with report that the anger was spreading.....
Central Athens burns as lawmakers weigh austerity
* Unpopular package of cuts expected to pass
* National hero says Greeks are rising up
* Petrol bombs create wall of fire
* Budget cuts of 3.3 billion euros ($4.35 bln) demanded
Historic cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens on Sunday as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers looked set to defy the rage by endorsing a new EU/IMF austerity deal.
State television reported violence spread to the islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Shops were being looted in the capital in the worst breakdown of order since 2008 when violence gripped Greece for weeks after police shot a 15-year-old schoolboy.
As parliament prepared to vote on a new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a messy bankruptcy, a Reuter’s photographer saw buildings in Athens engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky.
I hope Agnes that when I`m posting I add something especially for the onlooker/visitor, in this case the fact that the demonstrations were not just in Athens which a lot of the media outlets concentrate on; thus like the BBC giving the impression that it is only those irresponsible & extremist anarchists that are causing the trouble, when the Greek political culture is rich in its diversity. I mean the The New York Times quotes one 82 year old women out protesting in Athens, Stella Papafagou, a survivor of the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II:
We’ve fought several times for liberation,” she told the New York Times. “But this slavery is worse than any other. This is worse than the’ 40s. I would prefer to die with dignity than with my head bent down.
Is this not news that is so often missed that can inspire, for me it is and hope it puts to shame those who whine they can’t do anything or nothing will change if they do.
I hope visitors reading this lift their heads to seeing what is going on and how it will affect them. Being unemployed can leave you with a blind spot but the machinations of the world still go on working to put us in an even worse situation and we have to be aware of them. Greece for me is a tipping point where I see the soup kitchens return and social security really gets hammered.
'Greece doomed economy total farce & fiction!'
Die Wahrheit Macht Frei
In response to the latest suicidal austerity demands of the Troika hit squad, protestors in Greece burned a German flag while the Greek daily paper Dimokratia adorned its front page with the headline, “Memorandum Macht Frei” [memorandum makes you free]. These elements of the populace are unsurprisingly reacting to the fact that bureaucrats in Washington, Berlin and Brussels are signing away the living standards of the Greek people while telling them that it’s all being done for their own good and is absolutely necessary for peace and prosperity in Europe.
Ambrose Evans-Prichard pointed out in a recent blog post that the Troika’s plans for Greece are far worse than what was demanded of [or offered to] Germany after the second World War, and much more similar to what was demanded of it after the first one (we all know how well that worked out). In 1953, the Western powers granted Germany 50% relief on its external debts with very few conditions attached, and now Greece is struggling to get that same amount with absolutely impossible conditions attached.
The Banks are the only ones who stand to gain from the systematic gutting of social safety nets and the imposition of slave wages across Europe and North America. Everyone else, including the Greeks, the Germans, the French, the British, the Americans, etc. stand to lose and lose big. The Greek people, especially, are now at a very important crossroads that will be difficult to navigate. They must stand up against the degrading farce that took place last tonight in Athens behind closed doors, but they must also refrain from being swept up into anti-German, reactionary fervor. At the end of every painstaking day, only recognizing the true nature of collective oppression can make you free.
Yes you do terra, I caught the radio news later and was surprised (why I don't know) that they laid the 'blame' at the feet of far-right/far-left organisations as if the rest of the Greeks were quite understanding/accepting of the kicking they are taking.
Not a lot reported about the poor in Greece either; you only get unemployment benefit for a year……..
Rumour; Police used all their supply of Tear Gas on Sunday….. Expect the request will be going in for more from the EU and if things get worse probably the consignment of an EU police force to re-enforce beleaguered Greek police.
'New Poor' Grows from Greek Middle Class
Aid workers and soup kitchens in Athens are struggling to provide for the city's "new poor." Since the economic crisis has taken hold, poverty has taken hold among Greece's middle class. And suicide rates have nearly doubled.
