Greece - Build Up To Civil Unrest As Black Shirts Battle It Out With Red Shirt Regime

Our Sham Fight archetype of the two-party system in America has always held within it the core agenda of the Corpo-Banker Government Globalist Elites and their agenda to consolidate and control power, financial and natural resources.

Greece is the one global governance and its media is focused on. The Greek Sham Fight is primarily between the Golden Dawn and KKE.

We do not mean Sham Fight in that there is no violence or propaganda. We mean Sham Fight in that the Corpo-Banker Government Globalist Elites, the European Union, et al orchestrate it.

With the global failure of the Capitalist and Communist economic systems, the Globalist Elites have become increasingly violent in their attempts to consolidate and maintain power and control. This is being accomplished through proxies, Black Shirts vs. Red Shirts.

While conducting research for this post we discovered:

    Credibility gap for Global Governance, Media-Social Media, Search Engines due to enormous bias against Black Shirts; ignoring Red Shirt Paramilitary Operations-Criminal Activity.
    Corpo-Banker Government Globalist Elites program of Systemic Forced Migration, Population Dilution has backfired making indigenous homogeneous populations increasingly agitated.

Recently Golden Dawn was hosting a Soup Kitchen for Greeks only, being Greeks in Greece why not?

The Mayor of Athens, having learned the brutal tactics of the Nazi’s in Greece during WWII sent in Paramilitary Forces to shutdown the Soup Kitchen.

A Soup Kitchen not a bomb making factory or other threat to the common Greek citizen but a Soup Kitchen!

Watching the video below bear in mind point number one above as it relates to the reporters strong bias in favor of the Red Shirts.

What we are witnessing in Greece is the Corpo-Banker Government Globalist Elites Cattle Prodding Greek society towards full-blown civil war. Extraordinary measures are being undertaken, open Socio-Political Economic warfare against Greece.

Greece is the template for their aggression against the sovereignty of other indigenous homogeneous populations that hold National Identity. If they succeed then the people of Greece, the Cradle of Democracy, will be forced to choose between the Black Shirts and the Red Shirts.

This is an entirely new phase, escalation in Perpetual War.  Consider this, what the Perpetual War on Terror is to America, Perpetual Civil War is to societies, indigenous homogeneous populations that hold National Identity.

Greece is a beautiful land and the Greek culture is as well. The contributions of Greeks to the Arts, Sciences, Philosophy, Literature and Culinary Arts are not just pages in history. The solution for Greece, much like that of the Southern States in America, is secession from the [European] Union, to escape the enslavement of the Corpo-Banker Government Globalist Elites through the Amerikan (FED) Administered International Monetary Fund (IMF).

globalcommunicationsllc

Medical Cartel: Too Big To Fail, Too Evil To Expose

There are several reasons why the medical cartel is too big to fail: the enormous amount of money at stake; its aim to control populations. In this article, I want to examine a related reason.

by Jon Rappoport
www.nomorefakenews.com

Suppose it was discovered that thousands of bridges around the US were in imminent danger of collapsing? Not because maintenance and repair were lacking, not because the materials used to build them were cheap and shoddy. But because the original designs were inadequate and broke basic rules of engineering.

Suppose five or six major manufacturers built their automobiles so the vast majority of power derived from the engines was transferred to one wheel? Suppose the US Dept. of Agriculture recommended that all farmers spray their crops with heavy chlorine instead of water?

In other words, the science itself is fraudulent.

This revelation, above all, is what the medical cartel tries to guard against. Their profession has shoved in all its chips on the propaganda proposition that it does impeccable science.

Science sells. The appearance of it sells. It’s the foundation stone of many industries. Were that stone to crack and shatter, all bets would be off. A titanic fraud would come to light. The kind of fraud that would both freeze people’s minds and blow them away. Science is the most powerful rationalization in the modern world. Consensus reality would fail and disperse without it.

As I’ve covered before, the most conservative mainstream estimate of medically caused death in America is 225,000 people per year. Every credential behind that figure is immaculate. The author of the paper that presented the statistics was the late Dr. Barbara Starfield, a revered public health expert who worked for many years at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her review, “Is US health the best in the world?”, was published on July 26th, 2000, in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Starfield’s breakdown was as follows: the medical system kills 119,000 people a year in the US as a result of maltreatment in hospitals. The other 106,000 people are killed by FDA-approved medicines.

The FDA must approve every drug as safe and effective before it is released for public use. It’s the medicines I want to focus on in this article. 106,000 deaths a year translates to an astonishing 1,060,000 deaths per decade.

How are these drugs approved?

Clinical trials are conducted. Reports of those trials are written. The reports, the studies, are published in peer-reviewed medical journals. The studies ARE the science.

If a million people per decade are being killed by the drugs, then a huge number of published studies proclaiming the drugs are safe are sheer fraud. There is no other way to put it.

This statement from Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, echoes the fact:

    “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.” (Marcia Angell, MD, The New York Review of Books, January 15, 2009)

The medical cartel rests on cataclysmic fraud, scientific fraud.

Imagine what would happen if just one major media outlet decided to take on this story and push it for all it’s worth. Not merely an article or two—an ongoing campaign of relentless exposure.

The silence from that quarter speaks volumes about the controlled press and what it stands for.

Over the years, I’ve written much about the the FDA. I thought I’d assemble a small fraction of it in one place, to reveal what this federal agency is really all about and why it should be dismantled, amid a blizzard of prosecutions and convictions for negligent homicide and, yes, murder.

The discovery of a page, on the FDA’s own website, proves the FDA is fully aware that: the drugs it certifies as safe have been killing Americans, at the rate of 100,000 per year. - (http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/DevelopmentResources/DrugInteractionsLabeling/ucm114848.htm). The FDA website page is available under the heading, “Why Learn About Adverse Drug Reactions.” You can search for it using the Startpage.com search engine. The FDA takes no blame, no responsibility for its own actions, and yet it admits the death statistics are accurate.

Understand this very clearly. No medical drug in America can be released for public use until and unless the FDA states it is safe. The FDA is the agency that makes every such decision on every drug. The buck stops there.

Yes, the FDA has a “special relationship” with the pharmaceutical industry. Yes, the FDA utilizes doctors on their drug-approval panels that have ties to the pharmaceutical industry. But, in the end, it is the FDA official seal that opens the gate and permits a drug to be prescribed by doctors and sold in the US.

In all my research on this medical-drug holocaust, I have never found a case in which any FDA employee was censured, fired, or criminally prosecuted for the killing effects of these drugs.

That is a track record Organized Crime would be proud of, and the comparison is not frivolous.

On this FDA website page, the FDA also readily admits that medical drugs are the fourth leading cause of death in America, ahead of pulmonary disease, diabetes, AIDS, pneumonia, accidents, and automobile fatalities.

The FDA website page also states there are 2 million serious adverse reactions (ADRs) from the ingestion of medical drugs, annually, in the US. That would be 20 million ADRs per decade.

When the FDA says “serious,” they aren’t talking about headaches or slight dizziness or temporary nausea. “Serious” means stroke, heart attack, neurological damage; destruction of that magnitude.

Examining these figures for death and debilitation, can you find any comparable documented crime in the American landscape? This is the kind of story that would make Watergate look like a Sunday-school picnic.

If a paper like the New York Times let loose their hounds to relentlessly explore the horror, I assure you that, in time, doctors and medical bureaucrats and even drug-company employees would come out of the woodwork with confessions, and the resultant explosions and outcries would shake the medical/pharmaceutical foundations of America and the planet.

It would shake and destroy the SCIENCE.

But these major media outlets are an intrinsic part of the Matrix that protects and sustains the crimes and the criminals. It isn’t just drug-advertising profits that keep the leading newspapers and television networks silent. It’s collusion to protect “a revered institution”—the medical system.

Also at stake is Obamacare. The connection is vivid and unmistakable. Millions more Americans, previously uninsured, will be drawn into the system and subjected to the very drugs are killing and maiming people at such a horrific rate.

Where has the US Department of Justice been all these years? Is there any way, under the sun, that a million deaths per decade can be excused? Is there any way the FDA and the drug companies can float safely in the upper atmosphere of privilege, while the concept of justice retains any meaning? Where are criminal prosecutions?

Meanwhile, the FDA pursues an agenda of attacking nutritional supplements, and the latest federal regulations classify these supplements as “potentially dangerous”—despite the fact that supplements have a record of safety that is astonishing.

It is time for the public to realize that 100,000 people dying every year in the US, because they take medical drugs, is the equivalent of 33 airliner crashes into the Twin Towers, every year, year after year.

If you were a medical reporter for a major media outlet in the US, and you knew the above fact, wouldn’t you make it a priority to say something, write something, do something?

I’m talking about people like Sanjay Gupta (CNN, CBS), Gina Kolata (NY Times), Tim Johnson (ABC News), and Thomas Maugh II (LA Times).

The Matrix Revealed

And with that, let’s get to another smoking gun. The citation is: BMJ June 7, 2012 (BMJ 2012:344:e3989). Author, Jeanne Lenzer.

Lenzer refers to a report by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices: “It calculated that in 2011 prescription drugs were associated with two to four million people in the US experiencing ‘serious, disabling, or fatal injuries, including 128,000 deaths.’”

The report called this “one of the most significant perils to humans resulting from human activity.”

And here is the final dagger. The report was compiled by outside researchers who went into the FDA’s own database of “serious adverse [medical-drug] events.”

Therefore, to say the FDA isn’t aware of this finding would be absurd. The FDA knows.

Since the Department of Homeland Security is working its way into every nook and corner of American life, hyper-extending its mandate to protect all of us from everything, maybe DHS should stop tracking every move we make and simply raid and arrest all employees of the FDA as terrorists. The details could be sorted out later.

How many smoking guns do we need before a sitting president shuts down the FDA buildings, fumigates them, and builds a monument to dead Americans the FDA has driven into their graves?

Do we need 100,000 smoking guns? Do we need relatives of the people who’ve all died, in the span of, say, merely a year, from the poisonous effects of FDA-approved medical drugs, to bring their corpses and coffins to the doors of FDA headquarters?

And let me ask another question. If instead of drugs like warfarin, dabigatran, levofloxacin, carboplatin, and lisinopril (the five leading killers in the FDA database), the 100,000 deaths per year were led by gingko, ginseng, vitamin D, niacin, and raw milk, what do you think would happen?

I’ll tell you what would happen. SEALS, Delta Force, DHS-HSI SRT, SWAT teams, snipers, predator drones, tanks, and infantry would be attacking every health-food store in America. The resulting fatalities would be written off as necessary collateral damage in the fight to keep America safe and healthy.

BTW, who are the video editing specialists that DHS hired to ‘sex up’ this video?

But you see, the routine deaths of 100,000 Americans a year, after the FDA has certified the drugs are SAFE, isn’t a “recognized political issue.”

Such is the power of the medical cartel. All those phony stories in the press, reported dutifully by so-called medical reporters? The stories about maybe-could-be-possible-miracle breakthroughs just over the horizon of state-of-the-art research? Those stories are there to obscure the very, very hard facts of medically-caused death on the ground.

The buck stops at the FDA.

Imagine this. You go to an FBI web page and read the following: “Killings committed by FBI agents are the third leading cause of death in America every year.”

Yet somehow, the FDA gets away with its crimes, its homicides. There are no alarm bells, no arrests, no hearings, no public statements, no press reactions, no shakeups at the Agency.

The power of the medical cartel is gigantic.

When I was running for a Congressional seat from the 29th District of California, in 1994, and during my participation in the Health Freedom movement of that period, I insisted we had to take the attack to the FDA. We had to make their crimes public.

I was told by the people who were leading the charge for Health Freedom that priority had to be given to passing a law that would protect us all from attacks on nutritional supplements. Then, when we had that law, we could think about going after the FDA.

Well, we got the law, which only gave us temporary protection, and afterward there was no “going after the FDA.” It was suddenly a dead issue.

I remember the people who said, “Don’t attack the FDA.” I remember their attitudes, their faces, their words. They were not my friends, and they weren’t your friends. Some of them were yuppies selling “let’s be nice” New Age sentiment. A few were most likely plants who had infiltrated the Health Freedom movement to water it down.

Various liars sell their lies through various strategies.

I assure you, there are doctors out there who know the statistics on medically caused death in the US. They know about the drugs that kill. They know what’s going on. They know the FDA is accountable. They remain silent. They feel no pressure to make a public statement. They’re living under the umbrella of protection provided by the government and the press and the medical system.

These doctors are silent witnesses to ongoing mass murder. Just as the FDA is a silent witness to its own mass-murdering practices. And of course, the doctors write the prescriptions for the drugs.

Obama, Bush, Clinton; none of these men have indicated the slightest awareness of the “problem.” Did they know? Do they know? Just as I predicted, correctly, that the FDA knows, I say these men do know. They prefer to remain silent as well. They don’t want to touch this genocidal crime. They don’t have the character or the courage.

Presidents and deans of medical schools know. Teachers at these schools know. Pharmaceutical executives know. Medical researchers know. The CDC knows. The World Health Organization knows. Editors and reporters at major press outlets know. The DEA knows. The US Dept. of Justice knows.

The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

UN - Human Rights Slipping In Greece Because of Austerity

UN independent expert Cephas Lumina says surge in unemployment and axed benefits has left a growing number of Greeks without health insurance and about 10 percent of the population living in 'extreme poverty'

A senior United Nations investigator has said Greece is falling behind on its human rights obligations and strongly criticised the "excessively rigid" demands of the country's bailout programme.

UN independent expert Cephas Lumina said that a surge in unemployment and axed benefits had left a growing number of Greeks without health insurance and about 10 percent of the population living in "extreme poverty".

He said some 470,000 immigrants without proper residence permits were among the most vulnerable to labour exploitation and other abuses.

He urged the troika – the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund –  to include human rights considerations in the country's austerity programs.

Read more - Enet

Child Hunger Is Exploding In Greece – 14 Signs That It Is Now In The US Too

The world is heading into a horrific economic nightmare, and an inordinate amount of the suffering is going to fall on innocent children.  If you want to get an idea of what America is going to look like in the not too distant future, just check out what is happening in Greece.  At this point, Greece is experiencing a full-blown economic depression.  As I have written about previously, the unemployment rate in Greece has now risen to 27 percent, which is much higher than the peak unemployment rate that the U.S. economy experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930s. And as you will read about below, child hunger is absolutely exploding in Greece right now.

Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse Blog

Some families are literally trying to survive on pasta and ketchup.  But don't think for a moment that it can't happen here.  Sadly, the truth is that child hunger is already rising very rapidly in our poverty-stricken cities.  Never before have we had so many Americans unable to take care of themselves. Food stamp enrollment and child homelessness have soared to brand new all-time records, and there are actually thousands of Americans who are so poor that they live in tunnels underneath our cities.

But for millions of other Americans, the suffering is not quite so dramatic.  Instead, they just watch their hopes and their dreams slowly slip away as they struggle to find a way to make it from month to month.  There are millions of parents that lead lives that are filled with constant stress and anxiety as they try to figure out how to provide the basics for their children.  How do you tell a child that you can't give them any dinner even though you have been trying as hard as you can?  What many families go through on a regular basis is absolutely heartbreaking.  Unfortunately, more poor families slip through the cracks with each passing day, and these are supposedly times in which we are experiencing an "economic recovery".  So what are things going to look like when the next major economic downturn strikes?

A recent New York Times article detailed the horrifying child hunger that we are witnessing in Greece right now.  At some schools there are reports of children actually begging for food from their classmates...

    As an elementary school principal, Leonidas Nikas is used to seeing children play, laugh and dream about the future. But recently he has seen something altogether different, something he thought was impossible in Greece: children picking through school trash cans for food; needy youngsters asking playmates for leftovers; and an 11-year-old boy, Pantelis Petrakis, bent over with hunger pains.
    “He had eaten almost nothing at home,” Mr. Nikas said, sitting in his cramped school office near the port of Piraeus, a working-class suburb of Athens, as the sound of a jump rope skittered across the playground. He confronted Pantelis’s parents, who were ashamed and embarrassed but admitted that they had not been able to find work for months. Their savings were gone, and they were living on rations of pasta and ketchup.

Could you imagine that happening to your children or your grandchildren? Don't think that it can't happen. Just a few years ago the Greek middle class was vibrant and thriving. And we are starting to see hunger explode in other European countries as well.  For example, in the UK the number of people receiving emergency food rations has increased by 170 percent over the past year.

This is one of the reasons why I get upset when people say that "things are getting better".  Yes, the stock market has been setting record highs lately, but things are most definitely not getting better.

Even during this false bubble of debt-fueled economic stability that we are enjoying right now, we continue to see hunger and poverty rise dramatically in America.

Since Barack Obama has been president, the number of Americans on food stamps has grown from 32 million to more than 47 million.

Will we all be on food stamps eventually?

Will we all become dependent on the government for our survival at some point?

According to the Boston Herald, even Tamerlan Tsarnaev was receiving government welfare benefits...

    Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned.
    State officials confirmed that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits.

Isn't that crazy?

And yes, there are some people out there that are abusing the system. In fact, the cost of food stamp fraud has risen sharply to approximately $750 million in recent years. But most of the people on these programs really need the help. Thanks to our incredibly foolish economic policies, there are not enough good jobs for everyone and there never will be again. The percentage of Americans that are unable to take care of themselves is going to continue to rise, and the suffering that we are witnessing right now is going to get much, much worse.

Not that things aren't really, really bad already.  Here are some signs that child hunger in America has already started to explode...

• 1. Today, approximately 17 million children in the United States are facing food insecurity.  In other words, that means that "one in four children in the country is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life."
• 2. We are told that we live in the "wealthiest nation" on the planet, and yet more than one out of every four children in the United States is enrolled in the food stamp program.
• 3. The average food stamp benefit breaks down to approximately $4 per person per day.
• 4. It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps before they reach the age of 18.
• 5. It may be hard to believe, but approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are currently living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished.
• 6. The number of children living on $2.00 a day or less in the United States has grown to 2.8 million.  That number has increased by 130 percent since 1996.
• 7. According to Feeding America, "households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children, 20.6 percent compared to 12.2 percent".
• 8. According to a Feeding America hunger study, more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.
• 9. For the first time ever, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  That number has risen by 57 percent since the 2006-2007 school year.
• 10. Approximately 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.
• 11. One university study estimates that child poverty costs the U.S. economy 500 billion dollars each year.
• 12. In Miami, 45 percent of all children are living in poverty.
• 13. In Cleveland, more than 50 percent of all children are living in poverty.
• 14. According to a recently released report, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.

For many more facts about the dramatic explosion of poverty in this country, please see my previous article entitled "21 Statistics About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Everyone Should Know".

Unfortunately, most of the time statistics don't really tell the whole story.  Numbers alone cannot really communicate the soul-crushing despair that millions of American families are enduring on a daily basis at this point. How can numbers communicate the pain that a child feels when her grandmother does not eat because there is not enough food for everyone in the family?  But this is what some families in America actually go through because there is not enough money...

    Vanyshia tells about the sacrifices her Grandmother makes so that she and her siblings can eat. “Sometimes my Grandma can’t even eat because she has to feed me and my brother and sister. Sometimes I don’t eat as much as I want to because I leave some for my Grandma because I don’t want her to sit there and starve. Sometimes she doesn’t have enough money to buy food, so she has to go to the bank and borrow money. It makes me feel sad. I don’t want her to be hungry. I just feel sad sometimes,” says Vanyshia.

Things can be particularly tough when you are a single parent.  The BBC recently profiled a single mother that is struggling to raise two young children in Iowa...

    "We don't get three meals a day like breakfast, lunch and then dinner," says Kaylie. "When I feel hungry I feel sad and droopy."
    Kaylie and Tyler live with their mother Barbara, who used to work in a factory. After losing her job, she was entitled to unemployment benefit and food stamps - this comes to $1,480 (£974) a month.
    But they were no longer able to afford to live in their house, which along with bills cost $1,326 (£873) a month, leaving little for food or petrol.
    Kaylie supplemented their income by collecting cans along the railway track near their old home - earning between two and five cents per can.

For more examples like this one, I encourage everyone to go watch a recent BBC documentary entitled "America's Poor Kids" that you can see right here. I wonder why we don't see more stuff like this on the mainstream news? Could it be that the mainstream media does not want to admit how bad things have really gotten?

All of this is also a reminder that we need to be generous to those in need.

Times are going to get much, much harder than this, and we are all going to need one another.

So do you have any stories of poverty or child hunger from your area of the country to share? Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...

This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog.  Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter.

MAJOR J**RK - Nestlé CEO Says That Water is Not An Essential Human Right (VIDEO With Eng. Subs)

With what right does a corporation claim that water, which is produced from NATURE, is not an essential human right? With what right does a food company think it can privatize an element that is the A to Z of life? Well in the world we live in Frappers, large corporation, or the corpotocracy as we like to call them here on HellasFrappe, believes it is so illuminated that it can even claim this life essential element. Once they control the water, get ready for massive global depopulation. The following CEO from Nestlé is perfectly clear, with an imperialistic savoir vivre, he believes and supports the idea that water should be globally privatized!

More exactly, the current Chairman and former CEO of Nestlé, the largest producer of food products in the world, believes that the answer to global water issues is privatization. This statement is on record from the wonderful company that has peddled junk food in the Amazon, has invested money to thwart the labeling of GMO-filled products, has a disturbing health and ethics record for its infant formula, and has deployed a cyber army to monitor Internet criticism and shape discussions in social media.

This is apparently the company we should trust to manage our water, despite the record of large bottling companies like Nestlé having a track record of creating shortages:

    Large multinational beverage companies are usually given water-well privileges (and even tax breaks) over citizens because they create jobs, which is apparently more important to the local governments than water rights to other taxpaying citizens. These companies such as Coca Cola and Nestlé (which bottles suburban Michigan well-water and calls it Poland Spring) suck up millions of gallons of water, leaving the public to suffer with any shortages. (source)

But Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, believes that "access to water is not a public right." Nor is it a human right. So if privatization is the answer, is this the company in which the public should place its trust?

Here is just one example, among many, of his company's concern for the public thus far:

    In the small Pakistani community of Bhati Dilwan, a former village councilor says children are being sickened by filthy water. Who's to blame? He says it's bottled water-maker Nestlé, which dug a deep well that is depriving locals of potable water. “The water is not only very dirty, but the water level sank from 100 to 300 to 400 feet,” Dilwan says. (source)

Why? Because if the community had fresh water piped in, it would deprive Nestlé of its lucrative market in water bottled under the Pure Life brand.

In the subtitled video below, from several years back, Brabeck discusses his views on water, as well as some interesting comments concerning his view of Nature -- that it is "pitiless" -- and, of course, the obligatory statement that organic food is bad and GM is great. In fact, according to Brabeck, you are essentially an extremist to hold views opposite to his own. His statements are important to review as we continue to see the world around us become reshaped into a more mechanized environment in order to stave off that pitiless Nature to which he refers.

The conclusion to this segment is perhaps the most revealing about Brabeck's worldview, as he highlights a clip of one of his factory operations. Evidently, the savior-like role of the Nestlé Group in ensuring the health of the global population should be graciously welcomed. Are you convinced? -Activist Post

BUSTED - Soros Criminal Conviction Exposes “Human Rights” Scam

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bloomberg’s report, “Soros Loses Case Against French Insider-Trading Conviction,” indicates that an appeal based on a “human rights” violation against Wall Street speculator George Soros has been rejected by the “European Court of Human Rights.” Soros, who was convicted and fined for insider trading in 2002 regarding French bank Société Générale shares he bought in 1988, has built an empire out of obfuscating global criminal activity with the cause of “human rights.”

Tony Cartalucci
Prisonplanet.com

Soros Criminal Conviction Exposes Human Rights Scam george soros insider trading.

Image: Soros runs a global empire of NGOs leveraging “human rights” to cover up institutional criminality just as he himself just attempted to use “human rights” to excuse criminal insider-trading. Soros’ disingenuous use of “human rights” is not a strategy he holds an exclusive monopoly over, but rather one he executes in concert with very unlikely allies - Neo-Conservatives of the US State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy and its various subsidiaries.

The court’s decision in rejecting the appeal was based on Soros being “a famous institutional investor, well-known to the business community and a participant in major financial projects,” and thus should have been “particularly prudent” regarding insider-trading laws. The contents of Soros’ appeal, based on “human rights” was not heard, and the details of the appeal not yet made public, however, it is an illustrative example of how Soros and global elitists like him leverage the legitimate cause of human rights and freedom as a means to execute and defend both individual and institutional criminal behavior.

Soros has built a global empire of networked nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) allegedly promoting “human rights,” “freedom,” “democracy,” and “transparency.” His Open Society Institute funds amongst many others, Amnesty International (page 10), Global Voices, andHuman Rights Watch. In reality these NGOs constitute a modern day network of imperial administrators, undermining national governments around the world and replacing them with a homogeneous “civil society” that interlocks with “international institutions” run from and on behalf of Wall Street and London. And contrary to popular belief, Soros has built this empire, not against “conservative” ambitions, but with their full cooperation.

It is difficult to find a cause Soros’ Open Society Institute supports that is not also funded, directed, and backed by the US State Department-funded, Neo-Conservative lined National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its various subsidiaries including Freedom House, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

The Arab Spring

It would be almost four months after the beginning of the so-called “Arab Spring” before the corporate-media would admit that the US had been behind the uprisings and that they were anything but “spontaneous,” or “indigenous.” In an April 2011 article published by the New York Times titled, “U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings,” it was stated:

    “A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington.”

The article would also add, regarding the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED):

    “The Republican and Democratic institutes are loosely affiliated with the Republican and Democratic Parties. They were created by Congress and are financed through the National Endowment for Democracy, which was set up in 1983 to channel grants for promoting democracy in developing nations. The National Endowment receives about $100 million annually from Congress. Freedom House also gets the bulk of its money from the American government, mainly from the State Department. “

George Soros and his Open Society Institute also played a leading role in the unfolding unrest. Soros, in addition to fully supporting many of the NGOs in tandem with NED and the US State Department, also funded opposition groups working well in advance to produce new “constitutions” for collapsed nations.

In “George Soros & Egypt’s New Constitution,” it was reported:

    “It turns out that the new Egyptian Constitution has already been drafted, not by the Egyptian people, but by the very US-backed protesters who brought about regime change in the first place. A Reuters report quoted an opposition judge, who had been hiding-out in Kuwait until Mubarak’s ousting, as having said civil society groups had already produced several drafts and a new constitution could be ready in a month.
    These “civil society” groups include the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information openly funded by George Soros’ Open Society Institute and the Neo-Con lined NED funded Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. It appears that while the International Crisis Group may be turning out the strategy, and their trustee ElBaradei leading the mobs into the streets, it is the vast array of NGOs their membership, including Soros, fund that are working out and implementing the details on the ground.”

Myanmar (Burma) & Aung San Suu Kyi

The entire opposition in the Southeast Asia nation of Myanmar, still known by its colonial nomenclature in the West as “Burma,” is a creation of Wall Street and London. This includes the growing personality cult of “democracy icon” Aung San Suu Kyi. And again, just as we saw during the Western-engineered “Arab Spring,” it is a tandem effort made by “right-wing” Neo-Cons within the confines of NED, and Soros’ Open Society Institute.

Avramopoulos - Aghia Sofia Is (And Will Remain) A World Heritage Monument

The Foreign Ministry is "closely following developments related to the Aghia Sofia church in Costantinopole and the Turkish government's switch in policy related to Christian monuments on its territory," Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said in a letter to Parliament.

Responding to a question by Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avghi) MP Christos Pappas, Avramopoulos noted that the idea of converting the Byzantine monument from a museum it currently is to a mosque was in a proposal tabled in the Turkish Parliament. At the same time the FM said that Turkish official comments about also converting other Byzantine monuments into mosques raised concerns.

   Avramopoulos: "Both Greece and the rest of the Christian world hope that the voice of logic - including that of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew - will prevail in Turkey and the monuments that play such a symbolic role for Christianity and are an integral and visible part of the world's cultural heritage will be respected".

He also said that the issue has been raised to Turkish officials and that the Greek State is also considering raising the issue with international organisations also.

Mass arrests of Lawyers in Turkey

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A group of eight lawyers from different European Countries (Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Switzerland), from Egypt, and the US are visited Turkey between March 7-12 to investigate the circumstances of the recent wave of arrests of lawyers and trade unionist. The lawyers have been sent by two European lawyers organisations, The European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH) www.eldh.eu  and the European Democratic Lawyers AED-EDL http://www.aeud.org/ , by the Arab Lawyers Union (Egypt) and by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) www.iadllaw.org.

The above mentioned lawyers organisation have taken notice of the new mass arrest of lawyers in Turkey, among them the President of CHD Selcuk Kozagaçlı, with utmost concern. For the same reason on February 11, IADL submitted a statement to the Human Rights Council to bring to its attention IADL’s grave concern over the arrest of lawyers in Turkey.

Immediately after the arrests happened, ELDH and IADL alarmed the public with their protests.

For many years CHD has been a member organisation of ELDH and also of IADL, struggling with both organisations for the defence of Human Rights. It is the duty of these organizations to give CHD all possible legal and political assistance for the exoneration of their president and their other arrested members.

omadadikigorwnenglish

AHEPA Sends $650,000 in Medical Aid to Chios, Greece

WASHINGTON - The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA), a leading membership-based association for the nation's three million American citizens of Greek heritage and Philhellenes, joined with the Chios Society to secure a shipping container filled with more than $650,000 worth of medical and surgical supplies by the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) to aid the people of Greece, announced Supreme President Dr. John Grossomanides. The 40-foot shipping container left the port of Seattle for Piraeus, Greece, and its contents are destined for the Geniko Nosokomeio Xiou on the island of Chios, Greece. This is the fourth container AHEPA has helped to secure thanks to the help of AHEPA member, Philanthropist Stas Margaronis.

"We are proud to team up with the IOCC and the Chios Society to continue our humanitarian assistance to the people of Greece," said Supreme President Dr. Grossomanides. "We sincerely appreciate the generous contribution once again of Stas Margaronis, who helped to secure the shipping container. The AHEPA family continues to work diligently to raise funds to help the people of Greece during this unprecedented humanitarian crisis and will continue to work together with organizations such as the IOCC and Chios Society to provide humanitarian aid."

Within the past six months AHEPA, with the assistance of Mr. Margaronis; the IOCC, the Cretan Society and the Chios Society have collaborated to send four containers of medical supplies with a wholesale value of $2.4 million. Plans are underway to secure two more containers. One would be sent to Crete (it would be the second one sent to Crete as part of this campaign) and the second one would be bound for the Evangelismos Hospital in Athens.

Dr. Grossomanides added, "The need is great. We encourage any efforts that can go toward helping the people of Greece—every bit helps."

Father Jordan Brown of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Portland, Ore., blessed the container bound for Chios at the warehouse of Medical Teams International in Tigard, Ore., March 6, 2013. Present at the ceremony were: Antonia Fikaris, secretary-treasurer, Chios Societies of America, Dave Beltz, director, Commodity Support, Medical Teams International; and Mr. Margaronis, who acknowledged the support of Dimitrios B. Kontolios, supreme president, Chios Societies of America and Canada.

To date, the AHEPA family has raised $200,000 for humanitarian aid for the people of Greece.

Deaf Woman Threatens To Kill Herself After Climbing On Omonia Square Sculpture

On Monday morning a deaf woman who climbed onto a metal sculpture in Omonia Square, central Athens, threatened to kill herself but was finally talked out of doing so about three hours later.The 35-year old deaf mother of two had attempted to commit suicide again just before Christmas.

article in Greek - newsnow

Cyprus - First in Eurozone In Poverty Risk Of Elderly

(Photo credit: Teo's photo)

Poverty levels in Cyprus in 2011 were lower than the EU average, according to Eurostat data. However, the same data showed that Cyprus ranks first in the Eurozone and second in the EU (after Bulgaria) as regards poverty risk of over 65 years olds. The data shows than in 2011 almost one in four Cypriots (23.5% of the Cyprus population, or 200.000 people) fulfilled at least one of the three EU criteria, which define poverty.

The three criteria are income, lack of basis survival means and households with unemployed persons. The EU average was 24.2%. In Greece, it was 31.0%, recording the highest poverty level in the eurozone.

As regards age groups, the percentage of people more than 65 years old in Cyprus who fulfilled one of the three criteria which define poverty was the highest in the Eurozone reaching 40.4%, while the EU average was 20.5% (Greece 29.3%) and Bulgaria 61.1%.

Poverty levels for under 18 year olds in Cyprus stood at 21.8% (EU average 27%, Greece 30.4%). Poverty risk at this particular age group rises with increasing lack of education from parents.

In Cyprus, poverty risk reaches 33.5% when parents have a low level of education, to 14.8% when they have a medium level of education and 4.3% with a high level of education.

Poverty level in Cyprus for the age group 18-64 stood at 20.8% (EU average 24.3%, Greece 31.6%). Famagusta Gazette

Turkey’s Secret Armenians - Church in winter, Mosque in summer

Armenian girl (Photo credit: narek781)

The presence of “secret” Armenians in Anatolia has become the subject of a news report in the Argentine press. In an article titled “The Footprints of Secret Armenians in Turkey,” Argentine journalist Avedis Hadjian writes that people of Armenian origin, estimated to number hundreds of thousands, continue to live in Anatolia and Istanbul under false identities. Hadjian’s research begins in Istanbul’s Kurtulus neighborhood and then takes him to Amasya, Diyarbakir, Batman, Tunceli and Mus.

A recently published story has highlighted the existence of many Armenians living in Turkey who have changed their identities and religious practices to escape persecution.

According to the report, those who have been hiding their real identity for almost a century reside mostly in Turkey’s eastern regions. They have embraced the Sunni or Alawite sects of Islam and live with Turkish or Kurdish identities. Still, a tiny community living in villages in the Sason district of Batman province preserves their Christianity. Stressing that no one really knows the exact number of crypto-Armenians, Hadjian says he has seen that many of them are scared to acknowledge their Armenian identity. He quotes a crypto-Armenian in Palu: “Turkey is still a dangerous place for Armenians.”

The crypto-Armenians who live under various guises do not socialize with those who live openly as Armenians, and evade contact with strangers. According to Hadjian, some reject their identities even though they accept their parents or grandparents were Armenian and their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors still call them “Armenians” or “infidels.” Others acknowledge their real identity but say they keep it secret from their offspring.

To church in winter, to mosque in summer

Hadjian says that identifying crypto-Armenians is not easy, recounting several examples. The last Armenian in Amasya, Rafel Altinci, for instance, was brought up as a Christian and graduated from the same school as Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist who was killed. He then converted to Islam, married a Turkish woman and raised his daughter as a Muslim. Only recently has he begun to acknowledge that he is an Armenian. Jazo Uzal, a villager from the province of Mus, goes to church in Istanbul, where he spends the winters, but when he returns home during the summer he observes the Muslim rites of worship, including fasting.

In Diyarbakir, lawyer Mehmet Arkan says he became aware of his family’s Armenian identity at the age of seven. “Until 10 years ago, we used to conceal our identity from everybody, but being an Armenian in Diyarbakir is no longer dangerous,” Arkan says, pointing to the restoration of the Surp Giragos Church in the city. He explains he does not feel less Armenian for being a Sunni and performing Muslim prayers.

In some cases, secret Armenians have been transformed in surprising ways. The Ogasyan clan from Bagin village in Palu, for instance, survived the “events” of 1915 and emigrated to the United States, settling in Rhode Island. But before their departure, a Kurdish tribal chief abducted the family’s youngest son Kirkor to use him as a laborer in his fields. The chief then married off the underage Kirkor to an orphan named Zerman. The couple settled in a village in Palu, converted to Islam and adopted Turkish names. They even went on a Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca together.

Years later, relatives in the U.S. got in touch with Kirkor and Zerman. Today the couple’s grandson is an imam in Harput, while their second-generation nephew Oshayan Cloloyan is the archbishop of the Armenian Church in New York.

Hadjian writes about the presence of crypto-Armenians also in Tunceli and its environs, and recounts an encounter he had in Sason. The journalist describes a girl aged 6 or 7 in a group of Armenians heading to the Raman Mountains on pilgrimage. Due to the force of the wind, the white sack on the girl’s back turns around to reveal the Armenian cross. The journalist approaches the girl to take a picture. She hides her face behind her scarf, and when asked whether she is Armenian or has Armenian relatives, she answers: “We are Muslims.”

Source - al-monitor

SIGN PETITION - As Greeks We Are Obligated To Save Olympic Wrestling!

Greece just received yet another blow from the International Olympic Committee against its  history and culture. Our nation gave the world the Olympic games and this global committee is making a mockery out of the whole event. The latest provocation is a decision to exclude the sport of wrestling which is one of the original sports held during the first ancient games! Here is the latest report as posted by fairsportivesports.

The International Olympic Committee has made a recommendation to remove the sport of wrestling from the 2020 Olympics, despite it being one of the original sports in the ancient Olympic Games in Greece and a part of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

Only four other sports - track and field, cycling, gymnastics, and swimming - have been in more Olympic Games. Some may say that wrestling is a dying sport, but the facts say otherwise. For example, the 2012 NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championships sold an unprecedented 112,000 tickets, and the sport is among the top five NCAA revenue-producing championships boasting four consecutive sellouts.

The sport is popular in more than 200 nations.

Two hundred eighty-five pounder senior Jacob Nelson on the Buena Vista University (BVU) wrestling team commented on the IOC’s recommendation to eliminate wrestling.

“You’re not only taking away a great sport from the USA but many other countries to whom it means way more to,” he said.

There were several reiterations of Nelson’s opinion via Twitter using the hashtag #SaveOlympicWrestling, for example:

“When was the last time the United States, Russia, and Iran agreed on the same thing? They do now. #SaveOlympicWrestling.”

The movement to keep wrestling in the Olympics is gaining alot of momentum. Earlier this week, a poll that intrigued over 35,000 people to vote was conducted on the US sports channel ESPN.com about what sport should be included in the 2020 Olympics. Wrestling received 85.8% of the vote with baseball and softball coming in second with only 6.8% of the vote. The rest of the sports that are being considered include karate, squash, wushu, sport climbing, wakeboarding, and roller sports, combined for a whopping 7.4% of the total vote.

Casey Paprocki, a junior 174-pounder for the Beavers, has his own take on wrestling possibly being replaced by these sports.

“Replacing wrestling with wushu, a sport that has only been around since 1949, would be like removing a lifetime appointee on the Supreme Court to put an 18-year-old high school grad in his place,” he said.

Head Wrestling Coach Sevond Cole also voiced his opinion on wrestling being taken out of the Olympics.

“When you ask a childhood basketball player what they dream of being when they grow up, they say a professional basketball player; same question for a peewee football player: a professional football player. When you ask a wrestler what he wants to be when he grows up, he will say an Olympic champion,” Cole said.

Kids grow up playing many different sports, and almost all allow them to strive to compete on a professional level, except wrestling if it is eliminated from the Olympics. Some feel that without this ultimate possibility of becoming an Olympic champion, the sport of wrestling could eventually suffer with kids deciding to play other sports rather than wrestle.

“Without the promise of your training being able to someday allow you to compete at the elite level of the Olympics, it, in a way, hinders the idea of even competing,” Paprocki added.

It does remain true that even without the ultimate goal of being Olympic champion, wrestlers of all ages would still have the goal of becoming an NCAA National Champion or FILA Wrestling World Champion.

Just because the IOC has recommended that the sport of wrestling be dropped from the 2020 Olympics does not mean that it is a done deal. The next step is for the IOC Executive Board to recommend a sport for the final spot in the 2020 Olympics. Wrestling will be considered for the position along with seven other sports. This recommendation happens in May in St. Petersburg, Russia. Then, the next step is for the entire International Olympic Committee to vote on the final program for the 2020 Olympics, which occurs in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Wrestling supporters, including Coach Sevond Cole, are not giving up as he passes this message along to any supporter out there.

“As a wrestling community, we can’t take this sitting down. The fight is not over, and we need anyone that disagrees with this decision to help in our fight,” he said.

Efforts have been made by USA Wrestling, FILA Wrestling, and other organizations to put pressure on the IOC to keep wrestling in the Olympics. If you would like to sign the petition to help their efforts, please go to

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/put-pressure-ioc-overturn-their-decision-drop-wrestling-olympics-2020/ClDPYshl

GOOD NEWS - Northern Greek Industrialists Unveil New Social Solidarity Network

Wonderful news. Some 30,000 enterprises from all over Greece including the areas of Macedonia, Thrace and Epirus have apparently joined forces to create a Social Solidarity and Assistance Network that plans to show its "social face" and offer and solidarity, through the provision of food, money as well as other goods to individuals, groups, charity foundations, organizations and agencies.

The plan was unveiled on Saturday in Thessaloniki at an event that was attended by President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias. The Network itself was the idea of the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece in collaboration with the local Chambers, Exporters Association and Commerce Association, and the initiatives and organizers have already signed memorandums of cooperation with 20 charity and other organizations while another 20 more are set to be signed.

Papoulias welcomed the "praiseworthy effort", which he noted is the first of its kind and Greece, and expressed hope that it would be copied by others.

Federation of Industries of Northern Greece president Nikos Pentzos called the Network a "humanitarian institution", noting that in 2010 his Federation had taken up an initiative to support the vulnerable population groups, having anticipated the hard times that were coming, while the joint agreement for the creation of the Network itself was signed last February. "We want to give back to society what it has been giving to us all these years," Pentzos said, adding that the Network provided assistance this past Christmas to more than 5,000 people.

Editor's Note - This is a wonderful initiative that should be copied by all Greek companies and organizations in the Diaspora as well. Anything that benefits and sponsors the weak and poor in Greece, which right now numbers in the millions, should be applauded. What would have been even greater, by these industrialists, would have been generating jobs for people. Charity indeed is necessary right now, because things are at a tragic stage, but one's self dignity is vital.

Open Letter To Political Leaders and Health Authorities of Europe

(Photo credit: enough_42)

The Medical Associations of Portugal, Greece, Spain and Ireland have issued an “Open Letter to Political Leaders and Health Authorities of Europe,” decrying the disastrous effects of the austerity policies imposed by the IMF, European Union, and European Central Bank — the infamous “Troika” — on the health and lives of the people of their nations. Although still too polite about a policy which constitutes nothing less than genocide, such a call from the medical establishments of these four nations is unprecedented, and begs the urgency of a Glass-Steagall revolution to overturn financial policies which are killing people.

It is “unacceptable” that “decisions of critical importance for the economy and for social protection systems of a number of countries have been taken, particularly over the last two years, by the EC, the ECB, the IMF and national governments” without taking due account of their effect on national health systems.

Social and economic crises of the magnitude now experienced in many European countries have well-known health implications:

• Loss of self-esteem, depression and suicide;
• Increased susceptibility for communicable diseases;
• Enhancement of risk-taking behavior both in terms of addictions and in relation to risk factors of chronic conditions;…
• Public services have been deprived of the funding necessary to perform adequately while community health needs are increasing.
• This is now happening: extensive and deep human suffering, and increased number of situations that defy the most basic and ethical concepts of human dignity.
• Deteriorating health systems — along with the emigration of the most qualified among the young, long-term unemployment, and depressed fertility rates — will very likely have long-term consequences, affecting future generations….

The signatories of this open letter call upon the international and national political and health authorities to:

”Ensure that awareness of the health impact of the financial and economic decisions adopted in the recent period, results in a rapid revision of such decisions, in order to urgently prevent further deterioration of the health and health services in our communities.

…Mobilize and orient towards the Common Good, the extraordinary potential of intelligence, knowledge and innovation of today’s societies, rather than undercutting the health system’s ability to evolve, transform itself, better perform its function, become more citizen-centered, and respond to current and future challenges.” http://larouchepac.com/node/25209

Signatures:

GREECE

• Dr. Michael Vlastarakos, President, Hellenic Medical Association
• Dr. George Patoulis, President, Athens Medical Association
• Dr. Nikolas Maroudias, President of Hospital Medical Directors
• Dr. Bodossakis-Prodromos R. Merkouris, President, Greek Association of General Practitioners: ELEGEIA Dr. Andreas Seretis, President of Central Health Council
• Mrs Olymbia Chaldaiou ñ Bitrou, President, OEKK ìAgaliazoî National Association Against Cancer Professor John Kyriopoulos, Dean, National School of Public Health, Professor of Health Economics
• Professor Christos Lionis, Professor of General Practice and Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Uni- versity of Crete
• Professor Aris Sissouras, Prof. Emeritus, Operational Research (Health Policy and Management), University of Patras
• Dr. Charalampos Economou, Assistant Professor of Health Policy, Dept. of Sociology, Panteion University

IRELAND

• Dr Paul McKeown, President of the Irish Medical organisation, Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology and Public Health in the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and Consultant Physician in Public Health at the Health Pro- tection Surveillance Centre in Dublin
• Professor Charles Normand, Edward Kennedy Chair of Health Policy and Management, Centre for Health Policy and Management, Trinity College Dublin
• Professor Cecily Kelleher, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Head of the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, University College Dublin.
• Professor Hannah McGee, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland
• Professor Ivan Perry, Professor of Public Health and Head of the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College Cork
• Professor Joe Barry, Chair of Population Health Medicine, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Trinity College Dublin
• Dr. Steve Thomas, Resilience of the Irish Health Systems project, Centre for Health Policy and Management, Trinity College, Dublin

PORTUGAL

• Professor JosÈ Manuel Silva, Presidente of the Portuguese Medical Association
• Dr. Maria de BelÈm Roseira, Member of Parliament, Ex-Minister of Health
• Dr. Paulo Mendo, Ex-Minister of Health
• Professor Adalberto Campos Fernandes, Health Policy, National School of Public Health Professora Ana Escoval, President of the Portuguese Association of Hospitals
• Professor Constantino Sakellarides, Prof. Emeritus Health Policy, National School of Public Health
• Professor Henrique Barros, Director of Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Predictive Medicine and Public Health, Medical School, University of Porto
• Dr. JosÈ Aranda da Silva, 1st President of the Portuguese Institute of Pharmacies and Medicines
• Maria Augusta Sousa, nurse, Board of Directors, Foundation for Health – NHS
• Dr. VÌtor Ramos, family doctor, pioneering team, Portuguese primary health care reform.

SPAIN

• Dr. Juan- JosÈ RodrÌguez-SendÌn: General Practitioner and President of the Spanish General Council of Medi- cal Colleges.
• Professor Dr. JosÈ-MarÌa Segovia-de-Arana: Emeritus Professor and Member of the Royal Academy of Medi- cine.
• Professor Dr. Joan RodÈsTeixidor: President IDIBAPS of the Clinic Hospital of Barcelona.
• Professor Vicente Ort ̇n Rubio: Health Economist and Dean of the Faculty of Economics of the PompeuFabra University in Barcelona
• Professor Dr. Alfonso Moreno Gonz·lez: Clinical Pharmacologist and President of the Spanish Council of Post-graduate Health Specialization.
• Professor Dr. JosÈ-Manuel Freire-Campo: Head of the Department of International Health at the National School of Public Health in Madrid
• Professor Dr. JosÈ-RamÛn Repullo-Labrador: Head of the Department of Health Planning and Economics at the National School of Public Health in Madrid 

Read the full letter in Portuguese & English : http://www.inodes.eu/sites/inodes.eu/files/open-letter_PT_EN.pdf

STOP BASHING GREECE - Netherlands, US & Double standards

Recently, the Netherlands nationalized one of their oldest and greatest banks, while at the same time the US decided to postpone the solution of their debt problem (on their... own, since they answer to no one), but of course all this news was ignored by the radar of the markets and especially the mainstream media. Instead, much milder news of economic problems from Greece caused a worldwide stir and a new debate on whether or not Greece should exit the EU again. As if Greece was and still is the greatest and only problem of them all.

Different states, different standards... And an unjust world.

As Greek citizens we are sick to our stomachs with the way some foreign nations, provinces and states are using Greece as a negative example in their sentences.

For instance, recently we read an article from Ontario, Canada which was talking about some economic figures and the author titled it "Ontario is not Greece", and let us not forget how many times Mitt Romney used Greece in his sentences when comparing the US's debt woes to those of Greece. Has anyone educated that man that the US's debt is 15-16 TRILLION?

Maybe our leaders in Greece do not care about what "others" say, but we as citizens do. That is why HellasFrappe is starting a new campaign titled "STOP BASHING GREECE". Every time you read a story that slams Greece in this manner, please notify us on facebook. Inaction means that you too agree with the lies and fabrications that the mainstream media and some uneducated buffooons use against our country for their intent and purposes.

Notify us at: https://www.facebook.com/HellasfrappeFans

..and let us comment and compare the story with that of Greece's economic woes.

The time has come for people to realize that what happened here was not by chance. It was a well orchestrated plan from foreign interests who like to prey on weaker nations, rather than concentrate on the skeletons in their own closets.

STOP BASHING GREECE...

We have had it up to here!

ENOUGH!

HF

Poverty vs Progress: Comparing the US and Venezuela

(Photo credit: slynkycat)

If we are to take the traditional definition of the term, then “Third World” refers to those (non-white) countries that struggle to attain high levels of economic development and which, for the most part, are reduced to the periphery of the global economy. However, since the onset of the economic crisis beginning in 2007-2008, many of the economic problems of those traditionally poor countries have become ever more apparent in the so-called developed world. Socio-economic maladies such as extreme poverty, hunger, and unemployment have skyrocketed in advanced capitalist countries like the United States, while politicians and the media continue to trumpet the mirage of an economic recovery.


By Eric Draitser
StopImperialism.com via Global Research

Naturally, one must ask for whom this is a recovery…for the poor or for Wall St? Moreover, it has forced the world to examine what progress looks like. One way of doing so is to analyze what the statistics tell us about the United States versus Venezuela. In so doing, one begins to get a much clearer picture, free from the distortions of media and politicians alike, of just how much progress has been made in the Bolivarian Revolution while the situation of the poor and working classes in the US continues to deteriorate.

What Is Poverty?

Before one can reach any definitive conclusions about poverty in the US and Venezuela, it is essential to first establish the stark difference in the way in which poverty is measured in the two countries. With respect to the US, poverty is measured purely by household income, with a certain threshold known as the “poverty line” determined by the Census Bureau. This measurement, based on a purely arbitrary delineation between poverty and “non-poverty”, is the one by which many make determinations about the state of the poor in the US. As should be self-evident, this system of analyzing poverty ignores the obvious fact that there is little tangible difference between the lives of those slightly over and slightly under the poverty line in that both live in a constant state of privation. Moreover, as increasing inflation, decreasing wages and other factors continue to impact the purchasing power and actual lives of the poor, the poverty line becomes even more problematic.

In contrast, the Venezuelan government has a distinctly different set of measurements to determine true poverty including: access to education, access to clean drinking water, access to adequate housing, and other factors.[i]

Essentially then, in Venezuela, poverty is not a measure of income, but of quality of life. By measuring poverty in this way, the Venezuelan government provides a far more comprehensive picture of the socio-economic situation in the country. It is important to note also that, unlike in the United States, poverty statistics in Venezuela are one of the primary driving forces behind the formation of government policy. While in the US, poverty has become a dirty word (as evidenced by the subject’s total absence from last year’s presidential debates), Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution have made it the centerpiece of public policy in all aspects.

What the Numbers Show

When one examines the statistical data compiled by the Census Bureau in the United States, many very troubling facts emerge. First, it’s critical to note that, in 2012, the poverty line for a typical family of four was at a combined gross income of $23,050.[ii] Note that this indicator is derived from gross income as opposed to net income, so it doesn’t even reflect the gravity of the situation faced by these families.

Anyone who has even a rudimentary understanding of the current costs of living in the United States can immediately surmise that the “poverty line” is a cruel joke. This level of income means abject poverty, it means a lack of basic necessities for human life. So, in essence then, we’re not talking about “the poor”, but those on the verge of death with problems such as malnutrition, serious illness from treatable conditions, and countless other hindrances to basic existence. In addition, it should be noted that median family income (for all families, not just those in poverty) continues to decline dramatically, with a decrease of 8.1% since 2007.[iii] Therefore, it becomes apparent that, not only is poverty widespread, it is growing.

California, long touted as the most economically vibrant state in the US, is now known as more than just the home of Silicon Valley and beautiful coastline, it is also home to the highest levels of poverty in the United States. According to the Supplemental Poverty Measure of the US Census Bureau, California boasts a 23.5% poverty rate[iv] which, if included with those who do not technically fit the poverty measure but who still live very much on the economic margins, shows that poverty is fast becoming an epidemic in California.

As University of Wisconsin Madison economist Timothy Smeeding explained, “As a whole, the safety net is holding many people up, while California is struggling more because it’s relatively harder there to qualify for food stamps and other benefits.”[v] Essentially then we see that, in the nation’s most populous and, arguably most economically important state, the situation of the poor is a dire one as more and more people become dependent on government programs just for survival. This is, of course, against the backdrop of austerity or so-called “entitlement reform” championed by both Republicans and Democrats, which would cut these same programs which are becoming ever more critical for millions of Americans.

Income cannot and should not be seen as the only indicator of poverty and economic status. Indeed, there are many other factors including access to proper nutrition, particularly important for children growing up in situations of poverty. In fact, the most recent data from the USDA suggests that at least 18 million households in the US were food insecure as of 2011.[vi] This is merely the tip of the iceberg when one considers that there are millions of households who are not categorized as “food insecure” but who cannot afford high quality food and the still more families who are only food secure because of government programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) formerly known as food stamps. Lack of access to highly nutritious foods is characteristic of poor, urban neighborhoods where primarily people of color struggle to feed their children with something other than fast food or low quality food purchased at the corner store.

What becomes apparent in even a cursory examination of this information is that food security and poverty are not merely indicators of economic hardship, they are class designations. The United States is home to an ever-expanding underclass, one that is encompassing more and more formerly working class people and white people, but which still afflicts communities of color most acutely. In every major city and more and more formerly affluent white suburbs, poverty has become an ever-present reality, one that remains hidden as Americans engage in the collective self-deception of “economic recovery.”

The Venezuelan Model

In contrast to the United States, Venezuela continues to make tremendous strides in eradicating poverty from a nation that, for decades, had been one of the poorest and most exploited in the Americas. Despite vast oil wealth and abundant resources, Venezuela was characterized by extreme poverty, particularly among the indigenous and peasant populations. This was the product of the colonial and post-colonial system wherein a small, light-skinned elite dominated the country and kept the rest of the people in abject poverty. This situation began to change with the ascendance of Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution. Immediately Chavez, already a hero to poor Venezuelans, set about implementing his socialist model that would make the fight against poverty the centerpiece of his public policy. Indeed, this is precisely what has happened in the fourteen years since he took office.

As mentioned previously, Venezuela uses a comprehensive set of criteria to measure poverty including access to education, clean drinking water, adequate housing, households with more than three people living in a room, and households where the head of the household had less than three years of education. Using this rubric, known as the Unsatisfied Basic Needs system (NBI), the statistics are intriguing. In the last ten years, the number of Venezuelans living in extreme poverty (those who experience two of the five indicators of poverty) has decreased from 11.36% to 6.97%, a reduction of almost one half. At the same time, life expectancy and total population have increased significantly, showing the impact of better and more comprehensive health care services. One particularly important piece of data has to do with indigenous people, the group most marginalized historically. In the last ten years, their numbers have grown significantly as well, now making up almost 3% of the population.[vii] This shows that, not only have the quality of health programs and related services increased, but access to them has grown as well, particularly for those traditionally disenfranchised segments of the population.

It should be noted that one of the centerpieces of the anti-poverty programs of the Chavez Bolivarian government has been the exponential increase in construction of public housing and affordable units. President Chavez announced the Great Housing Mission (GMVV)[viii] in 2011 to combat the extreme poverty that so many Venezuelan families faced as they lived in inadequate or unsafe homes. As of September 2012, more than 250,000 homes had been constructed and given to poor Venezuelan families.[ix] This number is surely set to increase in the coming year as the program continues to expand and housing becomes ever more accessible and plentiful.

In the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, the Chavez government continues to expand spending on anti-poverty programs such as housing construction and health care while much of the so-called developed world engages in the mass hysteria of austerity. The Bolivarian Revolution set before itself the task of reducing and ultimately eradicating poverty in a country where poverty was a historical tradition and a seemingly immutable reality. The post-colonial era of Venezuelan history is one fraught with domination and oppression by the United States and subjugation to multinational corporations while the poor and working classes lived in wretched conditions. Chavez’s commitment to reversing that legacy is what has, more than anything else, enshrined his legacy in the hearts and minds of Venezuelans.

Conversely, the advanced capitalist economies of North America and Europe are desperately trying to maintain their hegemony and economic survival by means of austerity programs which shift the burden of the depression from the wealthy financiers and speculators who created it to the poor and working class who must pay for it. Draconian cuts to necessary social services upon which millions of Americans depend for their very survival serve to illustrate this point further. Unlike in Venezuela, the Western imperial powers seek to destroy the social safety net and drive their populations into further destitution and desperation. This is, to put it another way, the crisis of advanced, post-industrial capitalism – an economic system which must expand the divide between rich and poor, create extremes of wealth and poverty and generally perpetuate itself on the misery and poverty of the lower classes. Seen in this way, Republicans and Democrats, President Obama and House Speaker Boehner alike are culpable for the massive suffering and despair of the poor in the US who can look to Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution as a model for a truly progressive vision of the future.

Notes

• [i] http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7644
• [ii] http://coverageforall.org/pdf/FHCE_FedPovertyLevel.pdf
• [iii] http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb12-172.html
• [iv] http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-244.pdf
• [v] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/california-poverty_n_2132920.html
• [vi] http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/884529/err-141-summary.pdf
• [vii] Ibid.
• [viii] http://venezuela-us.org/2011/03/14/president-chavez-announces-creation-of-%E2%80%9Cmission-housing-venezuela%E2%80%9D/
• [ix] http://venezuela-us.org/2012/09/07/nearly-250000-homes-built-by-venezuelas-great-housing-mission/

Independent Greeks Take Troika to the International Criminal Court

On Jan. 16, an MP from the opposition Independent Greeks party filed an indictment at the International Criminal Court against Paul Thomsen of the International Monetary Fund, Mathias Morse of the European Union and Klaus Mazouch, of the European Central Bank The indictment charges that the measures imposed on Greece by the accused have led to 3.500 suicides, a massive increase in unemployment with over 1.5 million jobs lost, the closing of thousands of businesses, destruction of the well-being of families and a deep recession.

These measures, they charge, violate the Charter of  fundamental Rights of the EU, on the “protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms”, and its proclamation that “Everyone has the right to life”. They also violate both the Greek Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. In a similar move, Yiannis Panagopoulos President of the General Confederation of Greek Labor (GSEE), announced his organisation will file an appeal against the Troika’s brutal austerity measures with the European Court of Human Rights.

During the same week, the Medical Associations of Portugal, Greece, Spain and Ireland issued an “Open Letter to Political Leaders and Health Authorities of Europe,” decrying the disastrous effects of the austerity policies imposed by the Troika on the health and lives of the people of their nations. The statement charges the EC, the ECB, the IMF and national governments with failure to take into due account the effects of their social measures on national health systems, and calls for a rapid reversion of those decisions.

The unprecedented appeal begs the urgency of a Glass-Steagall reform to reverse such financial policies which are killing people, and for the immediate implementation of the LaRouche program for an “Economic Miracle in Southern Europe, The Mediterranean Region and Africa.”