If we happen to be home on the 4th of July, we hike along the street to the houseless hillside on that street that affords a panoramic view of the city—and the downtown fireworks display, which is quite something.
We are not alone in this. The police block the street, and a crowd of a hundred or more people turns up with lawnchairs.
Our skating coach lives at the prime address for viewing same, so we join her and her husband for a nice lawn-sit and a glass of wine in one of the best spots in the city, unless you want to stand on the bridge in the park and have them go off overhead.
Well, this year the kids in the crowd, and some of the adults, came armed with these wonderful glowing devices: you fire them with a rubber band, and they go high, high up, spread their wings and come down like little helicopters, right to the shooter, even if the shot was off vertical. They’re cold LED light, leave no debris, make no noise, and they’re absolutely wonderful reshootable little gadgets.
The crowd had almost as much fun with those as with the firework display.
I’ve been watching the ‘fireworks’ in Greece for the past few days. The results of the referendum are just coming in, and it looks like Greece has given a big middle finger to the banksters, bureaucrats, and financial elite. The spirit of Marathon and Thermopylae is not dead. Good for them!
From the New York Times:
ATHENS — Greeks delivered a shocking rebuff to Europe’s leaders on Sunday, decisively rejecting a deal offered by the country’s creditors in a historic vote that could redefine the country’s place in Europe and shake the Continent’s financial stability.
I’ve been watching it play out too. IMO, it’s one of those situations where both sides have part of the story, and are unwilling to meld them together. The Greeks are right in that the only way they can dig themselves out of their hole is with a growing economy. They don’t have much to go on but tourism. The Germans are right that they can’t ignore the shed-load of debt they’ve piled up. There is an obvious compromise, but no trust of either party in the other. You can’t punish an animal, say, a cat, nor a nation state–they tried at Versailles.
There has been fault on both sides, but the EU has been demanding their pound of flesh and putting wealth for wealthy bankers above all human values.
Greece should never have been allowed into the Euro, but a corrupt Greek government paid Goldman Sachs $300 million to cook the books, so they were allowed in, with top officials from other EU countries turning a blind eye. Greece then took on a lot of debt, and when the crash came in 2008, they were unable to pay it back. We should not forget the role of German arms manufacturers in blatantly bribing Greek ministers to buy many billions of euros worth of German military equipment that they didn’t need. Inferior equipment – such as submarines which have such major faults they have never been launched.
With Greece unable to pay back debts, and tied into the euro so they couldn’t devalue their currency, they were squeezed more and more. Income dropped, and they and became less and less able to repay debts, while ordinary people experienced real suffering.
In the last five years public sector wages have fallen by a third, pensions have been cut by 44%, per capita income is down by €5,000. 55% of young people cannot find a job of any kind. Professionals are leaving Greece in droves. There has been a 500% increase in people without health insurance. There has been a 270% increase in depression cases, and suicides have increased by 35%.
Yet the Euro group was still trying to force even more austerity on Greece. Even the IMF has now acknowledged that with the plan that was offered, Greek debt would still be unsustainable in 2030. So there was no hope of climbing out of the hole.
Hundreds of billions in bailout money was ‘given to Greece’ – but more than 90% of it went straight into the pockets of banks and financial institutions, mainly in Germany and France.
There are two sides to every lending transaction. The lender gets interest according to the risk of a bad debt. Lenders happily continued to lend to Greece at very high interest rates, in expectation of a bailout by taxpayers, but are now unwilling to accept any losses or debt write-offs.
Greece is like an indentured worker in thrall to a corrupt company. “You load sixteen tons and what do you get…”
Now Greeks have stood up and said ‘OXI’, and the only way forward is serious debt restructuring which will allow Greece to return to prosperity.
OT: Cats. You know how cats “mark territory” if not neutered at an early age? They’re also (or instead?) chasing away mice, who can be scared to the point of miscarriage:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33380669
(Greece: seems to me the EU should federalize, at least concerning national bonds. That way Greece has its own credit rating, and they hurt no one but themselves by defaulting.)
The Eurozone’s big problem is the idea of “soverignty”. None of the states are willing to surrender it. But then, even though “The United States” has been a singular noun, rather than plural, virtually since the beginning (in spite of “The War Between the States”), even today it is a problem here for many in some states.
Seems to me federal style finances gives more sovereignty. They can ignore Brussels and Berlin, and sell as many bonds as they like; and B&B don’t have to play budget cop. The international financial market will control them dispassionately.
Obviously that’s not the way Europe feels. And having watched and analyzed the “markets” closely for over a decade, I wouldn’t agree that they are dispassionate.
I’m amazed….Sophie was sitting on the floor next to my computer chair while Sydney was lying across the back….I reached over to see if Sophie would at least sniff my hand, but she surprised me and actually came closer and let me pet her 5 times, then she walked past me, turned around and came back for another 2 pets…..I think she’s beginning to like me…. 😉
Yay for Sophie!
Re the Greece situation…I’ve been there—a lot of it in rural places. These are not high-living rich people. At the time they were under the military junta, after another period of chaos and political mess. They’ve been badly served by various high officials. And information does not travel easily — it’s very mountainous, lot of little valleys and rock walls that means getting signal is a problem, and at the time I was there television was so rare even in towns that people gathered on sidewalks outside stores that had a set, to watch through the window. Phone service was spotty in some places, and people worked really hard and lived a far more austere life than people in, say France or England. I’m sure things have changed somewhat, but just the means people had to learn the character of people they were voting for was more neighbor-to-neighbor. Under the junta, people were nervous about discussing politics even inside their homes, because it was forbidden on the street.
Yay, Internet?
Fie on the geopolitical economic situation. (In lieu of other, less printable words.) My own economic situation…bad. Let’s say I sympathize with the Greeks.
On the whole, I think the kids with the flash copters had the right idea: Every once in a while, gotta forget your troubles and live a little.
Hmm…I should take their advice after I find out how I’ll do on my next hurdle.
Nope, do it before you figure out your next hurdle. A mental vacation often helps with mental hurdles.