CONTROVERSY, PASOK
Yannis Stournaras, the new Minister of Finance in Greece, has landed himself a pole-position job. Stournaras is something of a thoroughbred old-Establishment Greek politician: he emerged as a force in the old days of Costas Simitis, the former Prime Minister of Greece, who – as one source put it earlier this week – “was the master builder of the Greek tragedy right at the outset”. It isn’t meant as a compliment.
The facts bear this out: one way and another, Simitis schemed to disguise the chronic problems of the Greek economy and get Greece into the Eurozone. During the period of his governance, official data presented inflation as having decreased from 15% to 3%, public deficits diminished from 14% to 3%, with GDP allegedly increasing at an annual average of 4% – and actual labor incomes increasing at a rate of 3% per year. It was largely a tissue of lies that Eurostat had caught onto by 2006: whenever any Sprout or Europol tells you the Greek collapse came as a shock to Berlin-am-Brussels after George Papandreou came to power, you know you are in the presence of a fool or a liar. The Eurozone knew from Day One that Greece was a potential liability….but it suited their ambition to have them in.
Stournaras’s nickname in Greece is "Mr Euro". Frequently described as ‘the man who steered Greece into the Eurozone, he was chief economic adviser and a very close aide to former Prime Minister Costas Simitis when Greece was negotiating euro entry up until 2001. In October 2011 Stournaras proposed and formed a Greek sovereign debt reduction scheme called KAPPA (Initiative for Protection and Exploitation of Govermental Real Estate ).
The proposal envisaged the establishment of a public company to offer a diversified portfolio of real estate and movable assets, which will then be sold to a European body (European Investment Bank or EFSF), and be disbursed immediately as €75 billion to massively reduce Greek public debt.
Codenamed “Archimedes”, it was in reality the brainchild of multinational consultancy giant Roland Berger – by far the biggest management consultancy in Germany, it turns over a whopping €0.8 billion per annum…and is based in Frankfurt. In September 2011 it had presented an ingenious plan in that City of Bankers to a Greek delegation led by Stournaras. In full, its recommendations suggested bundling Greek state assets worth €125 bn into a holding company, and selling it to the EU. This company would issue bonds and the Greek State would be allowed to use these.
Had it gone ahead, Roland Berger predicted it would have reduced the Greek debt from 145% to 88% of GDP.
Enthusiastic about the idea, Stournaras submitted RB’s plan to the Papandreou goverment and the Troika together a month later. They rejected it and instead Papandreou, the IMF, and the ECB chose the far more risky (and, as it turned out, damaging) option of private bondholder haircuts and a second bailout.
It’s hard not to make two simple empirical observations at this point. Berlin conspired with Greece eighteen months before these events to exaggerate the Greek deficit (in order to ensure full eurozone contributions to the bailout). Now here the Troika was, looking a relative gift horse in the mouth….and turning it down.
One can only suspect that had a smaller deficit in 2009 and a sale of assets to Brussels rather than a depressed open market in 2011 gone forward, Greece would have gotten back a great deal of its independent sovereignty and access to the markets than subsequently occurred. And the extrapolation from that in turn is that Merkel, Schäuble, Brussels and Lagarde have done everything in their power to reduce the chances of Greece retaining its independence.
So we can reasonably assume that this is more or less what the unlucky members answering directly to Obersturmbannführer Schäuble under the Faskal Union can expect…..more of the same.
And while we’re down here, another little afterthought: Roland Berger is at present actively involved in a scheme to create a Eurozone ratings agency….the €300 million start-up cost to be funded by a consortium of German banks in Frankfurt.
Just fancy that.
Source - The Slog
OMOGENIEA NEWS
A shocking article in Germany's Bild revealed that a German-Greek woman by the name of Angelina was physically abused last Friday from a fellow German soccer fan because she openly showed her excitement for the Greek national soccer team. "My left eye is swollen, shut and bruised" Angela (19) told Bild adding that the bones around her eye were completely broken.
More exactly, this young mother who lives in Lichtenrade is also a major soccer fan and last Friday Angelina and her friends decided to watch the game between Germany and Greece (destination was not mentioned). They were enjoying the game, and waving their flags, but when the game was over and her friends decided to head to a pub for a beer, someone spotted her alone holding a Greek flag and went up to her for no reason and simply punched her out cold.
Angelina blacked out, and when she came to she was rushed immediately to the hospital. The doctors who tended to her said that the bones around her eye are broken, and they now plan to operate on her and add metal plates around the eye area so as to heal the bones. Also her vision was affected and she will now need to wear glasses.
Editor's Note - And they made a big deal over Kassidiaris? Re den mas xezete leo ego....
(Check out article on bild in German language at this link: http://www.bild.de/regional/berlin/berlin/griechin-auf-fan-fast-verpruegelt-24830232.bild.html)
HEALTH AND LIFESTYLE, LOCAL NEWS, PASOK
The Athens Medical Society called on the government to re-operate the Cardiac Surgery Unit at Aghia Sophia Children's Hospital which was closed down by the previous PASOK government. In a letter to Health Minister Andreas Lykourentzos the doctors reveal that since the clinic stopped operating many children have died because the only other hospital that can perform such operations is the Onassis Hospital -which is privately owned- and which has a very long waiting list.
Here is the letter:
"The specific unit stopped operating a little over 8 months ago, and today Greek citizens are being deprived of vital services. We have received many letters from parents of children who are suffering from congenital heart diseases, and they continue to note how dangerous this is for the health of their children.
So much so, that the parents of these children have submitted formal complaints (lawsuits) to an Athens Misdemeanours Prosecutor. The termination of this (cardiac) unit contributed to the deaths of many children who suffered from these diseases. The reason (we insist that you re-open the Cardiac Surgery Department at Aghia Sophia Children's Hospital) is because (many children) lack insurance coverage and (their parents are) economically weak to cover the costs of health care and hospitalization at a private hospital (such as Onassis).(Originally posted in Greek by makeleio)
Editor's Note - What a tragedy.... Let us hope that the new administration at the Ministry of Health will do the honorable -and logical- thing.
GOLDEN DAWN, LOCAL NEWS
Cyprus students, together with common every day Greek citizens and members of the Golden Dawn party (GD) held a protest march at the Turkish Embassy in Thessaloniki on Thursday against the visit of the fascist "Grey Wolves" organization Devlet Bahceli. What protestors did not expect was to be attacked by a group of far left fascists (about 15-20 people) who decided to simultaneously hold an anti-rally to protest against the Cypriot students. At first they began shouting slogans against Greek nationalism and then began slamming the Golden Dawn party, and believe it or not they even attacked anyone who was holding a Greek flag.
Press reports said that the extreme leftists, who were at a nearby cafe (in the Rotunda area) were insulted by the motto "shit, shit, the tomb of Kemal", used by the Greek Cypriots and GD during their protest so they decided to stage their attack against the Cyprus students. What they didn't expect was to be confronted by GD members who protected the students until authorities arrived.
When the two sides began to clash, authorities showed up and harbored the leftists who continued to verbally attack the Cypriot students as well as the other members in the protest. (Source in Greek - Taxalia)
Editor's Note - Ataturk was the first president of modern Turkey. After World War I. Professor Israel Charney and President of the IAGS had once said that between 1913 and 1922, under the successive regimes of the Young Turks and of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), more than 3.5 million Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Christians were massacred in a Turkish organized and state-sponsored campaign of destruction and genocide, with the only aim to wipe out the native Christian populations that were living in Turkey. This Christian Holocaust is viewed as the precursor to the Jewish Holocaust in WWII, but unfortunately the western media never talks about it. Unfortunately, the Turkish government still denies having committed this genocide till this day. If the Greek leftists could not understand why Greek and Cypriot patriots were against this specific visit, then we here at hellasfrappe suggest that they move to Turkey where they can defend the honor of Ataturk and fascist groups such as the "Grey Wolves" any time they see fit. We need patriots in this country, not traitors.
CYPRUS, EXPOSED
Cyprus should not take over the rotating presidency of the European Union on Sunday because it has sought emergency funding, the head of a business group linked to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives said earlier in the week. Cyprus, which is due to take over the six-month presidency from Denmark on July 1st, has a banking sector heavily exposed to debt-crippled Greece and said it was formally applying for help from the EU's rescue funds.
"This is the paradox of the European Union, that the dog should be put in charge of the supply of sausages!" said Kurt Lauk, president of the economic advisory board linked to Merkel's centre-right Christian Democrats.
Lauk called for all countries which have received bailouts - which also include Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece - to be barred from holding the EU presidency, which helps to set the agenda of the 27-nation bloc. "It is unacceptable that a country which has had to seek a bailout can take over the presidency of the EU Council," he said, adding that he doubted whether Cyprus, the eurozone's third smallest economy, had the authority to give direction on stabilising Europe. "How can Cyprus engage in crisis management when it is in the middle of a crisis itself?" Lauk asked. "We will never be able to heal Europe if the president is lying in intensive care with a highly contagious disease."
Germany's foreign office distanced itself from Lauk's comments.
"During its six-month presidency, Cyprus will have the duty to undertake tasks in the interest of the European Union and its member states, just like other countries which have held the post of president of the EU Council," it said. Cyprus-mail
Editor's Note - There is only one way to answer this man.. but words are not necessary.. a simple hand salute will do... PARTA, na min sta xrostame kiolas... xeftylsmene!
BALKANS
A foreign ministry spokesman reiterated Greece's long-standing and steadfast desire to resolve the issue of the name of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) through negotiations, as foreseen by UNSC resolutions. Spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras referred to recent high-profile statements by the prime minister of the neighbouring country, Nikola Gruevski, who claimed that Athens is exercising a policy of "political genocide".
Achieving a mutually acceptable solution will release the potential in our bilateral relations and provide an impetus for the European and Euro-Atlantic prospects of the neighboring country," Delavekouras said, while cautioning that a self-evident condition for the above is the cultivation of good-neighborly relations.
The foreign ministry spokesman referred directly to what he called "offensive and wild extremes" by officials of the Skopje government, which, he pointed out, come in the wake of a new Greek government assuming power. He warned that such comments are not conducive for the creation of a suitable climate towards achieving a mutually acceptable solution to the 'name issue'.
"On the contrary, they undermine bilateral relations and fuel the systematic negative government propaganda that aims to turn the public opinion of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia against Greece," he said. (AMNA)
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