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Full, Unabridged And Totally Hilarious G-Pap Speech To Cabinet
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have convened this Cabinet today to an historic meeting. All the citizens of Greece feel the crucial nature of these moments and the burden of historical responsibility. Avoiding bankruptcy is a red line for the Nation.
“I would like to make it absolutely clear to everybody — I have done and will always do whatever it takes for the country not to go bankrupt. We are waging together a difficult and relentless battle dealing with the problems — the dimensions of which one could never have imagined. It is true, we were the first to speak of the crisis — a crisis of politics, a crisis of institutions, a crisis of values which in turn led to the huge economic crisis. “No citizen of Greece could however ever have imagined the size of the debt and the deficit which the former government had caused and hid upon its exit. This is not the time for accusations, however. The people of Greece are fully aware of where they lie. The consequences however are manifold.
“First of all, the lack of trust that Greek citizens have in their institutions and the present political system, the lack of credibility of our political system is so great that citizens even show distrust to us and to this government. From the first day however I personally and all of us here have fought battle after battle trying to finally make those profound changes and create a society where justice prevails, where the money of the Greek people is put to good use and where the democratic state protects the rights of its citizens.
“For the first time in years a government is working with such dedication to the task assigned to it by the citizens of this country.
“In all sincerity, we are a different government. Despite this long battle with the crisis of debt and lending, day by day, we are
making small and even greater reforms to a system which did not serve the interests of this country.
“This is something we will continue to do ceaselessly as we round the cape of economic crisis in order not to find ourselves in this situation again. “Our first concern was to regain credibility with our citizens. We have been honest from the very first moment with the Greek people.
“A second objective was to regain credibility internationally and chiefly with Europe, because in October 2009 nobody would listen to us. Nobody would believe us. We have struggled to this end because we knew that without credibility we would find no understanding — let alone support. We would be in a vacuum. We would be struggling alone, abandoned to our enormous debts. These are our debts. We would have been alone face to face with our creditors and speculators.
“We could not have rallied support due to our previous lack of credibility. The only possible help — and this would have been an even more difficult route — was the 10-20 billion Euros which at best the IMF would have ensured, at a time when the state needed 60 billion Euros in loans annually.
“We have waged a battle of credibility and have won and today present a programme for a different Greece, along with immediate emergency measures in order to convince people that these were not just empty words. We have moved ahead with radical changes to the tax system, in transparency and the structure and functioning of the state.
“We have taken austere and painful measures which were however necessary to increase revenue, to restrict expenditure, to continue to function as a state, to ensure the maximum, to be able to continue paying salaries and pensions.
“To show that the citizens of Greece have not fled the battle we have run a marathon of contacts and negotiations. It is with this
struggle to regain credibility that we have been able to make the international community sit up and take notice of the courageous efforts of our people. We have been able to convince our partners that the problem of Greece is not solely our problem. It also concerns the functioning of the markets. It concerns the protection of the Euro.
“Thus, the European Union decided to set up a completely new mechanism to support Greece. The decision of the European Union on the 25th March was decisive and historic for Greece but also for Europe. Just think where we would be today without this European support mechanism — our problems would be unsurpassable.
“We had sincerely believed, both we and our European partners, that the existence of this mechanism would in itself be enough to facilitate the borrowing needs of Greece. Unfortunately that was not the case.
“From the first moment, the first E.U. Council of Ministers I attended as Prime Minister of Greece — and without once shirking the responsibility of Greece — I stated that the problem was greater and more serious.
“I stated that it concerned the stability of the financial system of Europe and the Euro, that it concerned the functioning of the
international financial system and that a small fire could kindle a firestorm. Some people agreed, some not. Perhaps some thought we were seeking an alibi to offload responsibility instead of undertaking our own responsibilities.
“We however undertake this responsibility despite the decisions of the European Union, positive decisions. Ambiguities gave a signal to the market that there was a lack of decisiveness. Some have targeted Greece which through its own actions became the weak link and guinea-pig. Greece continued to be the target and guinea-pig in an unfavourable international economic climate. It was a weak link and easy prey to speculators.
“Today the problem has assumed greater proportions. We see that the fire threatens to spread harming Greece even more, but also spreading to other countries and economies of the Eurozone and even further afield.
“The cost of putting out the fire is expected to be much greater, as unfortunately will be the burden that Greek citizens have to bear. The need to have recourse to the mechanism unavoidably means additional and more immediate efforts and sacrifices sought by creditors and our partners in order to guarantee financing our needs and for us to move out of the crisis safely.
“I know that with the decisions today our citizens must suffer greater sacrifices. The alternative however would be catastrophe and greater suffering for us all. This is why we have decided not to yield one step. This is not a pleasant decision for me or for anybody. We are here however to take the correct decisions for our country. This was and is our responsibility.
“This is the responsibility that I personally have undertaken to serve. This is a responsibility towards the common interest of
Hellenism. We have realized very early on that a European mechanism was needed which could help refinance our debt with record amounts in world history.
“We have set up this mechanism from scratch. We sought its activation a few days ago and today we ratify the agreement. This is an unprecedented agreement and an unprecedented support package for an unprecedented effort by the Greek nation.”
“Critics and even our well-intentioned friends say: ‘There will be political fallout. PASOK is turning its back on its policies. You will
only see one term of office’.
“My answer is: PASOK always has a red line — the interest of our nation and nothing else.
“I have said it and I will say it again — I have never sought to come to power for powers sake, only to contribute. I stake nothing by sacrifices, my only interest is when I hand over that I will have done what is right and for us to create together a different and much better Greece. That is why I will take whatever decision is necessary.
“At the end of my term of office, Greece will not be bankrupt — it will be reborn.
“It was not our choice to take measures against the just and unjust. It was our choice to put order in the affairs of the state, to revive our economy in a socially just manner. Economic reality however obliges us to take very tough decisions. This is recognized the world over.
“At the same time the first positive results can already be seen. The budget deficit has been reduced for the first quarter by 40% against last year.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we know that these are hard sacrifices, but they are necessary. This is the only way that we will be able to finance the 300 billion Euros debt we have. If we do not finance this debt, Greece will go bankrupt.
“Tomorrow, as we come around the cape, we can dedicate ourselves to the task of creating a different Greece. I convened the Cabinet meeting for it to give its initial approval to these commitments we are called upon to make. Many of the measures are perfectly feasible because we too wish to build a new competitive Greece, a Greece which is financially viable and independent, which can take its fate into its own hand. A Greece that decides its own future.
“Many of the measures are also emergency measures we are called upon to take. We could have avoided them had we the freedom of choice-especially if we had the time we needed and could have put to good use, had we not found ourselves faced with this huge economic crisis.
“This is why these sacrifices are being made today: to enable us to have the breathing space we need, to find the time needed as well as peace of mind to make the historic changes in our country which our nation has entrusted to the Panhellenic Socialist Movement.
“We are shaping a truly new patriotism, which means that we change practices and conceptions. We are to highlight whatever best Greece and Hellenism has: ‘meraki’ (dedication to effort), ‘filotimo’, (sense of duty) solidarity, humaneness, hospitality, uprightness, imagination,creativity, alacrity of wit needed for productivity. This is our Greece of values.
“New patriotism means that we do not only praise symbols and history, but take care of our fellow citizen, and the common interest, we take care of our environment, take care of Greece which belongs to all of us. New patriotism means a new collective Greek conscience.
“This message goes out to all. We send it to the European Union and to the International Community watching us — who will be watching us, not only over the next few days but the coming months. They will be watching and evaluating our reactions, watching Greek society. We want to show a Greece that is changing, that is being reborn, a Greece of which we are proud.
“We are talking of historic changes for citizens, historic changes which will take Greece definitively out of the crisis. At this historic
crossroads however there is no other choice that will save our country. Given the exceptionally tight negotiating framework in which we found ourselves, any negotiation was difficult.
“What is positive is that employees in the private sector are not affected. We have had, however, to take additional painful measures which affect pensioners and civil servants because the ’sick man’ is the public sector and the sooner we change it the faster we will revive our economy and regain lost ground being yielded by Greeks today.
“As the Minister of Finance has explained, we have tried to save whatever we could and tried to ensure that consequences for the weaker in society are minimal. This is our philosophy, these are the principles of PASOK as a movement.
“I wish to stress that this national effort requires the political system to set an example. This is why I will ask of the President of the Parliament to undertake initiatives for the Parliament to head the effort and for Members of Parliament to participate in the burden and forsake their bonuses. This is only a small taste of overall change in the way the political system we are trying to implement will function.
“I have ordered the Minister of Finance to speed up the procedure for drawing up the new electoral law so that the political system will be established on new sound basis. We must say in all sincerity to the citizens of Greece that we have trying times ahead. We are seeking a new meaning to our values however, such as quality, humanness, democracy, solidarity between us — we are opening up a new road.
“I want to thank you all for the courage and the feeling of responsibility that you have all shown all this time. We have stood and
will stand up to our responsibilities to the future of our country, to the forthcoming generations. We must hand them a country that is robust without the deficits that our generation created to emerge not only winners but stronger that before.
“We must perform great feats. We will see difficult times, but we will succeed by making a new start in everything. We will seek out our values and give them a new meaning, such as quality, humanness, solidarity
“We do not promise to have an easy or painless time over the next few years. I do however promise three basic things: first of all that we will do everything to protect the weakest in this crisis.
“Secondly: that the feeling of justice will be consolidated since this has been lost and obviously there is anger. This is something we feel, we all understand. Something I understand. This is the rage of citizens today who have to pay for the sins of others. Justice, equality in the eyes of the law, the just distribution of burden and wealth are for us a daily battle and commitment.
“Thirdly: I promise to fight alongside all of you and to make this crisis an opportunity for change. We must change, Greece must change, we must think and dream differently, and make Greece different. This is a new beginning which will make us proud of our country and of our work.
“I would like to thank you once again for the feeling of responsibility that you have all shown. I must stress again that Greeks have always come through difficulties stronger and victorious. This is the case today too. This is why I have every confidence in the strength of Greece. If we all work together, all together for the Greece we deserve and dream of — we will succeed. We will go through difficult times but we will be successful. In this battle, I will always be at the forefront.”
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Dude, today Faber went full blown Hugh Hendry:
http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=av&T=Faber%20Says%20China's%20Economy%20May%20%60Crash'%20in%20Next%2012%20Months&clipSRC=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/v3_BIg7HE9Ik.asf
G-Pap and the rest of Europe's leaders are just dancing around the issue and poorly at that.
Very succint and to the point... I like that.
Europe's fearless leaders have just set the template for all the other bailouts to come. Will there be true austerity? Sure, to an extent... and the Greeks will set the pace.
For now we will see the extent of the civil unrest.
This wasn't a great speech. Everyone has to sacrifice. Well, except the private sector, you're ok. And let's not even pretend about the elite, but you legislators can skip those bonuses this year. Sucks to be in the Public sector... and how much of the employment base is the Public sector, again???
Perhaps if there were a laboratory to show the failures of socialism…that demonstration would be the Greek nation. And if there was to be a national leader who could show the planned excesses of socialism…that leader would be the international socialist George Papandreou.
Papandreou was born in Minnesota to Andreas and Margaret Papandreou. And, in further evidence that he is a child of the world, he studied sociology at Amherst College, Massachusetts, and returned only to Greece after Amherst for obligatory military service. Afterwards he was gone again, continuing graduate studies in Great Britain in the sociology and development department of the Fabian (socialist) London School of Econonmics.
Currently, as well as being prime minister of Greece and leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party, he is president of The Socialist International (SI). Papandreou stressed at the UN summit in Copenhagen on December 18: "At this time, we are observing the birth of global governance. We must, however, agree to an obligation and be committed to carrying this out.”
Back to his earlier years, in Sweden, Papandreou met and became friends with Olaf Palme, with whom he worked on promoting human rights and adult education. He often accompanied Palme on his election campaigns. On one of the tours with Palme, he met Anna Lindh, who was later to become the Foreign Minister of Sweden, and who at the time was President of the Socialist Youth of Sweden. Their friendship lasted until Ms. Lindh's was killed by a deranged man in 2003.
George Papandreou became a cabinet member then in Greece for the first time in 1985, taking up the post of Deputy Minister of Culture.
He was honored by the Organisation “SOS Racism” for his "struggle against racism and xenophobia" in 1996. SOS Racisme is very close to the French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste). Several members of the party, as well as other leftist movements, helped create the association.
In September 2003 he received the “Defender of Democracy” award from the Parliamentarians for Global Action. Parliamentarians for Global Action is an international organization of legislators from 130 countries established circa 1978 as Parliamentarians for World Order. The vision of PGA is "to contribute to the creation of a Rules-Based International Order."
As President of the Andreas Papandreou Foundation, every summer he invites international figures to take part in the Symi Symposium, held on the island of Symi. All the participants – politicians, intellectuals, academics and journalists –share a progressive political outlook and use the symposium to discuss current European and global affairs. Among , Bill Clinton, Joschka Fischer, Javier Solana, and the two Nobel Prize-winning economists Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz.
On March 31, 2009 and in view of the G-20 Heads of State Meeting in London on April 2, the Symi Symposium organised a Preparatory Workshop for the meeting of the SI Commission on Global Financial Issues, taking place on the same day at the UN Headquarters under the chairmanship of Joseph E. Stiglitz. The Workshop Discussions' focused on two broad themes: (i) global economy in crisis and economic recovery and (ii) global governance and regulatory reform.
Papandreou's father, Andreas, was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. He served two terms as Prime Minister of Greece (21 October 1981, to 2 July 1989, and 13 October 1993, to 22 January 1996). Andreas was born on the island of Chios, Greece, the son of the leading Greek liberal politician George Papandreou.. He attended the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens from 1937 till 1938 when, during the quasi-Fascist Metaxas dictatorship, he was arrested for purported Trotskyism. Following representations by his father, he was allowed to leave for the US…
In 1988, Andreas Papandreou began campaigning for his third term as prime minister with his young mistress, Diamitra Liania. He divorced his wife Margaret and declared Diamitra as the new first lady of Greece. Shortly thereafter, Papandreou was accused of helping to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars by ordering state corporations to transfer their holdings to the Bank of Crete, where the interest was allegedly used to benefit the Socialist party. The combination of the bank corruption scandal, his public extramarital affair, and Greece's economic downturn caused Papandreou to lose favor with his citizens; he lost the election to the New Democratics.
In 1992 Papandreou was cleared of all connections to the Crete Bank financial scandal, whereupon he called for immediate general elections with the charge that the New Democratics' 1990 victory was achieved as the result of false accusations. Papandreou returned to power as prime minister in 1993 with the promise to bring stability and economic development to Greece.
Here are excerpts regarding Socialist International in Copenhagen: Birth of Global Governance by William F. Jasper wtitten in The New American in January 2010:
Currently, the Socialist International boasts 170 political parties and organizations worldwide, including many that are currently in power running national governments...
Ever since its inception in 1951, the Socialist International has made cosmetic efforts to distance itself from the communist varient of socialism. It continues to do so, sprinkling its calls for socialism and global governance with assurances of support for "democratic" principles. However, its democratic bona fides and its supposed opposition to totalitarian socialism are as threadbare today as they ever have been...
Not much has changed there; "reformed" communists and communist parties are welcomed with open arms and hold top posts in the SI.
The aforementioned SI Commission for a Sustainable World Society is a case in point. It's members
include Aleksander Kwasniewski, the former president of Poland, who was a die-hard Communist Party member until it became expedient to switch to the "reform" label. Likewise for CSWS member Sergei Mironov, who was a apparatchik in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...
Perhaps one of the most important former members of the CSWS is Carol Browner, former Administrator of the Environmentasl Protection Agency during the Clinton Administration, and currently Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama administration. For some reason, no "mainstream" journalist has thought it important to question Browner or President Obama about Browner's membership in and activities with this SI commission.
Another SI poster child is Sergei Stanishev, Prime Minister of Bulgaria and chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (formerly called the Bulgarian Communist Party). And, of course, we should mention, once again, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, since his communist Sandinista regime has some special SI connections.
One of the most important SI-Sandinista ties comes in the person of former Sandinista junta member Miguel D'Escoto, who now sits as president of the United Nations General Assembly. As we reported here this past June ("UN's Marxist Plan for Global Government"), D'Escoto's UN Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System is chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, who is also simultaneously chairman of the SI's Commission on Global Financial Issues...
Stiglitz's 2003 book The Roaring Nineties was described by Bloomberg News as "a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's blueprint to reshape the U.S. economy." Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, "mentored several members of Obama's economic team, including budget director Peter Orszag, 40, and Jason Furman, 38, deputy director of the National Economic Council," according to the Bloomberg story.In his autobiographic Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama writes of the "socialist conferences I sometimes attended at Cooper Union" while a student at Columbia University in New York City. He has never explained what impact those conferences had on him, nor was he ever asked to do so during his interviews with the major media.
Joseph Stiglitz, the socialist economist and SI commission chairman, is now a professor at Obama's alma mater, Columbia, and a mentor to the advisers who are devising Obama's plans for socializing virtually all sectors of the American economy. And former Socialist International commissioner Carol Browner is leading the administration's efforts to foist a regulatory control scheme on the American people that is more ambitious, intrusive and potentially totalitarian than anything ever imagined by earlier socialist leaders such as Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, or Mao Zedong: a global plan to control and regulate all energy production and consumption and all carbon dioxide emissions…
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/2714-socialist-international-in-copenhagen-qbirth-of-global-governanceq
So some American from MN just cost the US taxpayer billions of dollars for nothing.
Basically his mom was the Trojan horse on this bailout. All while our "payout" retirement age is destined to hit 70+ (if there ever is a payout for those under 50 at this point).
Germany is our last stand and only chance here. Chances are their politician are bought and paid for, courtesy of their banking system over there.
However, there is still hope for sanity. It ain't over til it's over.
Anyways, this is all the speculators fault. If people would just keep blindly give money low rates to everyone that has their hand out, there would never be a funding crisis. Obviously, this is clearly the "speculators" fault Greece had to ask for $100B+.
2.5% OF THE EURO ECONOMY NEEDED $100B+ TO GET THROUGH THE NEXT 3 YEARS.
Just cost? Yep, in dreams...
'round these parts, we call 'em pardners.
From the speech "These are our debts."
Yes and they just increased by a third - Idiot
Yes, but the new credit card is shinier than the ones they maxed out before. How can you say no to such a beauty?
Seriously... why not take more debt? G-Pap knows it, I know it and you know it... Greece will never pay these debts off. If I was G-Pap, I would borrow as much as I can now. And just buy PMs... just like Chumbawamba is doing. The Germans end up with the paper, Greeks with the metals.
Wouldn't be funny if G-Pap tells EU/IMF the famous words... "Gold, bitches!"????
“This is something we will continue to do ceaselessly as we round the cape of economic crisis.."
Does this make GPap a Cape Crusader? A modern-day Leonidas?
Perhaps it's no surprise that Papandreou's speech was so out of touch with reality but why do people seem to chose the wrong way when they what they should be doing? Not to get religious but why does man so eagerly embrace hell over heaven when both choices are available?
Because we have a choice.
While being no fan of any politician, least of all the Greek prime minister, I don't really see the special fun or hilarity in this speech. Any of us have read and heard much worse from the mouth or pen of leaders who certainly had less to explain. In the name of a civil future for his country, the man ist trying to rally support from at least three competing factions. Of course to the really smart dudes on ZH, that kind of contradictory reasoning in a contradictory situation cannot go unscathed when the right thing to do is in fact so damn simple: Restructure Greek debt, restructure the Greek political and economic setup, to hell with the Euro, sell Cyprus to the Turks. You guys never fail to impress me.
It really is that simple.
Someone should give this retard a calculator and make him take grade six over again. At which point he would realise what he just said is impossible in this dimension.
Socialism doesn’t work. Lenin/Trotsky proved it; Stalin/Trotsky proved it; Mao proved it; the “first Pilgrims who arrived here in 1620 learned their lesson early: socialism, even on the scale of the Pilgrims colony at Plymouth Rock, doesn't work.
William Bradford wrote about his short ‘experiment’ with socialism in his journal, Of Plymouth Plantation. “It is an early primary history of the Pilgrims' spirit of adventure, free enterprise, and devotion to religious freedom…
“What modern history texts omit is that the contract the Pilgrims brokered with their merchant-sponsors in London specified that everything they produce go into a common store, with each member entitled to one common share. In addition, all the land they cleared and the structures they built belonged to the community.
”William Bradford, Governor of the new colony, realized the futility of collectivism and abandoned the practice. Instead, Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family and permitted them to market their own crops and other products, thereby unleashing the power of free enterprise. What Bradford had wisely realized was that these industrious people had no reason to work any harder than anyone else without the motivation of personal incentive.”
http://forum.isi.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3830054552/m/1850052092
It was the United States that kept the horror of Russia’s communism alive. This, from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was there ~
It is American trade that allows the Soviet economy to concentrate its resources on armaments and preparations for war. Remove that trade, and the Soviet economy would be obliged to feed and clothe and house the Russian people, something it has never been able to do. Let the socialists among you allow this socialist economy to prove the superiority that its ideology claims. Stop sending them goods. Let them stand on their own feet, and then see what happens. -- from John Hospers, “A Free America,” “Reason”(May 1978), p. 34.
And it is the United States that is keeping the Israeli/Palestinian and Middle East conflicts alive. Without yearly financial aid in the billions and gifted weaponry in the billions to socialist Israel (Netanyahu said a few years back in Reader’s Digest that Israel is a socialist government controlled by nine men), Israel would be obliged to feed and clothe and arm herself.
When the US fully embraces socialism, then who will bail out the socialists?
When 5-year plans are announced I will, once and for all, head for the hills.
comrade, my i suggest the following song for when the 5 year plan is announced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Snehl2bAk
Greece is now "Greece." We're all as Americans following Bernanke's lead by "offering them dollars." This is Roosevelt's "Lend-Lease" for extortionate banking. If your're an American you're in on it (you get paid in another currency?) and you're all the better for it. This whole "Don't cry for me Greece" is of course to be expected--more to the point if you're "P-Daddy" you have to be considering the possibility of a violent over-throw of your government. To date "Greece" has not sealed the borders and no one has stated "if they even look German plug 'em between the eyes"--but it's "near-by" shall we say. Even here no Greek is talking "we love Germany" even though they will be the one "forking over the cabbage." But ZH is not devoted so far as I can tell with delving into geo-politics but in discussing how money=power. In that case, indeed, move on--there is nothing going here. In other words "this is gub-mint beezniss now."
talking and talking abt G-pap speech, analysis on analysis, are you realy naive guys ?
we got the mony we are number one. lets spend them.
nxt week wl be at Harrods . anyone wants a bag?
DOW/SP500 intra day chart gives bullish signal.
Interesting ...
MARKET UPDATES:
http://www.zerohedge.com/forum/latest-market-outlook-0
When you think about it though, it really is the Germans fault for not giving their gold back after WW2. Also the fault of speculators, how dare they point out that the emporer has no clothes on! They should ban short selling, it would fix all their problems! (at least we don't have to hear "Greece has not asked for help yet" anymore.)