{"id":10404,"date":"2012-04-04T08:54:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T05:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/wordpress\/?p=10404"},"modified":"2012-04-04T08:54:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T05:54:00","slug":"products-of-hellenic-monopoly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/?p=10404","title":{"rendered":"Products of the \u00abHellenic Monopoly\u00bb"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n<\/b>                           By
\nProfessor Giorgos Piperopoulos<\/b>
\n<\/b>
\n   \u00abAs historic,
\nsignificant and unprecedented\u00bb, were described in a smug praise by Professor
\nVenizelos and Dr Papademos the days of the conclusion of the PSI (with the
\nimplementation of the CAC), which triggered the reaction of ISDA, and penalized
\nGreece charging it with having created a \u00abcredit event”. As a result the
\nonce supposedly financially thriving Greece, a country which in January 2001
\nwas proudly lead into the EUROZONE group of economies by Prime Minister
\nProfessor Simitis and the Governor of the Bank of Greece (and current Prime
\nMinister) Dr Papademos, is today in a “controlled, or orderly,
\nBankruptcy” and the interest on the 10 year Government bond hovers around
\n20%!..<\/div>\n
\n   And
\nso the delusionary world we Greeks were living in and buying the summer home,
\nthe 2nd and 3rd family car, vacations in exotic lands financed by generously
\nhanded out <\/div>\n

<\/a>Bank-and-credit card loans came to an abrupt end when Greece was
\nforced by the troika into a rude awakening.
\n   My grandson is
\nreaching his 6th birthday and, please do not consider this as an advertisement
\nbut see it as a reality, that describes him and all other kid his age who
\nceaselessly impress their grandparents with their dexterities in handling high
\ntechnology products as on weekends they know how to turn on the TV set, put the
\nCD properly in the CD player and enjoy in HD and vivid colour children\u2019s
\nfilms… Meanwhile other, a bit more advanced in age Toddlers already send
\nmessages on their mobile phones with their fingers moving at speeds that
\n“scare” their grandparents…<\/p>\n

\n   It
\noccurred to me suddenly today to put a zero after the number 6 (the age of my
\ngrandson) in an attempt to take myself and those of you willing to follow me
\nback to the 1950\u2019s\u2026There in the middle of the 20th century in a financially
\npoor but proud land I remembered \u201ckyra-Stasa\u201d my late mother a 1922 refugee
\nfrom Smyrna, Kemal Ataturk\u2019s Turkey after the tragic Greek-Turkish war and my
\nlate father Panagiotis a refugee from Joseph Stalin\u2019s Russia\u2026<\/div>\n
\n   I
\nrecall that they would send me to the neighbourhood grocery store to bring home
\nsalt, matches and “non-drinkable\u201d alcohol ALL bearing on outer surface the
\ninscription, hold your emotions my fellow grandparents, and open your ears you
\nso you can learn something our children and grandchildren, \u201cproducts of the
\nGreek MONOPOLY!..\u201d<\/div>\n
\n   I
\nbeg the younger ones, our children and along with them my grandson and your
\ngrandchildren not to rush to criticism and start saying that this is how older
\npeople behave and that is how suddenly and out of nowhere they travel back to
\n\u00abmemory lanes\u00bb with a sigh and every now and then with a with a smile or a tear
\non their faces\u2026 Memories and memory lanes always \u201cbeautified\u201d.  Don\u2019t tell me about it, \u2018cause
\nit is as it is!<\/div>\n
\n   Luckily,
\nmy grandson and all our grandchildren at this age in Greece has not yet learned to read and they
\ncannot ask us WHY, something that their parents should do to members of my
\ngeneration! I see our children remaining quiet, not yet taking to the streets
\nand holding us responsible for stealing the today and their children\u2019s tomorrow
\nand my heart is tight and heavy with yesteryear\u2019s guilt, today’s anger,
\ntomorrow\u2019s bitterness!
\n   Mama, Papa I kept
\nasking 60 years ago as I was able to read \u201cwhere is this factory, the \u201cGreek
\nMONOPOLY\u201d that produces all these things that I bring from the grocer?
\nAnd I kept getting that monotonous response of the refugee Greek lady-from Smyrna and the refugee Greek gentleman from Russia:<\/div>\n
\n   “When
\nyou grow up you\u2019ll understand! …”<\/div>\n
\nKeep enjoying yourselves, all of you democratically
\nelected politicians who govern us as a \u201ccoalition government\u201d ironically made
\nup from the two political parties who governed us from the collapse of the
\nJunta in 1974 to today and brought us to the current economic drama\u2026<\/div>\n
\n   Keep
\nenjoying yourselves all of you elected Members of Parliament and along with you
\nthe \u201cappointed-not-elected\u201d Prime Minister Dr Papademos cause our children are
\nnot yet in the awkward position of having to answer their children when in a
\nfew years with proper curiosity returning from the supermarket bringing home
\nthe things their parents ordered they will ask them:<\/div>\n
\n   Mama,
\nPapa where is this factory that makes the “products of the MEMORANDUM
\nagreements based on the English law?”<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                           By Professor Giorgos Piperopoulos    \u00abAs historic, significant and unprecedented\u00bb, were described in a smug praise by Professor Venizelos and Dr Papademos the days of the conclusion of the PSI (with the implementation of the CAC), which triggered the reaction of ISDA, and penalized Greece charging it with having created a \u00abcredit event”. As a result […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[228],"class_list":{"0":"post-10404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-1","7":"tag-228"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thessalika-nea.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}