CounterSpin

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If you read this, you have entered a country that is quite different from your own.

“Here, we work until we’re 67-years old…

Congratulations! And instead of joining the fight to reduce it to a more humane level, to make room for younger generations and to give them a head start in life, you were upset that in my country women and mothers were pensionable at 60, and men at 65.

Here, we don’t have to pay anyone a 1,000-euro bribe for a hospital bed.”

Of course not. And you also need to mention that alcohol consumption accounted for 5.5% of all deaths and 970 000 years of potential life lost and your total burden to your health system just from alcohol abuse, is about €24 398 million, amounting to 1.16% of your country`s GDP, or €296 per person. That brings your direct medical and non-medical costs to €8.441billion, while indirect costs to €15.957 billion (69% mortality and 31% morbidity costs). Cheers!

“And yes, Germany also has high debt, but we can pay it.

I guess all your hard work until 67 years old is not enough to pay down your debt. Do you really see a time that your debt will be zero? Are you saying that you need to raise that pensionable age level even higher?

We wake up early and work hard,…

Good for you. Actually we sleep at 4 am because we stay out most of the night dancing, although we too wake up very early in the morning, but we cannot help it, since the sun rises earlier and it is brighter much longer. But let me tell you, you wouldn’t even dare think to work under the same conditions as we do, while getting a fraction of your salary.

…because we want to save our money for a rainy day;

Yes, yes,… and since your life expectancy is about 77 years, your life time savings will be spent in about 10 years worth of rainy raining days. And most of them are rainy days, except the ones you will be spending enjoying your life and our Greek hospitality and food at one of our islands. Lots of your compatriots are doing that as we speak.

…and because we have companies, whose goods are in demand around the world.”

Granted, that is definitely true, you have strong companies with history going back to the 2nd or even the 1st WW. That includes pharmaceutical ones with famous, innovative drug products some of which were tested during the war, or peoples’ automobiles, or clothing of the masculine type manufacturers built at a point in time for which you do not feel so proud about. Yes, they are thriving. You also have some that bribed all their way through in order to get EU funded infrastructure projects in Greece, while your justice system protects some of their obliging executives. Need not tell you that you are enjoying the monetary benefits of those companies’ business practices in my country. You also have a few others that got paid to fulfil defence contracts and delivered products of the “tilt” quality type while they are in the water.

“Prime Minister, we want to be friends with Greece. That’s why we’ve given your country 50 billion Euros since you joined the EU.

Seriously, you are paying for our …”friendship”? That’s a first. You mean you’re not getting your money’s worth back with interest, and padded with user fees that you will be collecting from generations of Greek people? Or are you saying that those investments in infrastructure you made in Greece, with EU funds, were not intended to make your products more accessible to the Greek people? Are you saying that the Greek people do not buy your products? The whole thing reminds me of companies that give away electronic printers for free, but charge a bundle for paper and ink to recuperate their “free printer” investment and then some. You must have made a lot of friends, my friend. Especially friends with countries that you have selected to pay war retributions to so that you can maintain your friendship. And by the way, part of your “friendship dues” to Greece has not been paid yet. But it’s sure, all that will be dealt with in due time, wouldn’t you say?

But let’s be clear: A good friendship requires you to be honest.”

Right. Let’s do that. A good friendship requires you to be honest indeed. Let’s be clear. If you are asking for a company in your misery, the answer is no, we are not a good match.

And let us be more clear: Blaming the people and not the “system” that we have all subscribed to without being asked, that, can only bring out the worst in all of us. That, can turn us one against the other. Is that what you want? Isn’t that what you are really upset about?

Oh! Goethe must be turning in his grave counter clockwise with German precision.

HellenesOnline | 31 / 03 / 2009 | | Comments

FYROM’s President insults EU’s vision

amac

The Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) is appalled by the latest statements made from FYROM´s President Gjorge Ivanov. According to MINA news, President Ivanov controversially stated “We will not cave under any pressure to change our name or identity just to be a part of the European Union.

We’ve lived this (hi)story many times before, not again. Whatever the outcome of the talks in Brussels, Macedonia (FYROM) will stay right here” threatening to remain outside the EU as the ´Republic of Macedonia´. Ivanov continues: “Europe unfortunately still has leaders who allow to be carried away by someone’s petty interests and hidden agenda.. We see the absence of vision at the EU”.

These statements have revealed FYROM´s ongoing disregard for reaching a compromise to the name dispute with Greece, that has delayed it entry into the EU and NATO. AMAC hopes FYROM will change its current hardline policy, and not continue to insult the European Union and its member states, but instead to tackle the real issue at hand.

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC)

HellenesOnline | 31 / 03 / 2009 | | Comments 1

BBC: British Bullshit Corporation

What is it with the BBC? Here is a supposedly reputable news outfit, which spends its time and energy scouring the darkest corners of Russia for something to complain about. This time, having run out of stories dredged from a few disgruntled workers in orphanages, we have a piece about pollution in a remote corner of Siberia.

The title itself is as risible as it is ridiculous: Toxic truth of secretive Siberian city – so secretive indeed that it allowed a BBC team in and around the city – Norilsk – and provided them with a guide. To compound the extreme insolence of insulting the host (as the BBC does so readily in Russia’s case, but seemingly nowhere else), the piece even insinuates that the man guiding them around the plants, Engineer Igor Dmitriev, is a liar.

The “truth” about Norilsk Nickel, the company which owns the smelting plants, where copper, nickel, palladium, platinum, gold and silver are produced, is that the administration itself admits that the pollution exists, and is doing all it can to reduce the emission of toxic gases, in line with the directives issued from Moscow.

The truth about Norilsk Nickel is that it has recently delivered a plan entitled “The Comprehensive Framework of Norilsk Social and Economic Development until 2020” to the local City Administration. This plan makes detailed suggestions for the social and economic welfare of the region in which it operates.

The truth about Norilsk Nickel is that it has a Regional Policy Institute (how many British companies have one?) to study the effects of mineral exploitation on the environment and population. The truth about Norilsk Nickel is that is has an Expert Analytical centre, staffed by specialised scientists, who hold regular round tables to discuss such themes as social and cultural development, activities for the Norilsk citizens, development of small businesses and so on.

The truth about Nosilsk Nickel is that it even has a Corporate University with centres in Moscow and Norilsk, performing services as an educational institution, providing university-level skills to current and future employees.

However none of this information was included in the BBC’s “balanced and objective” report, as the deontology of journalism dictates. Instead, absurd references to “Stalin’s GULAGs”, pollution, dying trees and sick children. Sure, children get sick in Siberia – it’s cold.

Suppose the BBC tried for once to report the truth about Russia and stopped distorting it? Or suppose the BBC concentrated on alternative stories, such as British massacres in Ireland and India (since it likes to quote the past so often), or from more recently, the nuclear leak at Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant which it did not bother to report, the acid rain caused by British factories which blows over to Norway and the filth it dumps into the North Sea on a daily basis, making it so polluted that seals are born with mutations.

As usual, those with glass roofs are the first to throw stones.