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By Jay Cables, on March 12, 2013, at 7:52 am Last week in Greece a large demo was held in Thessaloniki to protest a Canadian gold mining project in the Halkidiki region. Around 15,000 took to the streets. They voiced their objections to the mine project and slammed Greek PM Antonis Samaras. Chants included “Junta police, Antonis Samaras” and “Gold isn’t bringing us closer, it is killing us.”
The gold mining project is owned by Hellas Gold (95% Canadian multinational, Eldorado Gold / 5% Aktor, a Greek construction company). Eldorado is also behind other gold, copper and zinc mining operations in the region.
News that Eldorado hopes to get
. . . → Read More: drive-by planet: Why Greek opposition to gold mining is justified: Canadian mining practices under scrutiny
By matttbastard, on February 4, 2013, at 9:58 am
Business Insider:
The AP reports that 5,000 Golden Dawn supporters marched past the US Embassy in Athens, chanting anti-Turkish, anti-US and anti-immigrant slogans. The anti-US feeling was prompted by memories of a 1996 territorial dispute between Greece and Turkey that only ended peacefully after the intervention of the US, and led to three Greek navy officers dying in a helicopter crash.
Related: The Indy: How Golden Dawn is nurturing the next generation; Der Spiegel: ‘Golden Dawn’ Fosters Ties with German Neo-Nazis
Filed under: fascism Tagged: Athens, fascism, Golden Dawn, Greece, right-wing, Turkey, US
By EclecticLip, on January 20, 2013, at 11:34 pm (originally written Mar 4, 2012. Part of Great Upload of 2013.)
Readers (regular and irregular both) may know that about six years ago, I was quoted in MacLean’s saying Canadian housing was in a bubble. So after six long years of looking very wrong, I was delighted to see the right-wing rag run a cover story proclaiming that Canadian housing is in a bubble! So I’ll dedicate this email to all the stopped clocks out there — twice a day, your time will come!
Like anyone else challenged by a cognitive dissonance between ego
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: From housing to plumbing
By EclecticLip, on January 11, 2013, at 1:39 am The doctor diagnosed young son Leo recently with the stomach flu — which is colloquial shorthand for a condition which isn’t the flu, per se. (The most recent editor of the relevant article on the almighty Wiki agrees!)
The Kaopectate Kid
Our medical professional then suggested we give Leo some Kaopectate to soothe his stomach. So, what is the active ingredient in Kaopectate? Clay. Yes, modern medicine’s 21st-century response to our son’s stomach flu … was for him to eat dirt. (Expert biologists will surely argue that clay isn’t dirt per se, but
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Homer (not Simpson) and the Kaopectate Kid
By Jay Cables, on November 8, 2012, at 7:05 am Over the past months there have been protests in Spain, Portugal and Greece against government-imposed austerity measures. This week an austerity bill was passed by the governing coalition in Greece despite strong political opposition and protests… . . . → Read More: drive-by planet: November 14 ‘day of action’ against austerity: protests in Greece
By The Mound of Sound, on October 29, 2012, at 2:57 pm Kostas Vaxevanis has blown the whistle on the rich and powerful in his country and he’s been arrested and hauled into court for it in what could turn into an astonishing showdown in a country that is a powderkeg of pent up resentment just looking for a spark.
Vaxevanis is the editor of a Greek weekly, Hot Doc, that just published the names of what it claims are the 2,000 biggest tax evaders in the country. He was giving a radio interview when the cops tracked him down and hauled him away.
His defenders say the government is trying
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: There Are Whistleblowers, Then There’s This Guy
By The Mound of Sound, on October 28, 2012, at 2:15 pm Austerity-bludgeoned Greece has a society teetering on collapse. It is a country headed by a government gone mad.
Even as, “doctors in Athens hospitals are handling only emergencies, bus drivers are on strike, schools are still short of textbooks and thousands of state employees are demonstrating against their dismissal,” Greek leaders talk openly about inking more than ten billion Euros in contracts for warplanes, ships, and other weaponry if the next 80-billion Euros in bailout monies arrives.
The new austerity programme that Greece’s government has announced leaves hardly a Greek unscathed. Unless, that is, he works for
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: Greek Madness
By The Mound of Sound, on October 27, 2012, at 2:02 pm Greek police officers are warning that the brutal, fascist Golden Dawn movement has infiltrated their ranks. The Guardian has prepared this disturbing look into Greece’s spreading fascism.
By The Mound of Sound, on October 6, 2012, at 3:06 am The prime minister of Greece warns his country is on the verge of becoming the next Wiemar Republic. Antonis Samaras is appealing for funds to fend off the outright collapse of Greek society.
“Greek democracy stands before what is perhaps its greatest challenge,” Samaras told the German business daily Handelsblatt in an interview published hours before the announcement in Berlin that Angela Merkel will fly to Athens next week for the first time since the outbreak of the crisis.
Resorting to highly unusual language for a man who weighs his words carefully, the 61-year-old politician evoked the rise
By The Mound of Sound, on October 2, 2012, at 12:25 pm Its flag looks eerily like Hitler’s swastika. “It” is the far-right Golden Dawn party that has risen out of the turmoil of Greece’s economic collapse.
And another eerie echo from the past is that Greek police, hard hit by government austerity, are reported to be sending crime victims to Golden Dawn for protection.
…Athenians are being openly directed by police to seek help from the neo-Nazi group, analysts, activists and lawyers say.
In return, a growing number of Greek crime victims have come to see the party, whose symbol bears an uncanny resemblance to the swastika, as a “protector”.
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: A Greek Tragedy -
By Greg Fingas, on September 5, 2012, at 1:06 pm Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- There wasn’t much doubt from the recent storm of astroturfed Twitter messages that NDP candidate Catherine Fife stood to do well in tomorrow’s Kitchener-Waterloo provincial byelection. But I’m not sure anybody anticipated she’d have a sixteen-point lead over all comers – and the stunning result should offer reason to doubt that vilifying workers (as the McGuinty Libs have done with teachers) is a remotely popular position when there’s a credible alternative on the ballot.
- It takes some effort for anti-environment minister Peter Kent to do worse than his party has done in
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
By Obert Madondo, on July 30, 2012, at 4:59 pm By now, most of you are aware that a second athlete from Europe has been ejected from the London Olympics for racism. Swill soccer player Michel Morganella got the boot yesterday for posting a racist message on Twitter insulting South Koreans after his team lost 2-1 to South Korea.
But most of the mainstream media isn’t telling us what Morganella actually said. Only the New York Post seems to have the courage to report the exact words he wrote on the micro-blogging site:
“I am going to batter the Koreans, burn them all… bunch of ‘trisos’.”
Last week, Greece expelled triple
. . . → Read More: Canadian Progressive World: London Olympics 2012: What the racist Swiss soccer player said
By Christine, on July 25, 2012, at 7:44 am Hordur Torfarson, one of the architects of the quiet but powerful Icelandic revolution, which forced the government of Iceland to resign after the banking crisis of 2008, and kicked out the IMF representatives from the country, is now teaching meta-modern democracy throughout Europe. Here he shares his advice to the Greeks, which is also applicable [...]
By Shawn Whitney, on July 23, 2012, at 3:08 pm There’s a saying that defines madness as doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. By that criteria, it’s clear that the European Union’s response to the long and painful crisis unfolding on that continent is utterly and completely mad.
With the appearance a few years ago of a Greek sovereign crisis – it must be said for debt levels that weren’t much higher than those
By thescottross.blogspot.com, on July 12, 2012, at 11:05 pm Canadians aren’t too envious of Greeks, Italians, and Egyptians right now, but maybe they should be.
Though Canada has a relatively better economy and a stable political system, the other countries in the world facing crises have something Canada seems to be lacking, a resolve to make things better.
Facing financial collapse Greeks, who already work more hours than any other European country, are only adding more hours to their work week, some health professionals are even working for free. People across the country are becoming more informed, getting more politically active, and making their voices heard. These Greeks,
. . . → Read More: The Scott Ross: Canadians Should Envy Greeks
By Peter Prontzos, on July 9, 2012, at 5:45 pm Whenever social and economic crises develop, those in power always try to blame somebody else. For example, what caused the recession in the U.S. in 2008? Simple, it was the selfish poor who had the gall to think that they could afford to own their own homes. (And don’t pay any attention to the man behind the curtain, aka Wall Street).
It’s the same kind of lie told about Greece today. Supposedly, the problem is that Greeks are lazy and spoiled by an elaborate and unaffordable welfare system. (The tone is sometimes close to racist.) The solution, therefore,
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Blaming the People
By thescottross.blogspot.com, on July 3, 2012, at 11:16 pm From democracy to banking, Europe has launched institutions that have shaped the world; with its recent financial crisis, Europe might be about to do it again.
The European financial crisis is only giving further legitimacy and urgency to greater European political integration. It is argued that with many economies dependent on each other, with a shared currency and shared markets, political decisions regarding spending and financial regulations need to be centralized or at least centrally moderated.
But if that argument has force, it stands to reason that a world financial crisis could justify a similar system of political integration, only
. . . → Read More: The Scott Ross: Europe’s Export of Political Integration
By Simon, on June 18, 2012, at 3:13 am I like the words on this mural at the East side gallery in Berlin. "If they don't let us dream, then we don't let them sleep."
Because the day we stop dreaming about a better world, is the day that we start dying eh?
And those who would betray the future don't deserve to sleep easy.
Because it is being betrayed. In Greece, where austerity is killing a country, and the young are the big losers. Read more »
By cityprole, on May 28, 2012, at 10:19 am What a Greek euro exit could mean for Canada CBC News Posted: May 25, 2012 1:44 PM ET
This doesn’t sound like much of a Canadian crisis to me, and as for a real estate bubble..doesn’t matter what you ‘blame’ it on, much of big-city Canadian housing is horribly overvalued and has been for awhile..Sounds like anyone dumb enough, or wealthy enough, to buy a home in the last ten years, and the banking sector itself, as well as the stock market might be somewhat affected if Greece exits the so-called eurozone…Sorry, can’t seem to
. . . → Read More: Left Over: Crisis? What Crisis?
By Simon, on May 28, 2012, at 1:32 am It's funny eh? When I see pictures like this one I see people standing up for their rights, telling a corrupt government to take their fascist bill and shove it, or just joining others to demand a better world.
But most of the Con media only seem to see a mob, dangerous terrorists, and above all GREEKS !!!! Read more »
By Jay Cables, on May 19, 2012, at 3:08 am In the current Eurozone crisis Greece has been unfairly cast as the “black sheep” of Europe. Greece isn’t alone in being negatively impacted by neoliberal economic policies – policies that have precipitated a meltdown in the Eurozone and a growing gulf between classes. It isn’t a Greek crisis, it’s a European crisis, a crisis of capital – Greece just happens to be the stage where the drama is presently coming into sharpest focus.
The Greece Solidarity Campaign recently met with Alexis Tsipras (leader of the left-coalition party SYRIZA) and other Greek representatives.
Tsipras described the impact of austerity on Greece
. . . → Read More: Drive-by Planet: Alexis Tsipras of SYRIZA: Impact of austerity on Greece ‘catastrophic’
By The Mound of Sound, on March 15, 2012, at 6:15 pm Austerity, while popular with rightwing pols, can wreak havoc on a society. Greece today is austerity’s punching bag.
Austerity inevitably translates into cutbacks in services, even essential services. In Greece this has resulted in a one-year increase in HIV/AIDS infections among IV drug users of 1250%. And the rest of the population isn’t getting off easy either as malaria makes a comeback in epidemic proportions.
As the public finds private healthcare increasingly unaffordable, creating a 24% increase in demand for public healthcare, the public healthcare budget has been slashed by 40%. The head of Doctors without
By The Mound of Sound, on February 19, 2012, at 12:14 pm In all likelihood the 21st century will be marked by a succession of dramatic upheavals. The rise of radical conservatism and the true warfare state followed by a decade of democratic suppression and futile conflicts was the opener. The same gang hatched the era of casino capitalism that, despite the crash of 2008, churns along today albeit in slightly different guises. The Arab Spring and an era of revolution are just getting started. The rise and fall of phoney economic miracles from Iceland to Ireland, Italy to Spain and, of course, Greece are rocking the bastion
. . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: Greece a Goner But What Is the Lesson for Us?
By Andrew Jackson, on February 15, 2012, at 1:59 pm An excellent commentary from Andrew Watt.
By redbedhead, on February 12, 2012, at 10:00 am It’s hard to make sense of the hubris and cruelty of European Union leaders towards Greece, unless their goal is to goad the Greek population into overthrowing their government. Why else would they demand from the Greeks ever greater levels of austerity, poverty and unemployment and then, when the government turtles and capitulates to their demands, tell them it isn’t enough?
Just look at the
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