Minor incidents between school students and riot police occurred on Friday in downtown Athens during a protest march to commemorate the killing of teenager boy Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a policeman in 2008.
fired tear gas via @dromografos
Outside the Athens university, when the protest started, students hurled stones and oranges against riot police squads, while the latter fired tear gas.
Riot police surrounded students outside Athens university (pict @MakisSinodinos)
A little earlier at nearby Korai Square, a group of 30 protesters wearing hoods attacked with fists and kicks a small group of traffic policemen. One policeman suffer minor injuries in the face.
nonchalant pict by @dromografos
An unknown number of detentions have taken place.
Banner: “We live for today, we struggle for tomorrow”
In Aegaleo suburb of Piraeus, a group hurled molotov cocktails against the local police station.
Another protest is to be launched at 6 p.m. on Friday with a march to Greek Parliament at Syntagma Square. Metro stations <Syntagma>, <Panepistimio> and <Evaggelismos> are closed to passengers as of 10 a.m. by police order.
The winter and the harsh austerity measures claimed three more victims in Greece of loan agreements and heating prices the majority cannot afford. A 85-year-old woman was burned to death when a fire broke out in the 25-sqm shanty home she was living in Aspropyrgos. Media report that most probably a spark from a make-shift fire-place set her mattress on fire. she was found burned on her bed. The woman was living on a small pension of 300 euro.
In another incident in Piraeus, the owner of a hotel was burned to death. He was found in a small studio built on the roof of the hotel. The mans was probably used the studio as his home. the fire broke out while the man was sleeping, he died upon his transfer to the hospital.
In Toumpa suburb of Thessaloniki, a woman, 50, was lucky to be absent when a fire broke in the apartment she was living. The fire most probably broke out from a lit candle, as she was living without electricity and on meals from charity soup kitchen.
If we, Greeks, won’t die because of the shortages in health care, the lack of insurance and the high cost of self-participation, we will most probably burned alive or get poisoned from our make-shift stoves and the candles we light to brighten up our nights without electricity.
Falling asleep in front of the fire-place, hulled with several blankets in a icy-cold home, dazed by the lethal fumes of carbon monoxide...
Scared by the many fire incidents since the beginning of the winter 2013, the government plans to stop power cuts to vulnerable groups of the society due to outstanding bills. And here I say, this is not the solution. Then the debts will keep dragging the people to bills they will never be able to pay back.
ΤΗΕ solution is to decrease the prices in electricity with the many extra fees that make power unaffordable, to lower taxes in heating oil, to equal prices of natural gas to those as in the rest in Europe.
PS So happy to be able to inhale again the smog coming from the fire places
Οne of the most emblematic political figures of our modern world passed away at the age of 95. Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, the international icon of the struggle against racial oppression, the statesman who spent 27 years in prison…
Millions of words can be written about his life and his work. The Wall Street Journal summarized them in a video of seven minutes.
The Eiffel Tower has been lit up in the colors of the South African flag to grieve over Nelson Mandela’s death.
Police ordered the closure of three metro stations as early as 10 o’clock Friday morning due to demonstrations that will take place in order to commemorate the killing of teenager boy Alexanros Grigoropoulos by a policeman in 2008.
Metro stations <Syntagma>, <Panepistimio> and <Evaggelismos> are closed to passengers as of 10 pm and will open again most probably late at night.
School students will launch a protest at 11 am outside the Athens University in Panepistimiou Avenue. Another demonstration with march to the Greek Parliament will be launched at 6 p.m. at the same starting point.
Greek media report of the high possibility that more metro stations will be closed in the afternoon.
When metro stations are closed, wagons just pass through but passengers are not allowed to get off or in.
Don’t be irritated by this provocative title served in an aura of flat populism and exquisite envy. The President of European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, did not put a whole lobster on the plate in front of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
The delicate bites of lobster were methodically paired together with delicate scallops and fresh ricotta cheese inside baked canelloni. Neither did a bunch of crabs land together with elegant crab knackers on the festive decorated table in the headquarters of European Commission. Crab flesh was reportedly tender venture to the main course of turbot fish in the aromatic company of truffle.
The dessert was rather modest, most likely in the sense to fit in the austerity policies of Brussels: a light strawberry sorbet to cool the gourmet palate and fine choux dough eclairs filled with indulgent cream of passion fruit.
In the splendid atmosphere of Berleymont Building, the elegant luncheon was served to honor the Greek and debt-ridden prime minister, who had flown to Brussels on Wednesday.
The report about the menu content was published in daily Ta Nea (via Real.gr), where the columnist notes: “Among others, I have to admit that those in Berleymont have no crabs in their pockets,” meaning the EC is not stingy…
Two statistics reports shed light into the economic situation of Greeks. One report published by the Greek Labor Ministry says that 2 out of 0 Greeks earn less than 500 euro per month. The second report published by EUROSTAT says that 3 out of 10 Greeks live below the poverty line and that the situation worse than in Greece is in Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia.
According to data about employment in Greece collected by the information system ERGANI the country’s private sector employes currently 1,371,450 people. In comparison 2,800,000 people were employed and insured at IKA social security fund for private sector employees before the crisis.
Two out of ten Greeks workers, ie 279,776 people receive a monthly salary below 500 euros per while 160,000 employees earn monthly salary between 1,000 and 1,500 euro.
79,76 % ( 1,091,674 ) received over 500 euros.
From this, 7.61 % earn 500-600 euros and
32.21 % earns 1000-1200 euro.*.
According to ERGANI, 20,24 % of employees work part time or on job rotation .
Now I will tell you how part time job looks in Greece now a days:
A part-time job can be 6 hours x 6 days per week = 36 hours per week, when full time job is considered to be 40 hours per week.
A part-time salary can be 250-300 euro, but it can be also 700 euro gross or more, depending on employer and skills.
Let’s say you get a part-time job for 750 euro gross. You will receive 550-600 euro net. For a basic apartment of 50 sqm you will pay 300 euro for rent.
If your partner is jobless or you live alone, or you live with a child or a parent… how you will spend the rest of your salary to pay for food, toiletries, telephone, water, electricity and heating … is just history…”
As for the Eurostat report exploring poverty in European union,
23.5% of the Greek population lives in poverty
19.5% lives in needy condition
14.1% lives in a family faced with the risk of unemployment.
In Romania, Bulgaria and Latvia poverty is some 40%.
According to Eurostat
“Poor” is someone, when income is below 60% of median national income.
“Living in need” means one is deprived of basic consumer goods.
In the utopian world of statistics, the European Union, “poor” is considered someone with less than 6,000 euro annual income. In the real world of Greeks, the Finance Ministry imposes taxes also to those with income below the 6,000 euro, an income tax based on fictitious criteria.
Now either the EU should revise the description of “poor” or the Greek Finance Ministry and the Troika – i.e. Greece’s lenders including the EU should consider to tax the real rich.
* should we assume that the rest earns more than 1,200 euro gross in Greece’s public sector nowadays? Or is this statistics similar to the pension statistics in the private sector, when the majority gets 900 euro per month one the paper, while the majority people like you and me know receives 500-600 euro pension?
Possible is also that the Ministry includes in this statistics also the salaries of employees in the utility companies (Power, water etc), who normally receive salary levels or public sector and even more. But that’s the Greek statistics as everyone know…
PS Be patient! “Growth will come in 2014,” said PM Samaras on Wednesday.
A fire broke out in the home of a jobless family of four living without electricity for two years. The 5-year-old child of the family and the grandmother were taken to hospital due to respiratory problems, the parents have reportedly suffered minor burns. It is not clear whether the blaze was due to candles or a make-shift stove.
The fire broke out short after 4 o’clock on Thursday morning in Kordelio suburb of Thessaloniki in Northern Greece. The smoke apparently woke up the family that managed to get out of home in time, escaping the worst. Fire brigades managed to extinguish the fire, while all four residents were taken to the hospital. The home was almost completely destroyed.
Electricity box without power consumption counter…
The fire reportedly broke out either from a make-shift stove or from candles, because the house had no electricity for at least two years, according to a statement by the major of Evosmos. Efstahios Lazaridis who stressed that some 700 families in his area have similar problems with power cut due to economic difficulties.
Greek media report, that the family was in dire economic situation living on meals from the Church and municipality soup kitchens. The family with origins in former Sowjetunion had no other income except for the child allowance of 40 euro per month, the grandmother told reporters.
“My children woke me up and we got out of the home,” the grandmother said. she added that neither her son nor his wife had a job.
“They had food Monday to Friday, but on weekends they had nothing to eat,” the landlord told media. The family had not pay the rent of 150 euro per month for the last two years, neither the water bill. “I could not pay for their electricity too, so I went to Power Company and had the power cut,” the landlord said.
Neighbors claim that the parents were drug addicted.
In the heat of frustration and anger, the father armed with a knife tried to attack journalists covering the news outside the burned home. The father was detained and charges are to be brought against him for violating the “weapons law”.
The municipality Social Welfare will offer shelter to the boy and the grandmother.
Evosmos major, Efstathios Lazaridis stressed that some 700 families in his area have similar problems with power cut due to economic difficulties.
Speaking to private Skai TV residents stressed the tragic circumstances for many families in Kordelio-Evosmos municipality with 100,000 people. Almost 50% were without job and in Evosmos 800 families were without electricity. (nonewsnewsblogspot, zougla.gr, newsit.gr, protothema.gr, ).
The tragedy in Kordelio occurred a week after 13-year-old Sara died of carbon monoxide poisoning after her mother had made fire in a make-shift stove so they could warm in a home without electricity.
According to Fire Brigades records, 65 people lost their life 2008-2013 (January) in Greece due to “alternative heating means” like fireplace, heating-oil, wood and gas stoves or make-shift stoves.
Theater play writer Vaggelis Leivadas, 90, was burned to death in November 2011 when an electric heater was turned over.
Annual heating cost for apartment 90-100 sqm in Athens:
considering as minimum heating period December-February, it’s difficult for jobless households to find extra 300 euro to heat their homes.
With exorbitant prices for heating oil and natural gas – prices 30-40% higher than in the rest of Europe – many households cannot afford safe heating means and do whatever they can in order to sit at home without freezing feet and running nose.
Where is this ferry sailing to when the wind is blowing with intensity of 8 Beaufort? Blue Star “Ithaki” with 400 passengers sailing in the Aegean Sea between the island of Mykonos kai Tinos on Wednesday morning…
the picture is familiar. We saw hands raised to get a bag of free distributed vegetables and fruits two years. In Greece of deep recession and strict austerity measures the needs of people keep growing in alarming levels. People put their dignity aside and rush to get some free food.
This morning outside the Social Grocery in Kallithea suburb of south Athens. A large crowd of people in need awaits in the cold to get a paper with a number in order to get a bag of free food.
The people were much more than the organizers expected.
Finally! Someone from a European something-insitution decided top take up the issue “Austerity measures and Human Rights.” In a multi-page report, Nils Muiznieks, Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe stresses that people, especially children are the victims in the altar of austerity measures and criticizes the European Union and the international lenders for composing bailout programs and loan agreements without taking into consideration the human factor and the protection of basic human rights for social protection, health and education.
Nils Muiznieks criticizes many of the European governments that imposed austerity measures that “they have forgotten their obligations to respect human rights, and particularly to protect the social and economic rights of the most vulnerable groups of the population . ”
At the same time, the commissioner denounces the behavior of international lenders stressing that they “failed to include the issues of human rights protection in many of the assistance programs implemented in European countries.”
In the research work of the Commission, which refers to the impact of its implementation of austerity measures on human rights, Muiznieks underlines also that
“national decisions on austerity measures and international bailouts lack transparency, public participation and democratic accountability. In some cases the onerous conditions prevented governments to invest in key programs of social protection , health and education.”
Muiznieks blames the EU -as a key factor to address the crisis and take decisions in economic governance – and the Troika for putting down conditions for bailouts and loan agreements without taking into account the impact of austerity measures on human rights.
“They should have had better take into account the impact of austerity measures on human rights, ” he emphasizes.
He describes the devastating consequences of the implementation of austerity measures on vulnerable population groups, especially children and young people.
” Youth unemployment in Europe has reached record levels, while millions of families are suffering the consequences of the cuts to children’s aids and family benefits , health care and education.
The number of children who leave school to find work and support their families is increasing, thus creating the conditions of reappear of exploitation of child labor.”
The Commissioner stresses the urgent need to revitalize the European social model , which should be based on the foundations of human dignity , solidarity between generations and access to justice for all.
“Governments should make it a priority to reduce youth unemployment and to defend the social protection of long-term unemployed during the crisis,” concludes Commissioner Nils Muiznieks . (via protothema in GR and @Nils Muiznieks )
BTW: The CoE Commissioner seems to be unaware of the fact that the IMF strikes the health care first of all in order to get rid of the vulnerable. That’s traditional practices.
Οn 1. December 2013, Sara died from carbon monoxide poisoning when her mother put fire on a brazier so that the two could warm up in an apartment without electricity due to unemployment and debts in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece. Sara was only 13 years old.
PS Fine and good is Muiznieks’ report to finally talk about the things we have been talking about since three years. But I still have to ask him: “And?”
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