Europe?

[vgonis]

A few years ago, one year after the beginning of the crisis, I came across a book. It had been something quite impressive for me, because an employer would give it away as  a gift to all his employees and so I took the time to  read it. It was the story, metaphorical and highly instructive, of some laboratory mice, that they suddenly lose their food (yes, cheese) from the set point which they were accustomed of finding it. Some of them, full of insecurity, returned again and again to the same point,  hoping that the food will reappear, while others, searched the rest of the  labyrinthine corridors in order to find food elsewhere. The writer's  very didactic style, supports those mice that turned the loss of safe foraging in an "opportunity" to explore other possibilities and they would MOST likely find somewhere else,  better and more food. The MOST is capitalized in order to hide in the shadow of it,  the "likely". Because what they do is replacing your real and certain food with nothing but a  a possibility.What I realized was that the employer of these people would probably sack a lot of them and wanted to bring it nice and easy. But this grandiose in conception book written by an american manager, brings to the  surface some of the policies of our current government. Converts citizens into mice. The structures of the state become a maze and finding work is the modern arena. They "sell" certainty when essentially our only certainty is that we have already been sold. They have turn into a  matter of coincidence and luck, if some will find food, and when. The author takes for granted  that such searches always have a happy ending. We all know that lab mice  always die young, for one reason only: it is their job. Nobody will throw food as reward for exploring the maze, unless it is a part of the experiment. But to bring this into a conclusion, which people wish such a fate? Who wants to be a mouse? And most of all, who have given such divine powers in the Governments of  all the countries of their world  to control their fellow human (?)

[nababo]

Hi, vgonis, you reopening this thread is an opprtunty for me to ask how is Greece going on lately?

[vgonis]

Hi Nababo!
Not good, not good at all. The sucess story they try to present outside is a hoax. People will start losing their houses in less than 6 months. And they will present us with one solution: SELLING all the public companies and assets. But I will elaborate at an other moment. It is nearly 2 in the morning and I have to wake up early tomorrow!

[Fletch]

Without any homour, do you ever feel like stocking up? Preparing for riots and anarchy? Do you think it's possible or likely?

[vgonis]

Without any homour, do you ever feel like stocking up? Preparing for riots and anarchy? Do you think it's possible or likely?

Unlike the countries in the middle east and Northern Africa that have Riots and anarchy, due to compex problems that have been hushed under many years of dictatorships,  Greece has only a problem. I have analysed it, it is not solely an economic one, but it is the mask they have put up to hide the rest. 

Unfortunately, stocking up is impossible to do, because the crisis in the form of taxes and unemployment, have eaten all of our savings and even if we could stock some money, the example of Cyprus simply shows that they can steal your money out of the bank! (Money in the bank is not a term used to define safety anymore...)

Riots and Anarchy. Well, we are a very democratic population and maybe this is the reason we don't have mass riots yet. But if people reach the point of understanding that the system is so corrupt that  any change through it is impossible, it is likely that riots and anarchy will break out. Of course part of the defitinion of riots and anarchy is the unpredictable nature of them. You can hear them knocking on your door for the last 4 years, but when the critical mass is reached in order to  break your door, it is a whole different matter.   
I think that several levels that I expected the levee to break have been passed, but a new level, that of losing your home , is about to erupt in January. Unfortunately, what they are after are not homes and apartments, but time to sell out the big steaks of Greece, but have to shadow their actions by inflicting immediate pain to the people so they won't notice.

[stormbreaker]

Greece is not a big problem right now, my country the Netherlands is the BIGGEST problem for the EU right now. We have a very bad PM (Mark Rutte) who failed in his economic politics. Their is no grow right now, shops are closing and people can't pay their rent and mortgage anymore. We have right-populism, Geert Wilders... I think something need to change very quickly otherwise we will be like Belgium, a country with many problems.

[vgonis]

Welcome stormbringer! It is not a new story. Every country has its own problems that seem great, in fact greater than the others that we know only from describtions. Because the citizens living there feel them on their skin,  it affects their life. We have to feel sympathy for each other more.  Somehow the knowledge that everywhere there are the same inadequate and treacherous politicians will help see what is going on. So it is not just the Piigs? It is also France, Belgium, Netherlands and of course we should also mention Bulgaria. Almost half of Europe! And yet they try to solve the problem with bandages, ECB and EU giving hand outs for jobs(!) by young people and thenthere is hatred amonsgst nations and finally what?
Knowing what is going on in other places in fact helps us solve our own problem. And since both countries are in the EU, your problem is mine as well.     

[ingridswing]

I disagree Stormbreaker. The Netherlands don't have the biggest problem at all. The dutch peopleake it bigger. Unemployment is still growing, our economy doesn't grow. All true. But dutch people (I am one of them but different) are moaning a lot, saving their money and forget that we are still one of the strongest economies in europe. Of course people who lost their job have a big problem like everywhere else. But if you think one politician can solve the problem then you really have to think how!!! It's a worldwide crisis, started with the loans in the US which were to big compareer to the Prices of the houses, followed by banks in the us and europe that bankrupted. How can one person solve that problem? Bill Gates maybe, h

[Pottel]

...and Belgium...

[vgonis]

The problem is if "together we stand, divided we fall" has any truth in it...

[vgonis]

An ideology presented as economic science!
A very nice interview, by the PM of Iceland!

http://onenessofhumanity.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/iceland-provides-model-for-the-world/

[ingridswing]

I love this country, I go there 2 or 3 times a year, saw the crisis starting, but also see how they recover now.
Smart people there and I think the president did a smart thing to let the people decide.

As an average icelandic people are very well educated and able to take their responsibility

[vgonis]

Another sleeper. Mainly due to lack  of time. A nice article for the Greek situation, now banging some more European countries:
http://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/greece-depression-imf/

And not forget about Detroit:
http://deconstructingmyths.com/2013/12/14/the-motor-city-pileup/

It is a global thing.

[vgonis]

OK, after 2-3 years of riots and "rebellions" around the Mediterranean, Ukraine is the first country in Europe that is tormented by the same problems. Needless to say that I never believed in any of these spontaneous "rebellions". Always other interests helping the "rebels" to take over and take control of the resources of the countries for peanuts. So what do you think? I am mostly interested of how each country's media present the situation! 

[Fletch]

We hear only the tiniest articles here on this situation.

There is more coverage of Scotland's impending referendum which also fascinates me, does Scotland have a great economy? Apart from its incredible liquid island exports!!