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A 21-Year-Old Greek Unloads: "I Am Terrified Of Tomorrow...It Feels Like An End"
A letter to The FT... Presented with no comment...
Sir,
Memory. No memory of life before the financial crisis; politics has dominated it ever since. But now I can hardly remember life before Friday night. Fear. I am terrified of tomorrow, all I now see is black. Uncertainty, leading us through our days, every remainder of hope for a brighter future being destroyed by the minute. I look at my three-year-old niece, I envy her ignorance, I envy her age. I am 21 years old and the past few days I feel tired by life. A referendum that supposedly gives me the right to define my future, seems to have taken it away.
There are hundreds of people queueing at the ATMs and petrol stations, there is silence in the streets, people’s faces are frozen. This is the reality since Friday night. There are, and have been for a long time, people literally starving. However, it seems that instead of their situation improving, the rest of us will have no different a fate.
Families and friends divide in Yes and No camps. We are called to exercise our democratic right by voting on a referendum while having no tangible explanation of what will follow each decision. I see everyone I know ready to take this huge responsibility without even being prepared to do so. I notice us, arguing endlessly, everyone supporting their stance fervently, ego dominating minds and words, while having no clue as to what is really at stake.
We all want the crisis to end, we all crave growth and happiness. I do not remember my parents being free of stress and anxiety in the past years. I do not remember not noticing shops closing every month, or the rapid increase of beggars in the streets. People that, before the financial crisis, never had to beg for anything. However, the past five days have been worse than all that has been so far. They say that all we hear is propaganda; but we have lost our trust in all sides, now everything seems to be lies.
It feels like an end. The end of our lives as we knew them. Yes, the lives that, before Friday, we already thought could be better; now we realise they were better then. The only thing we truly wish for is that the worst is not yet to come.
Iliana Magra
Thessaloniki, Greece
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The gift that keeps on giving.
NOTE TO SELF: get a lot of cash from the bank and lose it in a boating accident.
Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts has been changed to 'beware of greeks bearing votes'...
Crybaby...you have nothing to loose and all to gain.
RIPS
Don't be so arrogant. Until you experience this personally it is unfair to judge. Learn from her words and place yourself in her shoes. This should prompt you to personal action so when faced with the similar situation, the fear will be momentary and proper action inherently follows.
Just FYI there is a difference between lose and loose.
Miffed;-)
I don't think your downvotes got what you were saying, Miffed... ( I don't presume to put words in your mouth though )
It's very sad to read this from anyone on the ground there and, they should throw the shackles off but, as it is here... it also is there.... there is going to be a whole lot of hurting before it gets better but, we're just seeing it there first, I think. It's also here already..... I don't know anyone that believes the 5% unemployment number.
I don't know anyone that believes the 5% unemployment number.
A shitload of people believe that number. More than we would care to admit.
touche'
Tell lie often enough, Bigger and bolder is lie, more citizenry is belief. By time reality of lie is manifest in suffering of citizenry, political class is take away will and means of citizenry to fight lie. Santayana goodbye!
We are called to exercise our democratic right by voting on a referendum while having no tangible explanation of what will follow each decision. I see everyone I know ready to take this huge responsibility without even being prepared to do so. I notice us, arguing endlessly, everyone supporting their stance fervently, ego dominating minds and words, while having no clue as to what is really at stake.
Sounds like a Nigel Farage rant at an EU meeting in Brussels.
The irony is horrific.
Farage on Friday: The EU does NOT care about what is best for Greece
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/588722/Nigel-Farage-EU-European-U...
The situation will just get worse and worse and worse and worse unless/until the banksters who created this fucking mess are hung from lampstands.
Understand: you do not reason with psychopaths. You do not negotiate with psychopaths. Never trust a psychopath. The only beneficiary of a deal with psychopaths is the psychopaths. All that they ever leave behind them is a trail of heartache and grief and destruction. They are always and only destroyers. They have no sympathy or compassion. It is literally not part of their consciousness. The only thing they want is wealth and power, and they will run rings around you, rationalizing and lying and manipulating, to get it. YOU MUST GET FREE OF THE PSYCHOPATHS. IF YOU DO NOT, A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT OF VICTIMS WILL DIE.
You must end it before you can start anew.
Greece debt: Varoufakis accuses creditors of 'terrorism'http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33393759
That 21-year-old punk needs to toughen up. Life's a complete mother. Get used to it.
Iliana Magra, go hang out with the catholic bishop. money is nearby
Greece is self sustainable in food production, there is no reason for anyone to starve. If the people band together and share food and make sure all the old folks are cared for etc. They can manage quite well. They have a thriving tourist industry and should make sure that tourists have no problems with the banks. They should stop buying EU made goods and switch to Russian/Chinese made products. If the Eurokrauts play financial terrorism then greece should impose sanctions on their products. There are plenty of Chinese and Russian tourists that would like to vacation in Greece. With those yuans and rubles the Greeks can buy the oil and consumer goods they need at better prices than they were getting from the Germans. Greece you can put the pain on them too. You are a country of 11 million people with a larger diaspora like that of the Jews. Their diaspora has Israel's back its time for your diaspora to watch and help yours. If you send out the plea to all Greeks around the world to boycott German products and unite in your support by coming home for vacations to spend hard currency there, you can do far more damage to the Germans than they ever dreamed. Now is the time to unite like you did against Persia. There will be many traitors but deal with them harshly and publicly shame them.
I don't think we should lump the German people in with the personalities and structures responsible for the present situation. The people of Germany share the resentment of the Greek people over the terrible imbalances that this experiment has created.
Also, in the interest of clarity, I am not talking literally (above) about hanging anyone from lampstands. That shouldn't be our way as civilized human beings. However, there is a need for justice to be seen. May it come soon, and with the smallest possible human cost.
21 and terrified but he needs to be 22 and he don't mind dying.
This is the FSA personified. Scared to leave or lose that nice warm nest .gov has been coddling them in for decades. Throw off your chains - free yourself from TPTB and their comfy prison. Take care of yourself and those you care about, and they will do the same for you! Government is your master, not your savior.
This is what happens when you believe politicians that lie to you.
Obama is the greatest liar of all time...be worried.
Greece just ran out of other people's money.
I sort of agree with your national survival comments, but would say that buying Chinese products is a bad idea, they're products are absolute crap. I don't think I've ever bought something from China which did not turn out to be a complete load of junk, wretched materials quality, rubbish design, with awful reliability (measured in hours). I think what the Chinese do is outrageous, they're a bunch of crooks who try to break every rule in the book, to scam and rip people off. If you buy their stuff it will last a short time, and then you will have to buy a replacement from some other country, stuff that actually works properly, and will last, and won't hurt you. It's false-economy to buy Chinese goods as it just ends up costing you more to replace it, and it wastes your time, and it pisses you off. They are either outright crooks, or hopeless manufacturing amateurs, or both.
If you want quality and a good price, buy things from just about any other Asian country, and you generally won't be disappointed.
I can't speak for Russian products, as I have no experience of them, they may be comparatively OK,
Chinese consumers know the stuff made in China is crap. The good stuff gets sent to the US. The really rotten stuff stays in China.
I for one would be Happy to buy Greek, if they would please open a decent Greek grocery store in Hong Kong.
However, taking this idea one step further, if they vote No and tell the banksterelites to shove it, I think there are plenty of people who would be more than pleased to look for the "Made in Greece" label on any number of products manufactured in Greek plants built by the Chinese.
In fact if they do vote NO, we can almost say we are all Greeks now....almost
Let's see:
-- The Greeks have been living beyond their means for decades
-- They've been VOLUNTARILY borrowing foreign money to do it
-- Like any creditor, the foreign creditors want to be repaid
-- The Greeks don't want to do things that other peoples routinely do. Pay income taxes for example.
-- The Greeks have refused to change and continue to expect foreigners to enable their lifestyle without recompense.
-- They elect an ultra Left wing government that tells their benefactors to go fuck themselves
Seems to me that the Greeks have exhausted everyone else's patience & deserve what is coming to them. The only surprise to me is that the Greeks are shocked and offended by their current situation.
What about this situation am I missing?
In the modern, perverted world of finance, lenders profit moar from loans that don't get paid back with borrowers getting the shaft every single time.
Welcome to the Age of Fraud.
If you take out a loan that can't be paid back, is that mostly your fault or the bank's fault? If you take out a loan without the intention of paying it back, then that's fraud on your part. These loans are all voluntary. If you think you're going to get shafted, don't take the $$. It's simple.
The Greeks wanted to $$ to continue their lifestyle, but didn't want to pay it back. Hence, the problem.
I think the moral hazard/who's to blame question can be argued until the cows come home. Remember "they aren't making more real estate so buy now" or "without a college education you're doomed"? That was the pitch in the beginning and now a lot of those people are dummies that "should have known better".
At the end of the day, right or wrong is subjective, it's the score that matters, and the lenders always win.
Agreed with everything you said, but you are missing one element. The Jew banksters are about to loot all the working capital from Greece.
Germany was quite right to cut off the free lunch, or demand real reforms. Tsipras is a spoiled Commie child, who bluffed badly and had no plan B, but all that is over. Greece will soon be out of the Euro.
Tsipras should immediately nationalize the banks to prevent the looting, and invite Italy, Spain, and Portugal to join in a new southern Euro.
Fuck the banksters. They are frauds, thieves, and liars. The banks have been walking dead since 2008. Time to bury the zombies.
Thats accurate, might I add the best way to deal with psychopaths is other psychopaths :) Once they start to turn on each other get popcorn.
Look at the source, FT rotflmao. No one doubting the text was all her own thought's, assuming they didn't setup the whole thing. People called to vote and not knowing what to expect, that's quality. Like it's so different this time and life before Friday was OK but now is unbearable. I could go on but I think we get the picture.
This text has nothing to do with reality. I'm a 24 years old Greek, living here, and I can assure you I have never seen the Greeks so politically active before. The referendum might change nothing in the already preset outcome (greece stays in the euro with a new austerity memorandum), but it did one great thing: It has every single Greek think hard, about what E.U. is, what having the euro means, his/her current economic state, and the future. The sheeple have been violently woken up! Strangers talk to each other about politics, in the ATM lines, in the buses, in the supermarkets, and this is the base upon a better future society must be built: A society which actively and unanimously decides its future based on logical thinking. So the future seems dark only for those that have been riding the sheeple for so long. Everyone else just has nothing to lose.
Thanks for that. Well said. May the rest of us catch up.
As long as the EU issues and controls your currency, you will decide nothing my friend.
Those who do not remember George Santayana's quote are condemned.
I am Chumbawamba.
Interestingly, George Santayana also said:
I am Chumbawamba.
+1
The Sense of Beauty is one of the greatest works to philosophy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sense_of_Beauty
Philo they're too busy keeping up with the kardasians ass size to look behind the numbers. Someone in this country will be writing this letter in 10 years or so
Imagine how big her ass will be in 10 years. It will be like Oprah having two hippos in her back pockets.
Never happen. Two words: Plastic Surgery.
As opposed to the two pigs wrestling in a grain sack that she carries around today?
Yes, I follow Kartrashian on Tweeter, and FB every moment I get. Oh yeah, that's when I'm not following what Justin Beeper is doing.
One lesson to be learned from this greek thing is BE PREPARED. Reread HH's posts, for example. They're very good.
I will grant you this is probably true for Ivy towered academics and government consultants but I can attest to the fact those of us in the vanishing middle class aren't so easily fooled. Not that it has prompted a riotous mob wielding pitchforks at the White House but I think if it proceeds down this course, things may change.
I work with several people who are now the sole breadwinners and their husbands have been desperately looking for full time jobs for years. Most were employed with six figure incomes and are now jumping from one temp job to another. They are beyond miffed.
Miffed
Miffed, it sounds like you have a circle of friends that are not fucking retarded. You must believe me when I tell you that you are an anomaly. I speak to so called educated folks everyday that tell me the economy is strong because of the low unemploymnet numbers. Yeah, and the stock market is doing good. Retards, Miffed.
Many of the most "educated", well-behaved, observant, witty, and perhaps even "good" people I have met have all failed to seek answers to the most fundamental questions for themselves. They took the state-sponsored opinions through whatever programmatic mediums, instead of arriving at their own conclusions.
If you don't constantly re-define your own perspective by questioning the things you already "know" (for what you "know" may be entirely false), you cannot possibly take incoming information and process it without bias, i.e. without filtering out details that your ego deemed unimportant.
PB, I am inclined to accept your assessment simply because I have heard it so many times it is impossible to discount. However, I am speaking as a wage slave that hears the laments of my fellow slaves.
I was fortunate recently to have been invited recently to a party that was given by a 1%er and several multimillionaires were in attendance. It was interesting to hear their perspectives on the state of the world. Completely divorced from my reality. In fact, a french aristocracy came to mind. As the alcohol flowed, it became even more fascinating. Classes in USA are truly diverging dramatically.
This experience was more valuable to me that I had anticipated and, yes, they were all highly educated, far more than I.
Miffed
... they were all highly educated, far more than I.
I think you might be confusing being connected with being educated. At least I hope so. I have read your posts and have found you to be anything but uneducated. I have also attended such cocktail parties. A good number of these fucks come from old money and are fucking retarded. Imagine being forced to discuss world events with Chelsea Clinton or the Bush Girls. Yes, you would leaning in your seat looking for a reason to make an exit.
Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.
- Mark Twain's Notebook, 1898
Point taken. Let's just say I personally saw the source of Harvard and other Ivy League universities bloated billion dollar endowment funds. A purchased degree is certainly not a classic education. However, such pedigrees do aid in access though, upon closer examination, are ultimately meaningless. I, fortunately, have had access to a more challenging and rewarding experience in college having had to pay for it myself.
And as to your description spending an evening with those vacuous, privileged females, I would be more inclined to drive an ice pick in my brain ( or theirs depending on my emotional state) than to endure their presence. Thank God for all involved this will never come to pass. I would never hear the end of Mr Miffed's admonishments.
Miffed;-)
I know several Harvard grads. Spot on.
They are good for nothing, except congratulating each other on their wonderful taste and judgement.
if you are comparing clinton(s) or bush(s) to retards, then you are insulting the retards
mass murderers actually, in the service of their powers to their masters
Miffed - I see this also, it depends on what your experiences have been like between people with wealth or those that don't.
Two quick examples. My father in-law is very sharp and is successful in the property rental business. But when I discuss how the stock market is due for a sharp correction and explain my reasoning based on technicals and how our debt-system works he disagrees.
He parrots the right side talking points. He feels the stock market is undervalued and that if a good Republican president is elected that person could turn this around. He just feels there are too many people on welfare. He got burned in 2008 in stocks but recovered his losses and made a small amount. He does not want to be bothered becoming educated. So he'll soon take another beating.
Hell even The Economist mag is shouting a recession now. It is a lot easier to be optimistic if like him your still eating grass-fed beef. I am not envious or jealous he earned his money just illustrating the point.
I have a part time tech guy that leans left and loves start-ups. Near genius type but slightly emotionally unstable. He was an executive of Efax and cashed out nicely. Then he built a start-up in Silicon Valley and cashed out again in 2006. He traveled by mountain bike in Europe, Asia and South America. At 49 he can still do a backflip. I have an active healthcare publishing business and have a major opportunity to finish normalizing a part of the digital ad market. I also have inactive digital assets in higher education lead generation that was growing but in 2007 I had my banker tip me off to the extend of the debt overhang.
Liking history I quickly realized what was going to happen and in general when. I couldnt be in both markets and continue bootsrapping so I chose to focus on healthcare publishing. Anyways, this guy spent a lot of his money but has enough dough and is investing in the education lead generation business. When I started getting getting into risks and timing he thought we were having a political discussion.
He thinks that if a Republican president is elected such will cut welfare and cause a recession. He started blathering on about how democrats are the only ones who care about voting rights. As I began explaining the banking system how it works with the politcial system and impacts business cycles he got upset and blurted out "That's all you like to talk about! Your like talking to a wall!" I explained that 1) its my job as a CEO on timing of investment and 2) How he was not affected by the crash in 2008, got to cash out and have a lot of fun whereas I missed out on a $6.3 M acquisition in 2008 because of it. This he did understand. So out of about 15 people I interface regularly, these are the brightest and are totally ignorant how our system works. He should wait to invest in the education marketing and invest in the opportunity to normalize part of the ad market. But guess what? I broached the risks very openly and he chose to ignore them. He'll get an ROI but his willful ignorance means he'll make a lot less than the other opp.
I had a decent business partner for 10 years from 2001 to 2011. He is a very good creative type and wanted to go back to freelancing brand development. I reminded him of a document of estimates for 1% growth in 2010 I had put together with a retired central banker (yes they know exactly what was going to and will happen, its a predictable business model). Anyways, my old partner says "I know you have been correct over these years but I just have to believe it will get better." So I bought him out for a pittance. Within two years he was bankrupt but he was lucky he had a fairly affluent father that bailed him out. He was making low six figures with me, putting in about 20 hours a week real work (not bad in a depression eh?!?!) and lived 2 miles from the office.
The point is I really learned out of these examples is you can only attempt to save those with an ear. These are three people that chose to remain willfully ignorant, Skateboard commentator is onto something about people's ego getting in the way. I decided long ago to learn until the day I die.
I still feel compassion for people that have to learn the hard way. I am not perfect, that is for sure.
The Greek leaders like many around the globe misled there people and looted them. It's how the system works but the brakes on corruption also failed and the scale of the injustic is epic. All that said, many of the wealthy choose to remain ignorant, it is only a matter of time before it impacts them more severely. We are a reactive species, I do not condemn but it does make me irritated. Life is short and a lot of time is being wasted and the suffering for so many is terrible.
We in America may not end up as bad a shape as Greece or we might. I hedge with the three B's (beans, bullion, bullets). I feel very bad for the Greek people. But those reading this with an ear would be wise to hedge with the 3 B's also so if that does happen you wont be hungry or have nothing to trade for a few creature comforts if the ATM's dont work one day.
Maybe we'll become like Mexico. We are well on our way. There are hedging and LOG (low organic growth) strategies for that too.
Is it really "educated" or is it indoctrinated? One might suppose that most of the 1% are really just useful idiots playing a role for the real PTB and they really believe that what they do is both good and right.
I'll go with indoctrinated.
Yes, it feels shitty to wake up to reality, Greece. If you were paying attention, you saw it coming years ago. Too fuckin bad. Sustainability, diligence, common sense. You lied to get in the club, lived a lifestyle you couldn't afford and everybody knew it, and now the dealer wants to be paid. It's time to pay up.
Look at the bright side- when you collapse on yourself, at least there will still be a civilized world surrounding you. Whatever/whoever is left after your [internationally sponsored] civil war will get a fresh start. You'll have outside help from several countries/coalitions no doubt. Lucky for you, you will have a chance.
Here in the grand old USA, we went a little bigger. See, our debt [and military] is so big that when we collapse, we're turning the club upside down. There won't be a barsyool, a beer mug, or lightbulb left. Economic and kinetic war will finish the job for the whole world. It will be to collossal for any help/assistance. There is no lifeline for us, but we don't deserve one, we lost our empire long ago. Don't tell the dealer but we're not going to pay our tab either......Can I buy you a drink?
The problem is this girl is 21. She had nothing to do with the crisis and didnt reap the benefits. What youre saying is akin to blaming the youth for the 50% youth unemployment. They were kids when these decisions were made and the benefits were consumed. Yes, its her generation that will pay for her parent's mistakes and her generation who will never get to live up to the lifestyle they earned by bearing the weight. It has to be done by someone and the longer we wait, the worse it will be. Thats all the more reason to encourage the ones who take the fall for their parents.
Dont stand on the side and make up excuses about how she deserves it.
Is the girl named Greece too?
That is the beauty of collectivism, individuals are fodder for the group. She is just as guilty as everyone else. The only question in the collectivist mind is how much individual wealth can we take from her, for the sake of the group?
Constantly this bullshit about Greece living above its means. You really think the Greek debt came from Greeks getting money from foreign banks en masse? No Greek saw any of that. Those debts were made by the ruling class, with the encouragent of foreign "dignitaries" (which have no dignity at all).
The common Greeks just wanted to have a fair chance at work and wealth like everyone else in the western world. Just get a job, get good money and some benefits.
Truth is this is what you get for being a wage slave, exchanging money for your time. Your time is priceless and money is worthless. You end up being an old man with no time and little money, then look back at your 45+ years of work like a dying star would look at a black hole.
The young Greeks are lucky. They get to look forward at the future just to see a hole and a coffin. They get a choice BEFORE, not AFTER they have been cheated out of their time! What they do with that is up to them.
"Your time is priceless and money is worthless."
Agreed.
Pensions and retirement starting at age 45. A top-tier public health system. An economy based primarily on services. A near 2:1 import to export trade deficit. Greece.
But because no individual deposited foreign aid directly in their bank, they didn't consume it at the individual level? Do you think that the government has its own money to spend too?
At what age does the retiree deplete his saved percentage of earnings over those 20-25 productive years of employment (below peak earning potential years at that)? How many years of paid retirement did those productive years pay for? And if they're not dead yet, who keeps paying for their retirement? IMF? EU? Germany? You?
Sustainable? Were they forced in to retirement? Blame someone else? Regular Greeks got the money from these foreign loans in to their individual.bank accounts by Greek govt proxy, do you disagree?
Greece did this to itself at the polls and at the employee time punch card. But save your energy and emotions because you will most certainly say its not your fault when the bitch of USA explodes over our collective head. You'll be jealous of Greece at that point, as they are civilized.
Will you be surprised when your grocery stores are empty and the welfare army is on your driveway? Gonna call the coppers on em? Do you feel innocent? Maybe you should go on the porch and reason with them? You're really just like them? Good luck my friend.
My point was Greece is fucked, but we are fuckeder.
IRC162 - Agree with most of this except the part about the dealer. They got paid when issuing the debt which was unpayable from the start then they get paid on asset stripping. There are a ton of innocent bagholders around the world that are waking up to this old and crooked model. The politicians love it and get real rich. They can pass or rescind laws and put there chips exactly where the roulette ball will land.
No, the people in general DON'T deserve it. The model is simple but sold as mathematically complex. The model provides temporary boost in prosperity so why would people have known better?
However, after getting fistfucked after 2008 I still see a bunch of people that haven't learned, buying a $40,000 truck on easy credit with a $30,000 a year wage. So here we are still enabling a very crooked dealer. If this continues OF COURSE the result will be Greece.
All of tye 18 trillion of debt won't be paid no but there are still aome assets to strip.
Raging Debate,
I gots no bones with your post... and no I don't think it is fair for tbe author and her 3 year old niece, just as I look at my 7 year old with the same regret. I feel innocent myself as I pay my debts and taxes, I also did nothing wrong. But I know I am pledged as collateral against a $19 Trilllllion debt that funded wars, bought votes, and created the entitlement class. So welcome indeed.
I assume you and your family no different than me and mine (projection I suppose).
We Humans are social animals and we gravitate towards group for safety and efficiencies. Groups tend to be more stable, predictable, and controllable than individuals. The sociopaths have weaponized our own human nature against us, and nobody is safe anywhere from their path of destruction. We are being used to destroy ourselves.
Well said, Miffed.
I think there is room for empathy but a couple things strike me right off the bat.
1. This is what you get for believing, trusting and allowing government to run anything. Government cannot even fill potholes regularly the simplest damned task in the world. Yet, we keep believing they can run an infinitely complex economy including banking, medicine, energy and certifying your barber.
2. Asking people to vote on this referendum is like asking them to vote on the proper brain surgery. Virtually no one will have any idea of the consequences of either vote. I seriously doubt anyone is explaining the morality or immorality of either vote, as well.
I sure as hell wish the rest of us would pay attention and vote accordingly in our countries. Let' try liberty, just for a change and see what happens.
Excellent post. I for one have been following this Greece thing for months, and still don't understand it, and strongly doubt the referendum can even be framed in a way that will clear the cobwebs thrown up by the banking complex. It's just more noise, an attempt to manipulate consensus on the long, winding road to collapse.
If I were Putin, I would wait until things get truly hellish, staying on the sidelines so as to avoid having any of the shit stick to me, and when the situation is truly desperate. appear as a White Knight. The trouble is that the European banking complex is so irredeemably corrupt that you might as well negotiate with a den of thieves. You certainly don't want to put any money in a place where they can lay hands on it, because they will seize it. The trick will be to initiate trade directly with the real economy at the grass roots. Buy all the olives and capers and grapes and cheese and ouzo etc. that salt-of-the-earth entrepeneurs can crank out, helping the real economy to heal while pushing for measures that will institute limited government and even more limited banking, much like we saw after the turmoil in Iceland. People need an opportunity to get off the dole and regain national pride. I strongly suspect that this cannot happen without radical change in Greek government. The current players are too unreliable and self-interested, having an effect like changing bandages too often on an open wound. Nobody is really interested yet in trying to stop the bleeding: they just want their share of the blood.
This is the time for Greece to switch to roubles and yuans. Lots of Russian and Chinese tourists that can drop those currencies in Greece. With them Greece can buy the oil, drugs and consumer goods it needs. It should block any German products from its markets, lets see the Germans lose more market share in addition to Russia.
Also Greece has a large diaspora around the world. Let the Greek Orthodox Church send out the word at weekly mass that they should avoid German products and go out and buy Greek products while at the same time they should come back to the motherland and visit and spend the hard currency from the countries they live in.
Greece is self sufficient food wise. It has some of the best beaches in the world. It can recover quite nicely.
Greeks it is time you terrify the Germans. You should not be scared. You have fought key battles such as Marathon and Thermophylae etc. It meant you had to band together, a band of brothers can succeed against a larger force.
Good points. Greek people should look out for each other.
Minor quibble. The Troika is not German. It is Supra-National. It is the Olde Internationale. Countries are not sovereign. The Owners of those countries are.
@Miffed:
"Don't be so arrogant. Until you experience this personally it is unfair to judge. Learn from her words and place yourself in her shoes. "
Iliana Magra appears to be a student at the University of London SOAS. Do you really think that she is experiencing hardship if she can afford to study Political Science in London? What do you know about Deathrips besides some difficulty with "loose" and "lose?"
on't be so arrogant. Until you experience this personally it is unfair to judge.
ho please stfu fucking american you has not been taxed to bailout greece twice in 5 years, you have no clue that all europeans are sick of that just want to end the problem by just behead greece of euro, then end of discuss. problem is greece is a laboratory of global scale world in 50 years.
we do not give a fucking flying fuck about greece anymore even after have paid for them. they have to raise, mentaly, and take teir own responsabilities.
nobody here know that greece is in primary excedent financiary speaking : if you remove dept they generate more money / collect more tax than they spend.... if they have no ballz to throw euro and say fuck you creditors, they deserves what happen to them 100%
Jasus someone give the girl a gun she is bringing me down FFS.
What's wrong with her 21 she has his whole life in front of her. Get out of Greece the EU has open borders, clearout and find a job elsewhere.
More like Beware of Jews Running Banks!
It's more than Jews Running Banks.
Is that an Indian name? Jews Running Banks? I thought banks were run by more than one guy!
/s
Zinger of the night.
Wait, so India is involved now?
Do you really suppose guys named Morgan, Smith, or Alexandros would run any bank any different? No. The problem is leftist governments who need banks like drunks need bartenders.
Don't be so fucking absurd.
Let's all remember:
"Don't let force have such control of you that you allow your hate to trample justice down"
This is a very poignant letter written by a scared 21-year old who sees his/her present and future grinding to a halt. The letter is touchingly descriptive and reads like a reality headed to us here in the USA.
I belive it has already happened and, we're just not seeing it yet.....
The collapse has already happened. No one has taken the time to notice, and mom will never report it.
Headed to us here in the USA? Are you fucking kidding? It happened already.
21 year olds in the USA can not write. We have to wait for them to post reality on Facebook. Look, a selfie of me in front of bums. Looks serious. I better alert everyone on whatsup.
LOL.... my company only brings in kids with a master's degree now.... somehow, they all look like Erkel and still somehow can't do a damned thing with software..... they fight each other because their arrogance is so bad.... I give them direction and they spend half my day because I have to answer their questions..... they're smart and so dumb at the same damned time.....
I'm starting to feel like the old man with black socks and dress shoes in his front yard yelling at the kids in his yard...... well... except for that I'm the guy in the country with his own space and don't understand kids that think we should pamper them like baby birds when they can't even get along with each other and have to play baby sitter.
How do you become "smug", when you're a baby bird and have never really done anything???? Everybody told you that you were smart???? I have trouble with this attitude when you want to learn from me....
Why not find something else to do? What is it with the love of Mammon? Set an example.
My own love is writing software..... this new stuff is cool and, I've stayed out of management for a reason.... so... I'm at a large phone company that is putting in cloud tech.... I'm doing orchestration layer stuff by both putting in APIs and using other APIs from other equipment.... it's really pretty cool to make everything you can imagine talk to the other thing that nobody has done yet... and... hurry, hurry, hurry, before the other company has done it....
I've got black socks and dress shoes because, these kids can't quite seem to get on board because they argue with each other and don't listen and think they know something when you end up baby sitting instead of doing your own work.
Better you didn't participate. Or better, if you love software so much, if that defines your reason d'etre why not do something activist and positive. FWIW, imo, network protocols are good to know, but rather boring and deterministic to work in. To me, creative software pusuits are more interesting. Gone hunting ... for mushrooms.
it's not so much the network protocols... it's orchestrating all the equipment.... of course, the networking is part of that but it's just one piece of it. It's like you have 20+ datacenters and, you're making 50 databases appear to be one database by hiding the interactions of grabbing and displaying performance data, for example. So, in this case, you use the vendor supplied API calls and, in turn, you end up setting up your own APIs but, you only set up one that calls the other 50 of them. That's my current project. Putting 50 databases behind one way and place to get at all that data so the guys that have all taken all the US jobs can point and click at performance problems without much training.
Meh, it's interesting work, I think.
You can't be a grumpy old systems guy anymore.... that work is in the process of being completely automated out of existence. Guys that used to know a lot about a certain kind of hardware or something like that is going by the wayside too.... everything will be plug and play and the guy that comes to the datacenter to change out some piece of hardware might as well be asking you if you want frys with that.
Even things like networking are being automated.... Sure, you'll have a few large routers but, many of them now are spun up with only software on virtual machines.... virtual routers, virtual load balancers... all spun up with software.... and, even when you're talking directly to the Cisco switches or routers, you can still make software calls via DCNM to configure those too.... Seems like if you're not writing the software to do this then your job is the one being automated.
The only way to make money in IT anymore is to write software and, many of those groups are already off shore so, you'd better be damned good at it to keep a job here.
I used to be one of those grumpy old system guys but, I was always the guy that automated everything..... I had to forget the systems work and now, all I do is write software but, I was only a systems guy so I could pick what I wanted to work on.... I don't get to pick anymore but, I still get to do what I love.
Why would you hire an employee with a Masters degreee? That typically proves to me that that person is a loser who sat ass in school to avoid getting a job and drank liberal Kool Aid for years. Part of me is thrilled to read a leeter like the one above as it proves there is a God. But its tough to fathom the cost to pay there and here for the cost of the modern mindset. don't think those running the show here in the USA will let go any more easily.
LOL, hell if I know.... It's sort of funny when you give them something to do, they tell you it's simple then you spend the next week explainint to them over and over what they just told you was simple.
It's sort of like they've never worked on something from beginning to the end and made it work without constant reinforcement of how smart they are or something....
guess I'm getting old and grumpy... They're working some database stuff right now with Oracle.... I think they'll leave me alone next week.
I thought this letter was tragic in many ways. To me, the key question is whether anyone in Greece or observing from the sidelines can identify the proper cause-and-effect relationships.
If you cannot do that this scenario will repeat continuuosly. Could this letter have been written in Venezuela and Bolivia right now? Yes.
"This is a very poignant letter......etc"
Could be a propaganda piece.
Consider the source.
HEY BABY, IT'S THE FIFTH OF JULY!!!
Things always get better once you admit you're alone with a cigarette - you find out you aren't fucking alone.
GO GREECE: GO OXI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_tyWt_9Bfs
Enough suicides, enough emigration Don't let the USA lies of "economic recovery" convince you of anything at all. Americans are disgusted, utterly disgusted, with how they live.
Out of the park. Home run. Don't forget to tag every bag and tip your hat when you cross the plate.
Haha, sounds like he is having a nervous breakdown cause he gets to help make a decision instead of passing the buck to the government who they can blame no matter what the outcome is.
I'm pretty sure this is how people too out of touch to realize they are having a crisis of faith in the fiat systems reacts.
Anyhow, good luck Greece. You guys are really going to decide if the rest of the PIIGS will get bent over backwards or not.
But for you guys the debt road it probably over so I hope you guys man up as a nation!
Fucked if you do and fucked if you don't!
Yep and can you imagine how hard they will laugh when this happens to the US?
She wouldn't be so worried if she read Zero Hedge.
Yeah, she could be sitting on a pile of silver, canned goods and lead like the rest of us.
Might not be too bad if major parts of Government, Banks, and Wall Street all go belly up at the same time. Providing you survive the "we are entitled" riots.
FT is just an abbreviation for "Rotshild News". Pure source of Rotshild's propaganda.
But, it CAN be a beginning...
Just Like July 4th, 1776
Too bad that one failed...
That revolution didn't fail. It was the maintenance of it that failed. One can't blame the dead for poor crop.
Anytime there is a government it's a failure.
Jezzzus, don't you people watch Walking Dead?
Anytime you band together to defend yourself against zombies,
YOU'RE the Government.
Catch-22 my friend.
It has failed big time.
Esplayn you're self.
The 1776 Revolution obviously succeeded. Jefferson:
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.1 Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government." - Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Paris, January 30, 17872
Fear and want are brought to bear.
This is an embargo, an act of war, as it affects the trapped citizens of Greece.
Very unfortunately, The Hitman's jackals usually appear soon. The thing is, they appear whether you have been a good sheeple or a bad sheeple. Look up Operation Gladio, the agents blowing-up peaceful Europeans, explicitly to create terror, places like the Bolzano, Boezzen train station. For their own good, of course.
Full frontal of what debt-money does.
will probly blow over like the swiss gold referendum
Quite a disturbing testimony of the human condition in Greece. We must all learn to live within our means and not go in debt. Keep reporting the truth to us, Tyler. We must always have the truth to set us free.
Indeed.
This is the sad 'rubber-meets-the-road' endgame of Keynesian economics; each generation simply 'parties-on' and sends the bill to the next.
At some point, the bill can be neither paid nor re-financed.
This is where Greece now is:
They have the choice between default and dishonor.
If they choose dishonor, they will still get default later...
I expect kids in the USA will eventually be pinching grandpa's oxygen line and disconnecting grandma's heart monitor as thanks for their inheritance.
The 21-year old should be glad that a fundamentally corrupt system is now collapsing, and wealth in the future will perhaps be distributed more along the lines of those who earned and saved it. Not merely those who managed to game the system in whatever form or another.
I'm afraid that that is wishful thinking. The EU is totally corrupt, but so is Greece itself; unbelievably corrupt. Why do you think that this collapse will lead to a less corrupt system? There are a few historical exceptions, but usually collapses make matters much worse; it never seems possible for things to be made worse but then they are, and there are loads of deaths along the way.
A broke/impoverished population usually, through democratic or other means, puts an end to the nonsense? Obviously the current system wasn't properly rewarding producers, but rewarded a lot of non-producers.
Why would you think that a new power structure that springs up, will not be corrupt?
Look, I wish the Greeks well; I know Greeks here in the U.S.; they are very hard working. But they tell me that their country is utterly corrupt; that they cannot get ahead there because all hiring is based on whom you know (rather than merit); that no-one pays their taxes; that producers are not rewarded. This has nothing to do with the EU (which is an additional problem); it has been that way for a very long time, pre-EU.
Well, I hope you are right.
Hope ... less. The worst trajectory is to do nothing. To stay seated on the train while it sails over the cliff. Events like these force more people to gain knowlege. Try to find a local space you have confidence in. Enjoy that and work from there.
For many reasons, like staying grounded in basics, freedom, health, self-sufficientcy, grow your own food. Some of it anyways.
Go back to the yoeman farmer republic of Thomas Jefferson, with a library as vast as the internet and no slaves of course.
is there such a thing as a"financial war" crime ??
No, according to Lloyd Blankfein there is no crime in High Finance, only God's work.
I never understand the hate vented at bankers. I have never seen anyone forced to borrow. It's a deal with the devil and always has been. It's human nature that is to blame in all of this. Times will turn. Imagine how hopelss many in the Midlle East feel. I still say that that is where the bomb will hit and set the system end game into motion.
"The only thing we truly wish for is that the worst is not yet to come."
Then shake off the controllers, take care of each other, and celebrate your newfound self-determination.
She is scared of exactly that fight, among other things.
OMG!!! Stop acting like she's marching into Hitlers gas chambers.
Yes or No? Do you want the troika? No? Then fuck off.
So you are going after bankers, with your guns, right now? I doubt it. Why? Because you are scared of the consequences. If you had to, would you be scared? I would be.
Each vote could mean war and destitution.
The deal here is she said she did not understand the outcome of either vote very well. If you follow ZH, you would know that in fact the politicians don't know for sure, either. Even wrote as much in a pamphlet they published on the referendum.
No one is going after anyone with guns wtf are are you talking about?
Greece doesn't produce a god damn thing anyway. Is someone stealing something from her? No.
Do you want troika welfare or not? This is not a god damn march into the gas chambers.
This is NOT a LIFE or DEATH situation.
Do you want welfare...yea or nea.
"They go abroad to seek friends but refuse to talk to their Man in Thesollaniki"?
Certainly "Bitcoin"tm knows something I do not...
So you think there is Zero chance of civil war, if the vote is "yes?"
I think there is a chance of war, or at least civil break down, either way the vote goes.
NO- The lights get turned off. No money. Government fails unless Russia/China come to the rescue.
YES-The folks who are pissed off about repaying debt that is mathmatically impossibe to be repaid, that was not agreed to by them, might well grab some weapons and "fix" things.
The right course is resist. If everybody did it, this would be over with. Too many are still too asleep. TPTB have to get more and more bizzar to keep them that way.
The American revolution succeeded because the founders had a plan post-revolution based on some pretty good truths and principles.
Greeks revolting to set up another leftist government or an autocrat of some sort will be no solution nor improvement. This is the fundamental problem of having no guiding principles or understanding any economic or political truth.
"The American revolution succeeded because the founders had a plan post-revolution based on some pretty good truths and principles"
Fighting on your home turf, using guerilla tactics against an enemy with a long supply line constantly harassed by French frigates didn't hurt either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War
It wasn't a guerilla war. The French were not a big factor till later in the war and it actually does not change the reason for success in my comment. There have been many many revolutions that produced something worse...Russian, Chinese, Cuban, French, etc., etc.
The other question is whether anyone else watching will learn anything.
The last thing this person wants is "self determination". He/she/they want to be cuddled in the warm bosom of the EU nanny state and be taken care of from cradle to grave. To suckle once again the sweet socialist nectar and have all their cares washed away. What this person and all persons of Greece are starting understand is a government big enough to give you everything is also big enough to take it away. And the EU bureaucracy is oh so big.
So then, as you've decided and declared what this person and all persons of Greece want, what motivates them, what future situation they desire -- your discounting the argument for self-determination fits well.
Well if your choice is debt-slavery for some form of welfare, then please spare us any whining about your chains.
Nobody give a shit about your future more than you. Vote (or don't) accordingly........
IT'S A TRAP!
Jesus just immigrate to Germany and STFU or burn down the parliment. Win win.
Burn down the nearest Synagogue!
And Church and Mosque.
..nearest central bank, legislature, parliament, etc.
.......nearest central bank, legislature, parliament.....Church Synagogue and Mosque..... etc
belief in god's OK if you like.... just keep it to yourself.
A no vote gives them a chance. A yes vote and they're debt slaves for eternity.
Greeks don't have the courage to vote no.
Military coup, possible civil war.
Bankers, journalists, politicians (and their 90 year old politician parents) vs Greece. Good luck with that. The only supporters of NAI are the corrupt and the fearful.
What you've heard about the defense budget isn't a lie though. Even if the shitty german submarines barely work or some tanks lack spare parts, there's a veritable arsenal and stockpiles of everything. The military can even manufacture many types of medicine. Greece made ammo and vehicles too a few years ago. But those were closed down in the name of "austerity" and "reform".
Awaiting the next incomming false flag.
Ice(land), Ice(land) baby!!!!!
DO IT!!!!!!!!!
"There are hundreds of people queueing at the ATMs and petrol stations, there is silence in the streets, people’s faces are frozen. This is the reality since Friday night."
LIES. Queues are barely a dozen in most places and petrol stations had problems only on the day after the announcement. The country by law has fuel reserves for at least a year. People's faces aren't frozen, they're going on with their lives. EDIT: Streets aren't silent either, not in Athens not in the islands, they're choke full of people many tourists included (The latter are having a good time I'm sure).
People that send sob stories to FT have thousands under the mattress. And she's female, not even a conscript, which means ZERO responsibility for geopolitical tension. The division between families and friends is due to FEAR, those that can't overcome it deserve what's coming for them, giving in to shitty TV stations and abandoning any shred of logic and rationality left.
What stinking BS.
Still, it was nicely written. Almost poetic.
Exactly.
The Financial Times wants a YES vote because the Troika wants a YES vote and the FT will deliver the propaganda.
The Financial Times is paramount in moving the world economy toward globalization and, according to Wikipedia, “is regarded as the premier news source involving the European Union, the Euro, and European corporate affairs; its main rival among being the WSJ. So go figure.
The woman’s letter is a propaganda case in point. Her fears are for the future which can be interpreted as “don’t take any chances by voting NO”; it’s clear she’s going to vote YES. IOW, those people in the street that want the NO vote see the future and they want to cut the ties that bind them. And she doesn’t want to do that. Of all the letters the FT could find, they used this one..
FT owns The Banker and has 50% ownership in The Economist.
The Economist is the mouthpiece for the international bankers' social agenda and their propaganda to convert all governments to world socialism, consolidating all wealth and power in their hands.
It all ties together, even to entangling the U.S. Supreme Court in its agenda. According to Wikipedia, The Economist “ belongs to The Economist Group, half of which is owned by Pearson PLC via the Financial Times. A group of independent shareholders, including many members of the staff and the Rothschild banking family of England,[8] owns the rest.
And here is a taste of its social agenda:
The Economist claims that it "is not a chronicle of economics".[11]… Rather, it takes an editorial stance of classical and economic liberalism which is supportive of free trade, globalisation, free immigration and cultural liberalism (such as supporting legal recognition for same-sex marriage)….”
The world is now experiencing the power of a global media monopoly, including Jewish Google.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist
Good work JR!