Για να μην τα χρωστάω - Μιθριδάτης

Κυβέρνηση με σήμα το κουταλοπίρουνο
κι ένα φλώρο ξαφνικά έχεις για τύραννο
Μια Πρωθυπουργάντζα, που έχει στην καβάτζα
κάθε ορντινάντζα, δευτεράντζα για μπροστάντζα
όλοι όρνιθες του αρίστου και funny
και θα `λεγα “Εντάξει φίλε μάλλον πλάκα κάνει,
ο Λουδοβίκος μας, ο άρχοντας, ο άναξ”
αν ο κόσμος δεν κατάπινε όλη μέρα Xanax
Υπουργός αηδίας και πρωτογονίας
δίνει απλόχερα μαθήματα ηγεμονίας
Μα και το Υπουργείο Ευχελαίου και σπηλαίου
δίνει άλλη διάσταση στην έννοια του χυδαίου
Φρουρού κι αρώματα, όλα τα δικαιώματα
μες της νύχτας τα καμώματα, αυτόματα
περνάνε νομοσχέδια εκτρώματα, στα χώματα
διαβολοσκορπίσματα τα ανεμομαζώματα
Συνταγματική εκτρόπα, χωρίς ντρόπα
μια κατάστα ψυχοτρόπα, χωρίς ντόπα
Οκτάωρη εργασία, είναι μπαναλιτέ
και κάθε υπερωρία, θα είναι απληρωτέ
έξω απ’ την ενορία, οι προσκυνηταί
διαδήλωση πορεία; Ε όχι ρε ψηλέ
Για κάθε σου απορία, έχουν μια διμοιρία
ένας λαός σε μία δυστοπία κι ομηρία
Ομάδες της καταστολής για να `σαι ασφαλής
στα περιπολικά το κράτος είναι μερακλής
Και μπλε στολές μες στις σχολές να βγάζουν θυμικό
πάνω στους φοιτητές ξυλοδαρμό και χημικό
Άκου και το πιο καθησυχαστικό
να `χεις ΜΑΤατζήδες και στο καθιστικό
ξέρεις, από κάτω από το κλιματιστικό
και δε θα θέλεις μάγκα μου ούτε συναγερμό
Μιλάει για ανάπτυξη και ο foolie functional
γουστάρει ρεντικουλαμέντι international
Και οι Βρυξέλλες ρίχνουν γέλωτα πηγαίο
καθώς βουτάνε τράτα, οι δίπλα στο Αιγαίο
γι’ αυτό πήρε φρεγάτα, το αγόρι το μοιραίο
το κατακλυσμιαίο, τι θέλεις ρε πλεμπαίο;
“Ο καταλληλότερος” στο poll το αγοραίο
για τον μικρομεσαίο, με αμελητέο μηνιαίο
Πλαισιωμένος με ξεφτέρια κυβερνητικά
τίγκα βιογραφικά, με άλφα στερητικά
Ο αδιανόητα ανόητος κι αμετανόητος
αυτονόητα ατιμώρητος, μα ακριβοθώρητος
αφόρητα απτόητος και ανιστόρητος
ο δανεικός κι αγύριστος κι ανυποχώρητος
Ο κολλητός, ο μιλητός, ο εκλεκτός μετακλητός
και ο μολυβοχρυσοκαντιλοπελεκητός
Μιλιούνια από `δω σε κάτι μπατζανάκια
να φτιάξει μασκουλέτα αυτός που φτιάχνει καζανάκια
Πεσκέσι τ’ αναθέσι, για κάτι μερεμέτια
σε κουνιάδες, συνυφάδες, ρουσφέτια και τέτοια
στην αφάνεια, παράνοια στα χρονικά της Narnia
τόσα σκάνδαλα που δε χωράν’ ούτε σε Scania
Μέλι είναι το έλλειμμα και είναι το μέλημα τους
ν’ αφήσουν ένα ρημαδιό, ξανά στο όνομά τους
Έχω έκτη αίσθα, i see dead people
Να θηλάζουνε την πρωθυπουργική τη nipple
Ψηφοφόροι, σουρταφέρτες πηγαινέλες
μόνο συνεπείς σε ποδοσφαιρικές φανέλες
Σε Gremlin μετατρέπεται με φαγητό ο Gizmo
και ο απολιτίκ στην πείνα, γίνεται φασίζμο
Ακροδεξιό γκωνάρι ακρογωνιαίο
τα τραγιά ψάχνουν τράγο αποδιοπομπαίο
Σκόρπα μου ξανά τα Σκοπιανά, τα σκόπιμα
περικεφαλαία σκούπα, σφυροκόπημα
Ενώ προσφυγόπουλα, μέσα σε λασπόνερα
βουλιάζουν οι απόπειρες σ’ οδυνηρά βαλτόνειρα
Κουτοπόνηρα, οι “Ναι μεν αλλάδες” με ζοχάδες
Έχουνε τη μύγα, κατ’ επέκταση κουράδες
Μυριάδες ψήφιζαν μια ζωή κλεφτοκοτάδες
απηύδησαν και είπαν να το ρίξουν σε φονιάδες
Εσύ δουλίτσα να χεις και όπου γύρει η πλάστιγγα
Εληνάρες μ’ ένα λου, αυτή η μάστιγα
Το `παιζες Hugh Hefner, με ξένη πορτοφόλα;
Τώρα για διακόσμηση έχεις την κατσαρόλα
Είσαι ψηλομύτης, σε χώρα χαμηλοκώλα
ατέρμονα λατέρνατιβ, με τρύπια αεροσόλα
αποψάρα έχοντας, πάντα απέχοντας
λιγάκι είσαι δουλάκι, όσο πατά ο φιλελέφαντας
Κοίτα τη βολή κυρ Παντελή, ζωντόβολο
συνήθισε το dildo και μετά θα `ναι καλόβολο
Πάλι για το πόπολο, ούτε πόμολο ρε `συ
δίνε κώλο εσύ κι εγώ πόνο στην πόλωση
Όλα στη διαφθορά και μες στην κάμφορα
δεν κάνει διαφορά η συμφορά και σφύρα αδιάφορα
τον κώλο σου σε αφορά να αγαπάς παράφορα
μην σου παίζει και η συνείδηση παιχνίδια διάφορα
Νομίζεις είσαι άρχοντας, αλλά είσαι πληβείος
νιώθεις μικροαστός ή μικροαστείος
Σίγουρα ανήκεις στη σωστή κατηγορία;
Είσαι γιος του Παρταόλα ή ο γιος του Παρτατρία;
Ναι, δεν είστε οι πρώτοι, ούτε οι τελευταίοι
είστε ενδιάμεσα, άρα απλά τυχαίοι
και κάλλιο τελευταίοι, παρά τελειωμένοι
γιατί ο τελευταίος κλείνει πόρτα καθώς μπαίνει
Ενημέρωση απ’ τα Μου Μου Ε κι αλίμονο
κι είναι όλα ανάποδα σαν σε δεξιοτίμονο
Της κοινής γνώμης η διαμόρφωση,
σε κάτω του μετρίου αντίληψη και μόρφωση
Σωστή διατύπωση στην πρόταση με πόρωση
κάνει εντύπωση η αποστήθιση με βόθρωση
Εμπαιγμός, αποκλεισμός και αποσβόλωση
το φρύδι απ’ την ανόρθωση, παθαίνει υπερκόπωση
Στομωμένα στόματα με πώματα στο τσάνελ
σέρνονται με γόνατα τα πτώματα στο πάνελ
Σφουγγίσουν σάλια, ανάβουν μανουάλια
τα χάλια κάτω απ’ το χαλί να αποσβεστούν τσουβάλια
Αέρισμα στην τόμπολα, με τα ευρώ βεντάλια
γι αυτό εσείς ρεμάλια, ό,τι προστάξουν τα κανάλια
Η επικαιρότητα μέσα στο principality
ψευτιλίσιους, σαν σάπιο show και reality
Σους, σιωπή και σώπαινε, η TV μιλάει τώρα
είναι το πολίτευμα που έχει πια η χώρα
Πλούσια τα δώρα, ρεπορτάζ σπεκουλαδόρα
βγαίνει στη φόρα, η παραπληροφόρα κάθε ώρα
Όλοι στα κρεβάτια σας μέχρι να φύγει η μπόρα
και “Νατουραλμόν” θα πει η Πάστα Φλώρα
Πρωτοσέλιδα, για κάθε τσέλιγκα
τα σκατά πάνε παντού πετώντας τα σε έλικα
Τώρα fake news, λένε την προπαγάνδα
με χαρτοπολτό από ευρώ, φτιάχνεις ανδριάντα
Ο ηγέτης μας στο σετ, για συνέντα τετ-α-τετ
ρωτάει ο Pinocchio, απαντά ο Pinochet
Μηχανορραφία η δημοσιογραφία
του καθεστώτος φτιάχνεται η αγιογραφία
Αλλά μη μου αγχώνεσαι, “Hakuna Μatata”
Μην είσαι πιο πολύ απ’ όσο πρέπει τρομοκράτα
Ούτε γάτα ούτε ζημιά, καναπεδοπατάτα
γαμάτα τα μαντάτα για την αρχοντοχωριάτα
Ελπίζω να μη μαθευτούν ποτέ όλα τα data
γιατί όλοι θα γίνουν εορταστική πινιάτα
Και να η πανδημία, η μοιραία γνωριμία
όλοι στην υστερία, εν κρανίω τρικυμία
Όλα στη ζωή σου γίναν μια παρανομία
το “σώζων εαυτόν” να διαχέει δυσοσμία
Η δυστυχία των πολλών, των λίγων βουλιμία
«ο λύκος στην αναμπουμπούλα», λέει η παροιμία
Μακάβριες στατιστικές, παίρνουνε ανήφορο
και απόσταση το κράτος, στο λογικό μα ασύμφορο
Εύκολο το πλάνο, για να σώσουνε κοσμάκη
κλειδαμπάρι στο αμπάρι, τιμωρία και μπερντάκι
Σπάσε καραντίνα, μισθουλίνι προστιμό
με ωμό αυταρχισμό, εκφοβισμό και σαδισμό
Με τον ιό σαν πρόσχημα για απαγόρευση
με μότο «Χέσε το Ε.Σ.Υ. και κάνε μας αγόρευση
χεσ’ την ύφεση και κλάδους στη διακόρευση
χέσε οφειλές και τα λουκέτα σε συσσώρευση»
Σιγά μην διοριστεί, γιατρός νοσηλευτής
και να γίνει ο κλινικής, ζητιάνος και ληστής;
Σιγά μην επενδύσουν στραγάλι για μια Μ.Ε.Θ.
όσοι νοσούν σπιτάκι τους, ν’ ακούσουν Megadeth
Μέτρα προστασίας, με βάρκα την ελπίδα
μέτρα που από άσυλο έχουνε σφραγίδα
Μέτρα από μπαλάκια που γυρνάνε σε κληρωτίδα
η κατακλείδα, μέτρα που σου σφίγγουν καρωτίδα
Κι εγώ αδημονώ κι γι’ άλλο μέτρο οξύμωρο
ταξικό, εφήμερο μα μόνιμο κι επίμονο
«Ατομική ευθύνη» λέει η αυτού εξοχότης
εκτός αν είσαι της κυβέρνας ή το αφεντικό της
Τώρα βγες, μουσαφίρηδες, τουρίζμο
Τώρα φταις, μπουντρούμι και εγκλείζμο
Ασφαλής, χωρίς εισόδημα κι εσώκλειστος
για να σουλατσάρει ο Ανεμελόκτιστος
Αστεία δυναστεία που φλερτάρει επταετία
και το Σύνταγμα, ένα όνομα απλά σε μια πλατεία
Επιστημονική επιτροπή κάνει το κήρυγμα
αυτοί που στον παπά, κάμνουν χειροφίληγμα
Δεν κολλάει όμως στου Θεούλη την οικία
αλλά να ξέρεις πως και το κιμόνο είναι θρησκεία
Λοιμωξιολόγοι στη ζωή μας κάναν ντου
είναι παντού o Beaker και ο Doctor Honeydew
Τρομολάγνοι στα παραθύρια σέρνουνε σαρκίο
και γελάω σαν τον Μπούτια στο Ερωτοδικείο
το δεσμοφυλακείο, να γίνει θες οικείο
μ’ sms στο φαρμακείο, για υπογλώσσιο δισκίο
στη δουλειά με λεωφορείο και σπίτι στις εννιά
Ψωμί λοιπόν, ελιά και Κοβίντ-19
Χωρίς ελευθερίες, μα μην είσαι άπληστορ
έχεις Νετφλιξέτο, έχεις και το Apple Store
Κάθε σπιτικό ο λαβύρινθος του Πάνα
δέρνει η μάνα το παιδί και το παιδί τη μάνα
Μεγάλοι και μικροί, τηλεργάσα, τηλεκπαίδα
και η ζωές μας στο εξής, με τηλεχειροπέδα
Η μάζωξη στο σπίτι πια δεν επιτρέπεται
και η γειτόνισσα σε σπιούνο μετατρέπεται
Τι γκαντέμια, που έκατσε η παντέμια
και τα καρύδια των πολλών γίναν μακαντέμια
Άλλοι προσεκτικοί κι άλλοι στέκουν προσοχή
άλλοι σ’ όλα «Χ» κι άλλοι στην ενοχή
άλλοι στην εξοχή, διακοπή μ’ αποδοχή
άλλοι δεν έχουν πλέον αντοχή στην αποχή
ή ανοχή σε άλλο διάταγμα από την Κατοχή
ουτ’ υπομονή για τη δική σου γνώμη κι εκδοχή
Δώστε ένα πακέτο στα μίνιονς του Kaiser
και εύχομαι το billions να είναι ΚαλοPfizer
Και όταν θα επέλθει η ανοσία στην αγέλη
θα δούμε πόσες μέλισσες θα υπάρχουν στην κυψέλη
και εν τέλει, ύστερα απ’ τη λαίλαπα του Κόβιντα
πόσα βλήτα και απόβλητα, θα βγουν αλώβητα
Ο ψεύταρος, ο δήθεν, προτρέπει σε συμμόρφωση
κάνε πρόποση, στη μούγκα και στην κώφωση
Βλεφαρόπτωση, στο λόγο τον νωθρό σου
Πάρε το ορθό σου και βάλτο στον ορθό σου
Χώσε ποίηση για να πέσει κοινοποίηση
ούτε λόγος όμως για κινητοποίηση
Κάνε statement, κάνε μου μία δήλωση
και άσε τα παιδιά να κάνουνε διαδήλωση
Καλά δεν περιμένω να σκίσεις και λιοντάρι
κι ανάμεσα στα πόδια να φυτρώσεις και ζευγάρι
Υποκριτική η κριτική και διακοσμητική
αποκρουστική σου μοιάζει η αυτοκριτική
Πιο σωστός κι απ’ όλους τους σωστούς
πιο Χριστός κι απ’ οτι ο Ιησούς
και ίσως, πιο ίσος κι απ’ τους ίσους
γουστάρεις και ποντάρεις στη ρητορική του μίσους
Ο μούφα αλληλέγγυος, δε θέλει το διακρίσι
μέχρι το log out και η εφαρμογή να κλείσει
Ο ίδιος, που ο διπλανός του αν ψοφήσει
δεν δίνει να αποχαιρετιστήριο γαμήσι
Είναι γνωστό όλοι έχουνε απόψεις
και στο ίντερνετ το νόμισμα έχει χίλιες όψεις
Με την χαζομάρα σου σε προφίλ προσόψεις
συνοπτικά συνάψεις, μπορείς να πετσοκόψεις
Κάθε σκρολ, λιθοβόλα και αφόρα
πληθώρα από troll, στην εργατώρα
Σαρκοβόρα σχόλια, κλακαδόρα support
από Θανατοφάγους του Λόρδου Voldemort
Η μάχη θα κριθεί, πάνω στο keyboard
στα unfollow, στα block, στα mute και στα report
Οι μεν φωνάζουν «γίδια», οι δε φωνάζουν «πρόβατα»
και οι δύο ακολουθούν μετά απ’ το «ροβόλα τα»
Πιο πολλά τα σχόλια του κάθε κακιασμένου
κι από τα πλάνα του πουλιού του Γιάννη Κοκιασμένου
Απ’ την άλλη η μανταμίτσα, ούτε που χολοσκάει
Δε φτουράει τ’ αποφάϊ άμα έχεις WiFi
Ναι μανούλι, να ποστάρεις το κουτάβι το γλυκούλι
ένα μαρούλι, δίπλα τσάι και στο φόντο ένα bonsai
Φίλτρο για προγούλι, νύχια, μπούτια παραλία
Selfie στην τοποθεσία…”Αναισθησία”
Κι εμείς οι Καλλιτέχνες τα παράσιτα
καταπίνουμε τα προσβολίδια, αμάσητα
από τραχανάδες, γιαπηδοχαλβάδες
αμοιβάδες να μας λεν τεμπελχανάδες
Τουμπεκί τραγουδιστό οι διορισμένοι
κάνουν τον Marcel Marceau οι βολεμένοι
Και οι φίρμες να μου κάνουν τους τουρίστες
οι πρωΪνοδουλίτσες φρικάρουν κι οι χομπίστες
Οι αρτίστες πεταμένοι, χειροπόδαρα δεμένοι
και μέσα στη συντέλεια, ανάγκη η πολυτέλεια;
“Εδώ ο κόσμος χάνεται, το θέατρο να μένει
που στο κάτω κάτω, είναι όλοι τους διεστραμμένοι”
Βολεύει που η φάση είναι ξεφτιλισμένη
ποιος χέστηκε που είστε πεινασμένοι;!
Σε τηλεγλεντοκόπι, κόποι καίγονται σαν πελεκούδι
ενίσχυση θα πάρεις της κωλότσεπης το χνούδι
Οι διάλεκτοι της εξουσίας, για δοσοληψία
ούτε μετά την πανδημία δε θα `χουν χειραψία
Γι’ αυτό εγώ δεν είμαι της τέχνης εργαζόμενος
Είμαι ο σύζυγος της και ο κρυφός της γκόμενος

Δεν είναι όλοι οι άντρες έτσι απο @tauriel10890802 @vorillaz #Τοπαλουδη

Θα ξαναπω κάτι. Δεν κατηγορεί κανείς όλους τους άνδρες ως εν δυνάμει εγκληματίες. Έχουμε εκατοντάδες παραδείγματα υπέροχης και αξιοπρεπούς συμπεριφοράς από άντρες στη ζωή μας. Έχουμε φίλους αγαπημένους, πατεράδες, αδελφούς, γκόμενους που ήταν άψογοι και πριν και μετά τη σχέση.

— Minerva (@tauriel10890802) May 15, 2020

Θα ξαναπω κάτι. Δεν κατηγορεί κανείς όλους τους άνδρες ως εν δυνάμει εγκληματίες. Έχουμε εκατοντάδες παραδείγματα υπέροχης και αξιοπρεπούς συμπεριφοράς από άντρες στη ζωή μας. Έχουμε φίλους αγαπημένους, πατεράδες, αδελφούς, γκόμενους που ήταν άψογοι και πριν και μετά τη σχέση.

Η συζήτηση που έχει ξαναανοίξει είναι για να αναδειχτεί ένα κοινωνικό φαινόμενο. Δεν υπάρχει τσουβάλιασμα. Υπάρχει ανάγκη όμως να αναγνωριστεί η έκταση του φαινομένου που οι άντρες συχνά αγνοούν. Το λεωφορείο, το τρένο, το πάρκο είναι διαφορετική εμπειρία εάν είσαι γυναίκα.

Το φαινόμενο της παρενόχλησης/βιας/εμφυλης βίας κλπ περιλαμβάνει

1. Την ατιμωρησία: αστυνομία που δεν κάνει κάτι και ενεργά σε αποτρέπει από καταγγελία, δικαστήρια που δεν προστατεύουν το θύμα
2. Ανοχή από άντρες και γυναίκες. Έλα μωρε τι σου έκανε, καλά και εσύ έκατσες; Mηπως σου άρεσε; και γιατί είχες πιει, τι φορούσες.
3. Αντικειμενοποίηση και κτητικότητα. Σκεφτείτε μόνο πως αυτομάτως αλλάζει η συμπεριφορά στο πέσιμο όταν μια κοπέλα συνοδεύεται. Η παρουσία ενός φίλου ή συζύγου εκμαιεύει περισσότερο σεβασμό από ότι η ίδια από μόνη της.

Για αυτό λοιπόν οι φοιτήτριες βάζουν και όνομα αγοριού στο κουδούνι. Ή παραγγέλνουν για δύο ενώ είναι μόνες. Για αυτό πολλές γυναίκες αποφεύγουν να πουν ότι χώρισαν. Επειδή πολλοί άντρες αλλάζουν συμπεριφορά όταν υπάρχει ή δεν υπάρχει άλλος άντρας στην εικόνα.

Αυτά λοιπόν που δεν έχετε δει εσείς οι άντρες που αισθάνεστε παρεξηγημένοι, δεν τα έχετε δει γιατί γίνονται όταν δεν κοιτάτε, όταν λείπετε, όταν δεν υπάρχετε. Αυτοί που τα κάνουν έχουν άλλη συμπεριφορά όταν είστε εκεί και άλλη όταν δεν είστε. Άλλα δεν σημαίνει οτι δεν γίνονται.

Καμία επίθεση σε εσάς. Σας θέλουμε συμμάχους. Και να επαγρυπνείτε. Και να πέρνετε θέση. Στη δουλειά, στο πανεπιστήμιο, στην οικογένεια. Ένας απλός κανόνας να θυμάται κανείς είναι η ισορροπία της δύναμης. Εάν υπάρχει διαφορά στη σχετική δύναμη (λόγω θέσης/εργασίας/αριθμού ατόμων)

Πάρτε το μέρος του ατόμου στη δυσχερέστερη θέση. Σε όλα τα θέματα, όχι μόνο σε αυτο,

Με αφορμή την καταδίκη των 2 σκουπιδιών για τον βιασμό και την γυναικοκτονια της Ελένης #Τοπαλουδη βγήκαν πάλι από την τρύπα τους τα alpha males να κραυγάσουν «Ναι, αλλά δεν είμαστε όλοι έτσι». Αδερφέ σορρυ αν στο χαλάω αλλά είμαστε όλοι έτσι, εν δυνάμει βιαστές και σεξιστες. 1/9

— vorillaz (@vorillaz) May 15, 2020

Με αφορμή την καταδίκη των 2 σκουπιδιών για τον βιασμό και την γυναικοκτονια της Ελένης #Τοπαλουδη βγήκαν πάλι από την τρύπα τους τα alpha males να κραυγάσουν «Ναι, αλλά δεν είμαστε όλοι έτσι». Αδερφέ σορρυ αν στο χαλάω αλλά είμαστε όλοι έτσι, εν δυνάμει βιαστές και σεξιστες.

Οσο ανεχόμαστε τα πρωτοσέλιδα της Espresso για δολοφονίες πάθους και τη σωματεμπορία στο Μεταξουργείο. Όσο η συνάδερφος μας σκέφτεται διπλα τι θα φορέσει στη δουλειά και παίρνει τα μισά λεφτά από εμάς.

Όσο κοπέλες στριμώχνονται στα ΜΜΜ να μην της χουφτώσουν, τραβάνε τη φούστα τους και τρέχουν από το ταξί στη πόρτα. Όσο μετράμε συνεχώς πτώματα συζύγων, συντρόφων  και αδερφών, πάντα από πάθος και έρωτα.

Όσο δεν μαθαίνουμε στα μούλικα μας πως αν απλώσουν το ξερό τους θα τους το κόψουμε και πως το «όχι» σημαίνει αυτό ακριβώς ΟΧΙ.

Όσο ανεχόμαστε να ξανά βιάζουν και να ξανά σκοτώνουν μέσα στις δικαστικές αίθουσες τα θύματα και τις οικογένειες τους για το τι φορούσαν, που πήγαιναν ή δεν είχαν σύντροφο.

Όσο αποδεχόμαστε πως τα τρανς άτομα πρέπει να βιοπορίζονται αποκλειστικά από τη πορνεία. Όσο ακούμε κάθε γυναίκα του κύκλου μας να διηγείται το ίδιο μοτίβο, την ίδια τραυματική εμπειρία.

Όσο ο Λοβερδος κυκλοφορεί ακόμα στο κοινοβούλιο ενώ κρέμαγε άρρωστες γυναίκες στα μανταλάκια για λίγες ψήφους.

Ο βιαστής είμαι εγώ, είσαι εσύ, το αφεντικό στη δουλειά, ο πατέρας μου, ο κολλητός μου και ο αδερφός μου. Η κάθε Ελένη, ο κάθε Ζακ, ο κάθε Γιακουμάκης και η Κατερίνα Γκουλιωνη βρίσκονταν απέναντι μας.

Για αυτό καλό είμαι να το βουλώνεις, γιατί το βάρος να σκοτώνουμε και να βιάζουμε ξανά και ξανά δεν το φέρουμε όλοι αβασάνιστα.

Πώς Κατέρρευσε Η Ελληνική Οικονομία; Ένα Χρονικό

Η Αμμόχωστος, Φαμαγκούστα ή Varosha

⚡️ “Varosha. A ghost town in Cyprus.” by @Linagreekhttps://t.co/LMYbywQhrA

— Dellaporta (@Dellaporta) April 2, 2018

Why Some Countries Are Poor and Others Rich

Guide to what's going on in Greece

An idiot's guide to what's going on in Greece.

How can Greece take charge?

If there’s one message that Greece should take away from its recent confrontation with the euro zone, it’s that it will never get the help it really needs. Assuming that the deal goes through, Greece should be able to reopen the banks and keep the economy from total collapse. But, with that economy having shrunk by a quarter in five years and an unemployment rate over twenty-five per cent, it needs real stimulus spending and a much looser monetary policy. Neither is on offer. Even if Greece gets the debt relief that the I.M.F. is recommending, the next few years will be grim. As James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas at Austin, who assisted the former Greek finance minister during this year’s negotiations, told me, “What’s going to happen in Greece is going to be very sad.”

So what can Greece do? It really has only one option—to make the economy more productive and, above all, to export more. It’s easy to focus on Greece’s huge pile of debt, but, according to Yannis Ioannides, an economist at Tufts University, “debt is ultimately the lesser problem. Productivity and the lack of competitive exports are the much more important ones.”

There are structural issues that make this challenging. Greece is never going to be a manufacturing powerhouse: almost half of all Greek manufacturers have fewer than fifty employees, which limits productivity and efficiency, since they don’t enjoy economies of scale. Greece also has a legal and business environment that discourages investment, particularly from abroad. Contractual disputes take more than twice as long to resolve as in the average E.U. country. Greece has been among the most difficult European countries in which to start and run a business, and it has myriad regulations designed to protect existing players from competition. All countries have rules like this, but Greece is an extreme case. Bakeries, for instance, can sell bread only in a few standardized weights. Recently, Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, had to promise that he would “liberalize the market for gyms.”

The scale of these problems makes Greece’s task sound hopeless, but simple reforms could have a big impact. Contrary to its image in Europe, Greece has already made moves in this direction: between 2013 and 2014, it jumped a hundred and eleven places in the World Bank’s “ease of starting a business” index. And reform doesn’t mean Greece needs to abandon the things that make it distinctive. In fact, in the case of exports, the country has important assets that it hasn’t taken full advantage of. Greek olive oil is often described as the best in the world. Yet sixty per cent of Greek oil is sold in bulk to Italy, which then resells it at a hefty markup. Greece should be processing and selling that oil itself, and similar stories could be told about feta cheese and yogurt; a 2012 McKinsey study suggested that food products could add billions to Greece’s G.D.P. Similarly, tourism, though it already accounts for eighteen per cent of G.D.P., has a lot more potential. Most tourists in Greece are Greek themselves, a sign that the country could do a much better job of tapping the booming global tourism market. Doing so would require major investments in improving ports and airports, and in marketing. But the upside could be huge. Greece also needs to stem its current brain drain. It produces a large number of scientists and engineers, but it spends little on research and development, so talent migrates abroad. And there are other ways that Greece could capitalize on its climate and its educated workforce; as Galbraith suggests, it’s an ideal location for research centers and branches of foreign universities.

To implement such changes, Greece will have to overcome other problems. Reforms work best when the level of trust in political institutions is high. But the Greek state has a poor reputation among citizens, who see it as a pawn of special interests. (This distrust of the government is one reason for the country’s notoriously high rate of tax evasion.) On top of this, the chief advocate of structural reform to date has been the much hated troika, whose obsession with austerity has made the mere notion of reform anathema. Opening up the Greek economy would benefit ordinary citizens, since the economy’s myriad rules and regulations serve mainly to protect the wealthy and those lucky enough to have won a sinecure. But that’s a hard sale to make at a time when people are worried about holding on to what they have.

Nonetheless, it’s a sale that Alexis Tsipras should try to make. As Ioannides told me, “We know from looking at other countries that, for reform to work, the government and the public really need to own it.” Right now, no one in Greece really owns reform. Still, Tsipras has considerable political capital. He could use that capital to spend the rest of his time in office inveighing against austerity. But Germany has made it painfully clear that that will have no effect. Instead, Tsipras should forget about what Europe isn’t going to do, and focus on what Greece can do for itself. He should make the case for why Greece needs to focus on exports; make it easier for young people to find jobs and start businesses; and even allow loaves of various weights and liberalized gyms. This isn’t the platform that Tsipras ran on. But it’s the platform that Greece needs him to govern on.


The New Yorker, originally published July 27th, 2015

A tragedy Unfords in Lesvos

In the early fall of 1922, the third year of the Greco-Turkish War, the Turkish Army entered the city of Smyrna, on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, after routing the Greek Army. A day later, much of the city was burned to the ground, and the Turks began massacring ethnic Greeks and Armenians. Hundreds of thousands fled, desperately trying to secure seats in small, overcrowded boats that sputtered away from the Turkish mainland. Many sailed to the northwest, to the Greek island of Lesvos. The young nation was changed forever by the arrival of these prosfyges, as they were known; Greece’s music, cooking, and urban landscapes would never be the same.

In 2015, the straits between Turkey and Lesvos are again traversed by refugees—this time from Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia. They number half a million so far this year. The summer brought increasingly helpless scenes as the island filled with refugees, and the local government, already straining under the pressure of Greece’s debt crisis, was unable to help them. Alex Majoli’s stark black-and-white photographs show the refugees’ continuing struggle to register with the authorities when they arrive on the island’s rocky northern beaches. Majoli, a longtime member of Magnum Photos, was on Lesvos two weeks ago. He told me that many journalists had left the island, but the number of refugee boats arriving tripled in the days he was there. On Wednesday, the International Rescue Committee noted, sixteen thousand refugees were stuck on Lesvos, unable to move on.

Majoli’s photographs are shot digitally, with a strong flash, to create “theatre out of reality,” as he puts it. Drawing influence from the Italian absurdist Luigi Pirandello, Majoli uses his lens to capture the increasingly surreal geopolitical landscape of Europe today. Scenes of children being carried from a flimsy dinghy through the spray of the Aegean and onto the island take on the moral weight of a carefully constructed tale. An improvised cardboard sunshade, held above the head of an Afghan man who is stuck in a two-day-long line for his transit visa, evokes the masks of ancient Greek tragedy.

Greeks today still talk of the sailors on French, British, and U.S. warships who sat in the harbor watching refugees as they died on the quai at Smyrna. Majoli, who is Italian, criticizes Western Europeans for similar paralysis. “To be an individual, you need boundaries,” he said. “If you open the boundary, you lose your identity, maybe in a good way, but it changes what it means to be German, what it means to be Greek.” Just as the 1922 catastrophe transformed Greece, the 2015 influx is acting as a “detonator for a greater crisis in Europe,” where questions of identity become more fluid daily. Majoli describes the turmoil using an Italian adage that echoes an English one about chickens coming home to roost: Tutti i nodi vengono al pettine—“The knots are becoming caught in the comb.”


The New Yorker

Six things to remember on the aftermath of the Paris 2015 attacks

#6. Ignore the Scoreboard

Allow me to quote that classic philosopher known as The Poster for Death Wish 2: "First his wife. Now his daughter. It's time to even the score!"

Well, in the wake of a terror attack, Step One is to forget about "the score" completely.

Even those of us who aren't Charles Bronson have this invisible scoreboard in our minds that tracks how many times we've been screwed over versus how many times we've done the screwing. Get into a nasty argument with somebody, and the scoreboard sets the agenda -- if Steve's girlfriend brings up the time he got drunk and shit in the top part of the toilet, he now has to bring up the time she selfishly got a tumor and ran up a bunch of medical bills. BOOM! Your ball, bitch!

But here's the ugly trick the world plays on you, and it's going to jack up your life every day from now to the grave:

In reality, the scoreboard is your opponent.

If that sounds like some Zen bullshit, let me give you an easy example:

Whenever some notorious rapist is caught, exactly 100 percent of the conversations or Internet comment sections about the subject will say, "I hope he gets raped in prison!"

See, because that would "even the score." But even five seconds' consideration demonstrates how monstrous that idea is: "rape is awesome, as long as it's targeted toward people who deserve it!" No, the cruel reality is that if that guy gets raped, the score isn't: Rapist 1, Society 1.

It's: Rape 2, Society 0.

See, because we've added to the sum total of rape in the world, and reinforced it as a thing that can/should happen, we have made it that much more common. Now think about the argument between the couple earlier -- with each new insult, was either side "winning" or "losing"? No -- the only loser was the relationship itself. Steve thinks the argument's Insult Scoreboard is showing Steve 22, Tilda 16* but the real score was Resentment 38, Relationship 0.

*I was imagining Steve Buscemi and Tilda Swinton as the couple, and I'm imagining the frantic make-up sex right now. This is not necessary to illustrate the point; I only offer this in the interest of full disclosure.

That scoreboard, it turns out, is nothing more than a manifestation of the most primitive, violent, reptilian part of your brain. Seeing someone wrong you and then letting it slide -- letting that "score" stay in their favor -- is almost physically painful. So, yeah, if SEAL Team Six had exploded bin Laden's skull on September 13th, 2001, we would absolutely have still gone to war. We'd have still been 3,000 deaths down on the scoreboard. No way we'd let that go.

So the next time you turn on the news and see that terrorists have blown up 10 children with a car bomb, that's the first step: Realize that the scoreboard lies. It will tell you that winning the game means dropping bombs that you know full well will splatter ten times as many children as collateral damage. The score -- the real score -- would then be:

Violence Against Children 110, Humanity 0

Now, here is the point in the article where I try to guess what you're saying in response to all this, and I'm pretty sure it's something like, "Oh, so we're just supposed to let the other side get away with it? We have to stand up for freedom and goodness, otherwise evil wins! This is a WAR!"

Actually, I agree! But ...

#5. Make Sure You're On the Right Team

Damn, that headline is making it sound like I'm about to suggest we should all consider joining ISIS. Don't do that! If anyone has already left to join ISIS in between having read the headline and this sentence, I apologize.

For the rest of you, ask yourself: When a bunch of terrorists blow up a school or shoot up an office full of cartoonists, do you think it's because they don't know we have guns and bombs and drones? You think they do what they do because they believe we're "too weak to strike back" and that we thus need to "show them how strong we are?"

Holy shit, dude, these people can read the damned news. They know exactly what we're going to do: We're going to overreact. We do it every time. That's why they do it. So stop, step back, and understand something that most of America doesn't:

They do what they do, because they know we're too weak to resist striking back.

Our knee-jerk, bomb-dropping reflex is our weakness. They are trying to exploit it, because retaliation bombings are how they recruit more terrorists to their side. And please note that when I talk about their "side," I'm not talking about Islam, or even Islamic terrorism. Their "side" is what I'm going to henceforth call Team Violence (and yes, I realize I've accidentally given them what would have been a badass name for a stable of evil wrestlers in the WWE). The bully doesn't fight because he wants to win; he fights because he wants a world in which everything is resolved by fighting (note: The bully himself doesn't realize this). It doesn't matter if he loses -- the moment you chose to fight, his side already won, and the world becomes more like the world he wants to live in.

It's the same here -- the terrorists aren't on the side of Islam. They're on the side of bombs.

What I have discovered, and what most of you will disagree with me about, is that it's irrelevant what banner they fight under -- if radical Islam went away tomorrow, Team Violence would just pop up again under some other name. Maybe this one doesn't justify it with the Quran; maybe they'll do it under the banner of eugenics, or racial purity, or environmentalism, or My Little Pony fandom.

So, in the wake of an attack, you constantly hear about how this is a clash of civilizations, a culture war between the primitive, savage religious fundamentalists and the more secular, Western societies. But the moment you buy into that idea, you've already joined their side. It's the side of tribalism -- the primitive instinct that says your "group" has to win at all costs, and I honestly don't care how you define your group (race, religion, country, way of life) because ultimately I think there are the only two sides:

A. Those who think their tribe has to dominate Earth;
B. Those who think tribes can coexist.

Hell, just look at how it happened last time: A group attacked us. We all agreed that we had to stop them, because they are intolerant of other cultures, do not respect human rights, and are violent.

We were told that we could only beat them by becoming more intolerant of other cultures ("building the mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks 'would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.'"), by no no longer respecting human rights ("Privacy rights for non-U.S. nationals are radical, and dangerous, even for allies"), and by becoming more violent ("There are a billion-plus Muslims currently active. If 1% are convinced fanatic Jihadis, that translates into somehting in the range of ten to twelve million. Which means that we need to kill a large portion of that ten to twelve million.").

In other words, "We can't beat them, unless we become more like them." It's like a doctor telling you he's going to get rid of your tumor by growing a bigger, meaner tumor next to it. Even if it works, Team Cancer wins, and you just fell for a scam that has been tripping up humanity for 200,000 years or so.

To avoid it ...

#4. Don't Scratch the Itch

Soon after the attack, commentators will appear on every screen in your home explaining in snide, sarcastic tones how the courageous choice is to hate Muslims -- like they're the lone, brave voice in a world afraid to hold such a controversial opinion.

The reality -- which you've known since you were too young to shit outside your pants -- is that your most automatic, unthinking reflex is always to hit back, and that growing up means resisting it. When you got frustrated with a toy, you broke it. When you feel the mosquito, you swat it. You get insulted by a YouTube commenter, so you call them an asshole. Each time it's that primitive, lizard part of your brain taking over. There's nothing courageous about it -- a dog can do it. Fucking plants do it.

It's the thinking part -- the human part -- that says to stop, resist the initial urge, and actually think about what action will make the world better. It's like resisting the urge to scratch an itch, and actually stopping to say, "Maybe instead of scratching the rash until it bleeds, I should go see a doctor about some dick ointment." And this is harder than anything on the list so far, because scratching the hatred itch feels so freaking good. It feels so good that we'll write entire books rationalizing it, to make it sound like the thoughtful, considered position. But you can never lose sight of this basic fact:

"Kill 'em all!" is the easy, lazy reaction. That's the animal reflex, the old tribal instincts lurching to the surface from that primal, caveman part of your brain. What's worse is that we are superstitious, irrational creatures, and this reflex quickly metastasizes into the oldest, most destructive superstition of all:

"This person wronged me, so in return I need to punish this person and everyone who resembles this person."

A thousand centuries later, that part hasn't changed -- it still feels good to think of everything in terms of a culture war. If the criminal is black, he isn't just an individual stealing a TV for weed money -- he's part of the Black Crime Problem. The obnoxious teenager in line next to me at Chipotle isn't an annoying individual; she's part of "This generation of entitled brats." Everyone who wrongs you becomes a foot soldier in an army that you must go to war with.

Resisting that idea takes hard, mental effort -- the equivalent of waiting for the skin cream to do its work while the itch prickles your groin like a swarm of scrotum ants. It means granting empathy and humanity to some absolute assholes who won't do the same for you. Remember, taking the high road isn't satisfying. Revenge is satisfying. Schadenfreude is satisfying. Taking the high road is like sitting perfectly still while a fly buzzes around your ear, forever.

This is where almost every morality tale you've ever heard -- from religious parables to prime time sitcoms -- gets it wrong. These stories always comes down to, "Doing the right thing feels great in the end!" The homeless man is grateful for the donation, the violent thug melts at the sign of kindness. That ain't how it plays out here in the real world. Out here, the bad guys see your empathy as a sign of weakness, and take advantage of it while taunting you. The homeless guy may take your donated blanket and wipe his ass with it. The friend you loaned money to might use it to get a naked mural airbrushed on his van. But you still have to take the high road.

Why? Because in reality, the only "culture war" is between the people who take the high road and the people who don't.

If it helps, you should ...

#3. Remember That Evil Is Rare, but Weakness Is Common

It's hard to find one person in 20 who agrees with the statement that "evil is rare," but it seems easy to prove. How many evil masterminds have you known in your life, versus people who were merely screwed up in some way? I've only known three or four diabolical masterminds in my entire life (other than Brockway), and one was a cat.

If you want a more factual example, let's look at, say, all of the murders committed in a particular year. The stats say that more than half of the victims were killed by someone they knew, or even a member of their own family (say, a husband killing his wife in a fit of jealousy). About 42 percent of all victims were killed in the heat of the moment during an argument, another 23 percent were killed in the course of some other crime (armed robbery, etc), and another 8 percent were killed in gang shootouts.

In other words, once you strip away:

* Everyone who killed while drunk/high/otherwise impaired;
* Everyone with a severe mental illness (Maybe 10 percent);
* Everyone who killed in a fit of rage;
* Everyone who killed while trying to commit some other crime (say, a burglary to get drug money goes awry);
* Everyone who believed they were protecting themselves or their friends ("We have to hit these dudes before they come after us");

... and keep going until you've got it down to just those cold, calculating criminals like you see in the movies, you don't have a whole lot of murders left. Oh, you'll have some -- crime bosses absolutely do order cold-blooded assassinations, and people do commit long, complex, premeditated murders for nothing more than a paycheck. But I think for every one cold, calculating mastermind, you have a dozen or a hundred mere knuckleheads.

That's the cop term (and I know my cop terms because before I worked at Cracked, I spent more than 15 years watching cop shows) for somebody who isn't a bad guy, but who just has poor impulse control, or is mentally unbalanced, or an addict, or just in general can't get his life together. They're lost, weak-willed people who fell in with the wrong crowd. Hell, we even interviewed an ex-Neo-Nazi who confessed that the Nazis were just the gang who approached him first. He actually fell in with a black gang later just because they were nicer to him during basketball games.

The problem is that, again, it's far more satisfying to imagine that everyone who wrongs you did it as an act of intentional evil or sociopathic selfishness. See, because if they're just sad screwups who spend most of their time victimizing themselves, well, then that would make it harder to fantasize about killing them. If their bad impulses, addictions, and irrational fears/hatreds hurt them even more than they hurt other people, then that means those impulses are the enemy. And what fun is that? Bad impulses can't be killed by any form of gun, missile, or kung fu known to man.

Hey, want to infuriate your Facebook friends? Show them how nice the prisons are in Norway. Want to infuriate a Christian? Don't tell them there's no God; tell them there's no Hell.

#2. Watch Out for Hitler

I can already hear it, from outside my window: "But what about Hitler?"

There is a particular form of bad argument everyone uses any time we're accused of having some kind of unproductive or destructive habit: we simply remember one perfect example of when that destructive thing worked, and then hammer that example over and over again like a club. It's our magical Staff of Shutting Down Criticism.

For example, your racist uncle will, with the slightest provocation, talk about the time he was suspicious of the new black family that moved into the neighborhood, and it turned out he was right! Their thug son broke into his car just a month later! This one, perfect example will be rolled out in response any time his racism is criticized. He says blacks are genetically predisposed to violence. You say there's no science to back that up. He pulls out that anecdote in response. He tells a racist joke, you tell him it's inappropriate, and he says, "You know what's in appropriate? BREAKING INTO MY CAR. Did I ever tell you about that time I caught that thug out in the driveway ..."

And when you suggest violence might not be the answer in any situation, Team Violence will always have the same answer:

"What about Hitler?"

Not just those three words -- they'll have crafted a perfect narrative that says A) Hitler was a perfect evil defeated by good; B) Hitler could only have been stopped by war; C) The "appeasers" who wanted to avoid war were the true villains of WWII; and D) Any discussion of what factors allowed Hitler to rise to power in the first place is irrelevant obfuscation. Therefore, if you protest the use of violence against any group, ever, you are effective pro-Hitler. ("If you'd made the same argument in 1941, we'd all be speaking Nazi right now!)

It should go without saying that even if I concede all of the above, that doesn't necessarily apply to any situation that has come along since, let alone all situations. So the more important question for that person is, why do you have a knee-jerk reflex to roll out the Hitler example any time the need for violence is questioned? Why is it that you even feel a touch of anger when doing it? Why do you feel the urge to be dismissive or snide in the process, implying the questioner is weak or naive? Why are you defending the use of violence as if it's sacred to you?

"Wait, so you're saying that the people suffering under brutal dictators and warlords today should just suck it up, because violence is wrong?" Nope! And again, look at how you immediately invented a perfect example to fall back to. If humanity progresses to the point that violence is used only by noble, oppressed populations against evil, totalitarian regimes in which no other options are available, we'll be in great shape.

Now, critics might even have a more irrational reaction, which is to say that the person questioning the need for violence is dishonoring "the troops" ("It's easy for you to sit here in your ivory tower and talk about 'peace' when those brave souls are out risking their lives for your sorry ass!"). But this also doesn't hold up to even the mildest application of logic: if you go up to a wounded war vet and say, "My man, I hope we create a world in which people like you never get shot and can instead live long, happy lives and raise grandchildren," I don't think he's going to take a swing at you.

But it was never about that specific young man anyway -- "Support our troops" and "What about Hitler" aren't invitations to actually discuss either subject. They're magic words intended to shut down further discussion, because the "Team Violence" part of our brain reacts to criticism in the exact same way that Muslim extremists react to cartoons mocking Mohammed.

Speaking of which ...

#1. Remember: We're Winning

Here's the final lie you'll hear, and it's one that I've railed against again and again and again. It's the assertion that violence always wins, because there is no match for it. This is why we're so scared of street crime -- even if you become a billionaire, some "thug" could stab you in an alley and none of your money would matter -- it's humanity's ultimate trump card. "What difference does it make that we have wealth and infrastructure and a thriving culture, if a bunch of violent extremists can just blow us up?"

The answer, of course, is that it makes all of the fucking difference.

This right here, this idea that ultimately violence is the only thing that works, is probably the most widely believed yet easily disproven lie in all of human history. The truth -- backed up by cold, hard facts, is that violence has been on an astonishing decline for thousands of years. Go back to the Middle Ages, and you find a murder rate 30 times higher than it is today.

In other words, Team Violence is losing. The only way they can win is if they can convince us that their way is the only way.

Think of it this way: If we go back to the Charlie Hebdo attack on the supposed anti-Muslim cartoonists, we can see how futile and self-defeating it is. After all, if your god is real, he/she/it doesn't mind being mocked. By definition, an all-powerful being isn't going to have those kind of insecurities. So that knee-jerk urge to smack down the critics is coming purely from the terrorists, from their own human fears and rage -- proving, in other words, that those violent men don't really have faith that their god is all-powerful.

But the key is to apply the same lesson to ourselves: if their god is real and all-powerful, then mere mockery cannot harm him. But also, if our society is right and strong and the best for mankind, then mere terrorism cannot harm it.

In both cases, escalating the violence is an act of weakness and fear. It's a crisis of faith -- the belief that your way of doing things is fragile -- a house of cards will tumble at the slightest tremor. That peaceful civilization just doesn't work.

Have faith in civilization. History says that they can't beat us -- we can only beat ourselves. Violence isn't on the rise; it's just in the news more often, because there's a lot of money to be made by pushing your Team Violence buttons.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE BY CRACKED

Wise words

To people blaming refugees for attacks in Paris tonight. Do you not realise these are the people the refugees are trying to run away from..?

— Dan Holloway (@RFCdan) November 13, 2015

Aylan της Χρυσούλας Λουλοπούλου

'Αφού, πουλάκι μου μικρό, δεν πρόλαβες να παίξεις
σε ακρογιάλια αλμυρά δεν πρόκαμες να τρέξεις,

πώς ξάπλωσες να κοιμηθείς, μελαχρινό παιδάκι,
σε στρώμα υγρό, χωμάτινο, του κόσμου σκουπιδάκι;…

Ποιο χέρι-βάζο σ'άφησε,μικρό μου λουλουδάκι
και στ 'ουρανού την πλατωσιά έγινες γιασεμάκι;

Ποιος σ'έσπρωξε και μούσκεψες, μικρό μου προσφυγάκι
και ταπεινά βολεύτηκες πλάι στο κοχυλάκι;

Εμένα δε με σκέφτηκες;Απ'τη βολή με βγάζεις.
Να καμωθώ πως νοιάζομαι, τώρα με αναγκάζεις.

Δυο δάκρυα κυλήσανε, μα όχι παραπάνω.
Έχω προβλήματα κι εγώ, τρέχω και δεν τα φτάνω.

Θα πάω στη ντουλάπα μου, να δω τι περισσεύει,
να στείλω για βοήθεια κι ελπίζω να βολεύει.

Απόψε δεν θα κοιμηθώ, φοβάμαι στα όνειρά μου
μην εύρεις πόρτα ανοιχτή και σπάσεις την καρδιά μου.

Καλύτερα να ξαγρυπνώ στην τύχη την καλή μου.
Τρέμω εκείνη τη φωνή πως είσαι εσύ παιδί μου..."

LastWeekTonight - Greece PM Resignation #NoJusticeGr

GREECE COLLAPSE: The Eurozone Crisis Explained #NoJusticeGR

Never forget ... #NoJusticeGR

Ammended: The Founding Principles of the Eurpopean Union #NoJusticeGR

Greece – What You are not Being Told by the Media #NoJusticeGR

According to mainstream media, the current economic crisis in Greece is due to the government spending too much money on its people that it went broke. This claim however, is a lie. It was the banks that wrecked the country so oligarchs and international corporations could benefit.

Every single mainstream media has the following narrative for the economic crisis in Greece: the government spent too much money and went broke; the generous banks gave them money, but Greece still can’t pay the bills because it mismanaged the money that was given. It sounds quite reasonable, right?

Except that it is a big fat lie … not only about Greece, but about other European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland who are all experiencing various degrees of austerity. It was also the same big, fat lie that was used by banks and corporations to exploit many Latin American, Asian and African countries for many decades.

Greece did not fail on its own. It was made to fail.

Every single mainstream media has the following narrative for the economic crisis in Greece: the government spent too much money and went broke; the generous banks gave them money, but Greece still can’t pay the bills because it mismanaged the money that was given. It sounds quite reasonable, right?

Except that it is a big fat lie … not only about Greece, but about other European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland who are all experiencing various degrees of austerity. It was also the same big, fat lie that was used by banks and corporations to exploit many Latin American, Asian and African countries for many decades.

Greece did not fail on its own. It was made to fail.

In summary, the banks wrecked the Greek government and deliberately pushed it into unsustainable debt so that oligarchs and international corporations can profit from the ensuing chaos and misery.

If you are a fan of mafia movies, you know how the mafia would take over a popular restaurant. First, they would do something to disrupt the business – stage a murder at the restaurant or start a fire. When the business starts to suffer, the Godfather would generously offer some money as a token of friendship. In return, Greasy Thumb takes over the restaurant’s accounting, Big Joey is put in charge of procurement, and so on. Needless to say, it’s a journey down a spiral of misery for the owner who will soon be broke and, if lucky, alive.

Now, let’s map the mafia story to international finance in four stages.

Stage 1: The first and foremost reason that Greece got into trouble was the “Great Financial Crisis” of 2008 that was the brainchild of Wall Street and international bankers. If you remember, banks came up with an awesome idea of giving subprime mortgages to anyone who can fog a mirror. They then packaged up all these ticking financial bombs and sold them as “mortgage-backed securities” at a huge profit to various financial entities in countries around the world.

A big enabler of this criminal activity was another branch of the banking system, the group of rating agencies – S&P, Fitch and Moody’s – who gave stellar ratings to these destined-to-fail financial products. Unscrupulous politicians such as Tony Blair got paid by Big Banks to peddle these dangerous securities to pension funds and municipalities and countries around Europe. Banks and Wall Street gurus made hundreds of billions of dollars in this scheme.

But this was just Stage 1 of their enormous scam. There was much more profit to be made in the next three stages!

Stage 2 is when the financial time bombs exploded. Commercial and investment banks around the world started collapsing in a matter of weeks. Governments at local and regional level saw their investments and assets evaporate. Chaos everywhere!

Vultures like Goldman Sachs and other big banks profited enormously in three ways: one, they could buy other banks such as Lehman brothers and Washington Mutual for pennies on the dollar. Second, more heinously, Goldman Sachs and insiders such as John Paulson (who recently donated $400 million to Harvard) had made bets that these securities would blow up. Paulson made billions, and the media celebrated his acumen. (For an analogy, imagine the terrorists betting on 9/11 and profiting from it.) Third, to scrub salt in the wound, the big banks demanded a bailout from the very citizens whose lives the bankers had ruined! Bankers have chutzpah. In the U.S., they got hundreds of billions of dollars from the taxpayers and trillions from the Federal Reserve Bank which is nothing but a front group for the bankers.

In Greece, the domestic banks got more than $30 billion of bailout from the Greek people. Let that sink in for a moment – the supposedly irresponsible Greek government had to bail out the hardcore capitalist bankers.

Stage 3 is when the banks force the government to accept massive debts. For a biology metaphor, consider a virus or a bacteria. All of them have unique strategies to weaken the immune system of the host. One of the proven techniques used by the parasitic international bankers is to downgrade the bonds of a country. And that’s exactly what the bankers did, starting at the end of 2009. This immediately makes the interest rates (“yields”) on the bonds go up, making it more and more expensive for the country to borrow money or even just roll over the existing bonds.

From 2009 to mid-2010, the yields on 10-year Greek bonds almost tripled! This cruel financial assault brought the Greek government to its knees, and the banksters won their first debt deal of a whopping 110 billion Euros.

The banks also control the politics of nations. In 2011, when the Greek prime minister refused to accept a second massive bailout, the banks forced him out of the office and immediately replaced him with the Vice President of ECB (European Central Bank)! No elections needed. Screw democracy. And what would this new guy do? Sign on the dotted line of every paperwork that the bankers bring in.

(By the way, the very next day, the exact same thing happened in Italy where the Prime Minister resigned, only to be replaced by a banker/economist puppet. Ten days later, Spain had a premature election where a banker puppet won the election).

The puppet masters had the best month ever in November 2011.

Few months later, in 2012, the exact bond market manipulation was used when the banksters turned up the Greek bonds’ yields to 50%!!! This financial terrorism immediately had the desired effect: The Greek parliament agreed to a second massive bailout, even larger than the first one.

Now, here is another fact that most people don’t understand. The loans are not just simple loans like you would get from a credit card or a bank. These are loans come with very special strings attached that demand privatization of a country’s assets. If you have seen Godfather III, you would remember Hyman Roth, the investor who was carving up Cuba among his friends. Replace Hyman Roth with Goldman Sachs or IMF (International Monetary Fund) or ECB, and you get the picture.

Stage 4: Now, the rape and humiliation of a nation begin under the name of “austerity” or “structural reforms.” For the debt that was forced upon it, Greece had to sell many of its profitable assets to oligarchs and international corporations. And privatizations are ruthless, involving everything and anything that is profitable. In Greece, privatization included water, electricity, post offices, airport services, national banks, telecommunication, port authorities (which is huge in a country that is a world leader in shipping) etc. Of course, the ever-manipulative bankers always demand immediate privatization of all media which means that the country gets photogenic TV anchors who spew establishment propaganda every day and tell the people that crooked and greedy banksters are saviors; and slavery under austerity is so much better than the alternative.

In addition to that, the banker tyrants also get to dictate every single line item in the government’s budget. Want to cut military spending? NO! Want to raise tax on the oligarchs or big corporations? NO! Such micro-management is non-existent in any other creditor-debtor relationship.

So what happens after privatization and despotism under bankers? Of course, the government’s revenue goes down and the debt increases further. How do you “fix” that? Of course, cut spending! Lay off public workers, cut minimum wage, cut pensions (same as our social security), cut public services, and raise taxes on things that would affect the 99% but not the 1%. For example, pension has been cut in half and sales tax increase to more than 20%. All these measures have resulted in Greece going through a financial calamity that is worse than the Great Depression of the U.S. in the 1930s.

After all this, what is the solution proposed by the heartless bankers? Higher taxes! More cuts to the pension! It takes a special kind of a psychopath to put a country through austerity, an economic holocaust.

If every Greek person had known the truth about austerity, they wouldn’t have fallen for this. Same goes for Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and other countries going through austerity. The sad aspect of all this is that these are not unique strategies. Since World War II, these predatory practices have been used countless times by the IMF and the World Bank in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

This is the essence of the New World Order — a world owned by a handful of corporations and banks; a world that is full of obedient, powerless debt serfs.

So, it’s time for the proud people of Greece to rise up like Zeus and say NO (“OXI” in Greece) to the greedy puppet masters, unpatriotic oligarchs, parasitic bankers and corrupt politicians.

Dear Greece, know that the world is praying for you and rooting for you. This weekend, vote NO to austerity. Say YES to freedom, independence, self-government, sovereignty, and democracy. Go to the polls this weekend and give a resounding, clear victory for the 99% in Greece, Europe, and the entire western world.

Original Article and More: Nation of Change

About the Greek debt ...

Accurate representation of Greek - Europe relantionship #NoJusticeGr

Post by Nickos Ventouras.

Eurocrisis #NoJusticeGr

The end of austerity