My Kalavryta pictures

Mary asked me to post them here. Pictures I took last week. In Kalavryta.

Kalavryta is known as the place where one of Wehrmacht's worse war crimes took place.
Here is the account of an Irish agent's personal story. He was there when the mass killing took place in December 1943.

Neo-nazis in Greece, their arrest

Talking about Nazis, most newspapers in the world (with the notable exception of the Swedish Svenska Dagbladet) yesterday announced the unprecedented arrest of the thugs of Golden Dawn. The neo-nazi party has now, by change of law, been classified as a criminal organization. Despite that it is represented in the Greek Parliament by 18 or so members, their head, Nikos Mihaloliakos was arrested, along with other 15 party members. They face hundreds of charges, including the recent killing of Pavlos Fyssas by one of the Golden Dawn executioners.

Golden Dawn has existed since 1980, but nobody took it seriously. Taking advantage of the financial catastrophe, Golden Dawn appealed--as is usual in such cases--to the "patriotism" of the Greeks, offered quick and dirty solutions to the immigration problem (beat them up or kill them), and other popular measures. It is thus that it received votes from those whose brains consist of haystack.

Here is a picture of the head of the group, Nikos Mihaloliakos, arrested yesterday:

He does not look very happy. But that's normal. He never does.

Look at my previous posting about neo-nazis in Sweden. Those in Greece are probably worse, the worst of the lot. However, many people still care and will look at them disapprovingly if they dare enter the bus with their version of the swastika:

(Some of the) funny aspects of the Academy of Athens, III

This is a followup of two previous postings. Here is part I, and here is part II.

The following article appeared two weeks ago in the daily Greek newspaper Kathimerini. Among other things, he criticizes the Academy of Athens for giving high salaries to its members.

Academy of Athens, Greek Parliament, Church
by D. Gousetis, diongus@otenet.gr, 4 Sept. 2013
Summary: Greek citizens are being taxed very heavily these days, and in an irrational manner. Despite the fact that the Greek State is presumably trying to save money, it allows the Academy of Athens to give salary to its members, at a time when no Academy of the western world does that.  This year, the Academy received, from the Greek State, twice the money it received two years ago and one-and-a-half times the amount it received last year. The Greek state also pays the administrative staff of the parliament, whose number is exceedingly large,  a lot of money. In addition, the Greek State allows the Church of Greece to have assets in real estate. estimated to be around 240 million Euro.

A response was published by the Secretary General of the Academy last week. He claims that the author of the article defames the Academy, is hostile to it, and is a liar.

Reply of the Academy of Athens
by V. Petrakos, Secretary General of the Academy of Athens, 13 Sept. 2013
Summary: The article of D. Gousetis contains inaccuracies originating either from a malicious informant or written by him in order to defame the Academy and produce hostile sentiment towards the institution. All 51 words used in his article are lies.
First: All of the 46 Academy's regular members do not receive salary but travel expenses. Since 2009, the sum given to them has been reduced by 37%  and is taxed at 20%. The Academy of Athens pays no salary to its members because academicians are not employees.
Second: It is incorrect that the public money received by the Academy was doubled since two years ago and increased by 1-and-a-half times since last year. The Academy received 11,080 Euro more than the amount last year and 109,364 Euro less than two years ago and 400,364 less than three years ago. If D. Gousetis knew elementary practical arithmetic he would have been able to explain how a decrease was interpreted as an increase.
In 2011, D. Gousetis had also written inaccuracies in your newspaper regarding the Academy of Athens. Those were corrected [by me] on 25 June 2011. Then, too, he had maintained that the Academicians pocketed an MP's fat salary. It appears that D. Gousetis' problem is his fat ignorance. If he wanted to find the truth, he would have asked for information. But he is uable to follow the scientific method which aims at the discovery of truth and not the defamation of an institution. This institution was first envisioned by the Greek fighters of 1824 [against the Turks], and was realized 100 years later. Now it is under attack by some Greek citizens because they do not understand either Science or Art or Literature.
I have been reading your newspaper since 1945. I never remember such defamation before. What would K. Tsatsos think if he read these things?
For the second time, I must work to correct the malicious inaccuracies published in your newspaper. I implore you, before publishing anything, to inform me first. For me it would be less troublesome to indicate any errors [before publication], rather than have to write a rebuttal in order to re-institute the prestige of your newspaper and avoid tarnishing its objectivity.

A further reply by the author of the original article was published the same day. In it, we read that the secretary of the Academy has, in his reply, not told the truth. This reply is accompanied by exact references to the budget.

Reply
by D. Gousetis, 13 Sept. 2013
Summary: I frankly didn't expect the Academy of Athens to behave like a Medieval Monk baptizing the fish as meat. So, salaries are now termed travel expenses. The Secretary General V. Petrakos avoids to mention the [exact] money given to the Academy by the State . However, on 25 June 2011 he admitted that Academicians were receiving reimbursement at the net amount of 1852.47 Euro [per month] for services and moving costs. Salaries were baptized ``reimbursements'' and ``travel expenses''.
How high could the travel expenses be? Regular Academicians are all Athens residents. Taking the bus or the train or the taxi does not cost as much as 1852.47 Euro [per month]. How come this is double the average pension in Greece (921 Euro [per month])? And why is this money given to Academicians without  any documentation? And how come travel expenses are being taxed? [It is salaries which are taxed, not travel expenses.]
The Secretary General of the Academy claims I do now know elementary practical arithmetic because I confuse decrease and increase. Let me refer to the budget of the fiscal year 2013, page 336, code 610, titled ``Academy of Athens and its services''. In it, we read that, in 2011, the amount of 5,996,849 Euro was paid to Academicians. In 2012, the amount was 7,953,000. And in 2013 the estimated amount is 12,053,000 Euro. If, as Mr. Petrakos writes, the money is decreased, I ask him to enlighten us: where does the rest of the money go? Which ``services'' depend on this money? Why is the money given to the Academy being increased when the money given to universities and research centers is being reduced?
Finally, I strongly believe that the prestige of an institution is not being protected by someone who pushes all wrong-doings under the rug in order to present a virtual reality, but by someone who highlights the wrong-doings in order that they be corrected. I estimate that K. Tsatsos would agree with me and would not publish Mr. Petrakos' letter against my article. My article was targeting the lack of responsibility of the Greek government which wastes money at a time when citizens are kneeling from their financial burdens.

Main Question: Who is telling the truth? The Secretary General of the Academy who gives no references, no exact sums, but only appeals to the Greek sentiment using pompous words like ``what would the Greek fighters against the Turks think if they saw this defamatory article of D. Gousetis", or the reply of D. Gousetis who accompanies his claims by exact references to the budget?

Conclusion: Assuming that D. Gousetis' references to the budget and other financial information are correct, the only way for D. Gousetis and the Secretary General to both be right is that the information in the financial documents provided by the Greek State is incorrect. That would NOT be a surprise, given that the Greek State has faked budgets before. But I suspect that this time the money stated in the references of D. Gousetis is correct. The ball is now on the Secretary General to prove that the sources mentioned by D. Gousetis are lying. If so, he will have to prove that the Greek government is lying.

Question 2: Why has the Academy of Athens not withdrawn the book published by the Academician N. Artemiadis, a book which was a blatant plagiarism, when every bookstore, and the publishing house of its English translation have all withdrawn it?

Color Photographs of Greece, 1920’s

This is taken from here. Click for more photographs.

Corruption index

I just read, via BBC, the existence of an indicator of a country's corruption, called corruption perceptions index, created by an organization called Transparency International (TI). Now, although I don't like single numbers for quality control, and although I have no opinion about this organization's methods and ethos, some of the numbers in their report seem to correspond to common sense:

Worldwide, Denmark, Finland [, New Zealand] and Sweden were seen as the least corrupt nations, while Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia were perceived to be the most corrupt.

No surprises here. Also,

Greece [is the] 'most corrupt' EU country.

Again, this is not a surprise.

What I found rather surprising is the relatively good ranking of Bhutan, Uruguay, Chile and Botswana. Uruguay has a very interesting character as president, José Mujica, who is the world's poorest president, living a very simple life in a farm. In the case of Botswana, perhaps in the character of Precious Ramotswe we see a reflection of reality.

Another thing that is worth asking is this: the perception that Greek governments were corrupt is not new. In fact, I have a hunch that EU did know that Greece was corrupt all along and that the surprise they showed when it was revealed that Greece was faking its balance sheets was not honest. It was, simply, mutually convenient for corrupt Greek fovernment to fake its balance sheets (with the help of Wall Street companies) and for EU to accept them at face value. Convenient, as long as the shit hadn't hit the fan yet.

Also, it is nice to know that I live in the number 4, according to the report, least corrupt country (and hope they clean the roads soon, because the snow doesn't seem to stop falling).

Finally, and rather obviously,

TI believes there are strong correlations between poverty, conflict and perceived levels of corruption.

On the Greek neo-nazi party

The crisis in Greece has given rise to a gang, called Golden Dawn (Χρυσή Αυγή) who have, at the moment, risen to the third place. There are all kinds of comments about them on the Internet, for example, this one. The members of the gang are unashamedly talking about Hitler as a leader, a person who would have saved Europe from the Jews, would have created a super-state embracing the Greek ideals, and who would have led Europe to prosperity. Concentration camps did not exist--they say--and WWII was started by the Jews. National Socialism, they claim, was identical to the Greek ideology and they are sad that it does not exist now. They look back at the times when Greece was under military dictatorship, and state that these were times of prosperity and security. In brief, anything that would make any rational person sick is part of their "ideology". A few years ago, you would have to search hard to find someone with this kind of distorted mind.

They are in third place not because they are wrong in everything they do, but because they are right at the things they are actually stressing: just as the national socialists, they offer protection to those who need it, and the need is there, now; just as the national socialists, they offer money and food to those who cannot afford it--as long as they are Greek; just as the national socialists, they stress the corruption of the state and point out that those who stole public funds are not in prison.

People, desperate for a quick and dirty solution, turn to the gang and ask for help. As long as they are Greek, white, and Christian orthodox, the gang will, indeed, help them. They will, at the same time, beat everybody else up.

I would *never* have imagined, even 2 years ago, that the time would come when a member of the parliament would openly state that

if you are not white Greek, and if your parents are not white Greeks, then you are not Greek.

This is what the bearded member of parliament tells a Greek woman in the following, recent, video clip, because, as it happens, the woman is black, born of naturalized Nigerian parents:



It is one of the saddest points of Greek history. What is even sadder is that the neo-nazis receive, at the moment, loads of support from many people.

Indeed, the Time magazine article is right: the rise of Greece's Golden Dawn party is bad for Europe too.

If you happen to read this, please do leave a comment.
 

There will be no justice (Greece's financial scandals)

People ask me, from time to time: why is Greece in such a mess? The answer is simple, but, simply, incomprehensible to non-Greeks: for years, the government and its friends have been stealing the money, slowly but steadily, creating an ultra-corrupt system in which there is not a single culprit but a continuum of individuals. Recently, one, only one, member of previous governments (ex-minister of defence),  Tsochatzopoulos, was arrested for embezzling, stealing, etc., money of the order of magnitude of 1 to 2 billion euro. But he was one of them, only one, the one who, probably, was not liked by anybody else any more.

A couple of years ago, the then French minister of finance, Christine Lagarde, passed on to the Greek government a list of 2000 individuals with accounts in Swiss banks, asking the government to investigate for possible tax evation. Of course, the government did nothing.

Meanwhile, Greece fell into deeper and deeper crisis, resulting in the recent rise of fascists who offer protection to individuals and promise them an eventual "solution". In a bankrupt Greece with huge immigration problems and a dysfunctional police the gangs offer quick and dirty solutions. The state cannot respond. The fascist party declares that "Greece is for Greeks", beats non-Greeks up, makes a lot of noise, attracts more and more supporters, and gets noticed as being bad for Europe.

Lagarde's list was discovered by a Greek journalist, Kostas Vaxevanis, who made it public. In response, Greece’s slow and cumbersome justice system moved with stunning swiftness over the weekend to arrest and charge a respected investigative journalist. "Greece arrests the messenger" was the NY Times op-ed piece yesterday. (See also here.) If we compare the reaction of the Greek justice now with a few months ago (they did nothing) when a member of the fascist party (currently a member of parliament) physically attacked, on live TV, a member of the communist party, we will indeed be amazed at the stunning swiftness that the justice system can exhibit when it wants to do so.

Vaxevanis' trial took place a few hours ago. He was found not guilty. But the question remains: will there be any justice regarding the culprits of the crisis? The answer is: NO.

Greek debt and German concern

No doubt, the Greek financial crisis is due to, among others,
(i) politicians' greed (they did put a lot of money in their pockets, and still possess them),
(ii) the politicians' slackness in collecting taxes (they didn't want to, they themselves and their friends would have to pay taxes and that was not in their plan),
(iii) Europe's turning a blind eye to Greek financial reports (everybody and their mother knew that Greeks were faking their papers, come on!) .

However, here is an alternative piece of information which should make Germans, now pointing fingers towards Greece, reflect upon their recent history.

According to Albrecht Ritchl, professor of Economic History at LSE, the largest debtor of all times is Germany. In the June 2011 issue of Der Spiegel, Ritchl gave an interview (original German version here) pointing out that

during the 20th century, Germany was responsible for what were the biggest national bankruptcies in recent history. It is only thanks to the United States, which sacrificed vast amounts of money after both World War I and World War II, that Germany is financially stable today and holds the status of Europe's headmaster. That fact, unfortunately, often seems to be forgotten.

This happened twice. First, during the Weimar Republic, and then after WWII. The US helped Germany on both occasions tremendously, but it was also agreed that

there wouldn't be a repeat of high reparations demands made on Germany.

That is, that Germany would not have to pay its war victims. This was the actual financial basis of the German Wirtschaftswunder.  In fact,

[w]ith only a few exceptions, all such demands were put on the backburner until Germany's future reunification.

As we know, reunification took place, but Germany did not pay reparation. I don't think it's only Germany's fault. It's likely that Greek politicians didn't ask for it loud enough for they didn't want to. They had money pouring in their pockets via Europe, why should they want to make their benefactors unhappy, reminding them that Greece lost 10% of its population due to WWII casualties (one of the largest losses in the world, after Poland and Soviet Union)? As Ritchl says,

[c]ompared to [the Weimar Republic] default, today's Greek payment problems are actually insignificant

and that

[i]f the mood in [Greece] turns, old claims for reparations could be raised, from other European nations as well. And if Germany ever had to honor them, we would all be taken the cleaners. Compared with that, we can be grateful that Greece is being indulgently reorganized at our expense. If we follow public opinion here with its cheap propaganda and not wanting to pay, then eventually the old bills will be presented again. 

This is something to keep in mind. The Greek elite consists, of course, of unreliable politicians and their buddies who have faked papers, stolen money, avoided taxation, asked Greeks to borrow more, made them believe they live and can live in luxury without working, numbing their brains with false hopes... But, on the other hand, who is shouting to whom? Read some history and see that the whole of Europe has been a mess.

I don't know what "the solution" could be. I'm afraid that one of the most difficult things to acquire is not money, but the right mentality (what does work mean?). And this is lacking in Greece. But, at the same time, lack of the right mentality of different sorts is encountered in other countries as well. By shouting and finger-pointing you cannot eliminate history. Unless you can make people forget it, and this is something that frequently happens. In history. (History is being constantly revised to reflect the point of view of those in power, the winners.)

Greece, 2011 CE

Trafficking of human organs, firearms, drugs and babies are easier to take place in countries without borders (and this has nothing to do with having a large sea-coast or thousands of islands).  

Yesterday, in Kavala, some Afghans were on their way, in their learjets,  to Italy to sell their own kidneys.  Today, Bulgarians and their Greek brothers were selling babies (everybody knows the tariff). How many lawyers, supposedly, can have now view? Black economy flourishes and unlawfulness renders our small European country an Eldorado of fraud. 

Our land has always been a passage. This was a cause for the birth of  philosophy and civilization. A passage where hypocrisy, piracy, smuggling and fraud bloomed. At some point, this land acquired  boundaries, but this has not resulted in any significant change. Lawlessness remains a way of life. The Prime Minister's decision to touch directly upon the issue of illegal billboards appeared to be a strange act. But he started doing something. Could he, perhaps, realize the illegality of the recent occupation of the Athens Law School and do something about it? As he once declared, the PM has been an immigrant himself and so he could possibly understand a bit more.


Among the five continents, there is a small country which receives 300 souls [immigrants] every day. A country that everyone is entitled to curse and degrade. But we are not all illegal. Immigrants, yes, we may be. But we do deserve some dignity even if hypocrisy is a national virtue.

Somewhat free translation of the Greek original from Law Blog.