http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-18/euro-legacy-greece-children-pick-through-trash-cans-food
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/18/2013 14:42 -0400
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite3_1_16/04/2013_493938
The Euro Legacy: In Greece, Children Pick Through Trash Cans For Food
"We have reached a point where children are coming to school hungry," as with an estimated 10% of Greek elementary and middle school students suffering from 'food insecurity', the troubled nation has fallen to the level of some African countries. As the NY Times reports, unlike the US, Greek schools do not offer subsidized cafeteria lunches. Exacerbated by the austerity measures including cuts in subsidies for larger families, the cost has become insurmountable for many. With 26% of Greek households on an 'economically weak diet', children are starting to steal for food and picking through trash cans as they proclaim, "our dreams are crushed." What is frightening is the speed at which it is happening, "a year ago it wasn't like this," as one family talks of the 'cabbage-based diet' which it supplements by foraging for snails in nearby fields. Programs are being started to help from wealthier Greeks, but as one parent said, "unless the EU acts, we're done for."
As an elementary school principal, Leonidas Nikas is used to seeing children play, laugh and dream about the future. But recently he has seen something altogether different, something he thought was impossible in Greece: children picking through school trash cans for food; needy youngsters asking playmates for leftovers; and an 11-year-old boy, Pantelis Petrakis, bent over with hunger pains....“Not in my wildest dreams would I expect to see the situation we are in,” Mr. Nikas said. “We have reached a point where children in Greece are coming to school hungry. Today, families have difficulties not only of employment, but of survival.”...Last year, an estimated 10 percent of Greek elementary and middle school students suffered from what public health professionals call “food insecurity,” ... “When it comes to food insecurity, Greece has now fallen to the level of some African countries,” she said.Unlike those in the United States, Greek schools do not offer subsidized cafeteria lunches. Students bring their own food or buy items from a canteen. The cost has become insurmountable for some families with little or no income. ...... classmates are frequently hungry, she said, and one boy recently fainted. Some children were starting to steal for food, she added. While she does not excuse it, she understands their plight. “Those who are well fed will never understand those who are not,” she said.“Our dreams are crushed,” added Evangelia, whose parents are unemployed but who is not in the same dire situation as her peers. She paused, then continued in a low voice. “They say that when you drown, your life flashes before your eyes. My sense is that in Greece, we are drowning on dry land.”...This year the number of malnutrition cases jumped. “A year ago, it wasn’t like this,” Ms. Perri, said, fighting back tears. “What’s frightening is the speed at which it is happening.”...Mr. Petrakis said he felt emasculated after repeatedly failing to find new work. When food for the family ran low, he stopped eating almost entirely, and rapidly lost weight.“When I was working last summer, I even threw away excess bread,” he said, tears streaming down his face. “Now, I sit here with a war running through my head, trying to figure out how we will live.”When the hunger comes, Ms. Petrakis has a solution. “It’s simple,” she said. “You get hungry, you get dizzy and you sleep it off.”A 2012 Unicef report showed that among the poorest Greek households with children, more than 26 percent had an “economically weak diet.” The phenomenon has hit immigrants hardest but is spreading quickly among Greeks in urban areas where one or both parents are effectively permanently unemployed....He has not found work for three years. Now, he said, his family is living on what he called a“cabbage-based diet,” which it supplements by foraging for snails in nearby fields. “I know you can’t cover nutritional basics with cabbage,” he said bitterly. “But there’s no alternative.”...“I’m not saying we should just wait for others to help us,” he said. “But unless the European Union actslike this school, where families help other families because we’re one big family, we’re done for.”
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite3_1_16/04/2013_493938
Talking with the taxi driver about economics
By Nick Malkoutzis
“Good evening and thank you in advance for the generous tip you’re going to leave me.” As welcomes from Athenian taxi drivers go, it was a fairly original and disarming one. I’m not a regular cab customer but have used them enough over the last couple of years to see a change in their attitude. Where they were surly, they now seem resigned. Passengers were once taken for granted; now they’re a rarity.
Take a look at any taxi rank and you will see the yellow-colored cars lining up around the block. At Athens International Airport, where I caught my ride, things are even more dramatic. “I waited seven hours in the queue,” the driver tells me. Greek taxi drivers say their takings have dropped by more than 50 percent since the crisis began. In the meantime, their costs have skyrocketed: The cost of gasoline has risen, as has the consumption tax on fuel, while social security contributions also shot up. A cabbie needs to make about 15 euros a day profit just to pay for his healthcare and pension cover. This is far from a given in Athens and other cities. “If I get four fares during a shift, it’s been a good day,” he informs me. “I need to clear about 50 euros a day to cover my costs. If I can walk away each day with a few euros profit, I’m thankful,” he adds. He doesn’t even bother to ponder that the license he bought a few years ago to operate the taxi cost him about 200,000 euros but is now worth probably a quarter of that. The objective is just to make it from one day to the next, to survive. It is the anguish born of the basic human need for survival that takes our conversation into darker territory. His wife gave birth to twins six months ago, his brother has been unemployed for five years and his father’s pension has been reduced to a few hundred euros per month. It begins to sound like the conversations you now hear in supermarket aisles, at post office counters and at bus stops: stories of jobs lost and bills that haven’t been paid are now part of Greece’s daily soundtrack. Sometimes, perhaps to preserve sanity and shield yourself from further pain, you switch off. You’re sure you have heard some variant of the tale and don’t need to hear it again to appreciate the storyteller’s anxiety. “Some days, I don’t make anything at all. How are we going to survive?” Deep breath. Exhale. Silence. What is there to say? “You were in Brussels: What news can you tell me from there that gives me hope things will get better?” What can I tell him? About the economist who told me that the Greek economy would probably see a recovery in about a decade? About the MEP who told me that Greece would need four or five generations to fully overcome the range of problems it faces today? “I need someone to explain to me why I should keep doing this, why I should continue living like this,” he says. All I can offer him is understanding and the perverse comfort that comes from the fact that he is not alone in being enveloped by doubts about his future. After all, there are 1.3 million unemployed – more than half of whom have been out of work for more than 12 months – and some 400,000 Greeks who have jobs but have not been paid by their employers for the past few months. “You know, everyone...” I begin. “No, not everyone,” he responds. “Don’t start a sentence with ‘everyone’ because then there’s no point in us having a conversation.” “You’re right. A lot of people...” “OK. I’ll accept ‘a lot of people.’” And so, I try to express my sympathy for the cabbie’s difficulties and assure him that there are few people in Greece who do not share his misgivings or at least who do not have a loved one whose patience and faith is being tested to breaking point. Consolation? Not in the least. “You still haven’t answered my question,” he says. “I’m 38, I’ve lived well in the past, I can’t deny that, but what can I believe in now? Tell me what I should be doing.” Silence, again. How can you tell someone to keep persevering when you’re no longer sure yourself that the rewards will come? How can you console a person trapped in a vise whose jaws are clamped tighter each day by inept leaders and seemingly indifferent partners? How can you point to others who are succeeding despite the terrible conditions when you know that not everyone has the same opportunities or reserves of boundless optimism and energy? What comfort can you offer when the past is not sustainable but the future is also impossible? “You know, I’m only able to be out here driving because I’ve received hours of psychological help,” he reveals. The mental effects of Greece’s economic collapse and the constant uncertainty of the last three years are the onerous secret of the crisis. Yes, there are statistics showing a rise in suicides and indications of deterioration in mental health. Heart attacks are also in the ascendancy. Ultimately, though, it’s impossible to know what pain each person is carrying. When this invisible force reveals itself, it’s traumatizing. “Driving one night, I thought about what my life might be like when I reach 70,” he confides. “Then, it crossed my mind to turn the steering wheel and end it all.” It was at this point it became clear he was not looking for words of wisdom but was in search of just words. He simply wanted to have a conversation in the hope that by the morning when he finished his shift, his problem might appear to have been halved rather than doubled. We continued talking well after arriving at our destination, exchanging words that would, hopefully, hold greater value and last for longer than any tip I could leave. A couple of days later, not far from where the cab driver revealed his deepest, darkest thoughts, a 50-year-old set fire to himself in the middle of the street. He had reportedly been unemployed for three years. I thought of the man who drove me home, knowing many others would be wondering whether the person who attempted to commit suicide was someone they knew or someone they’d come across as part of routines that become less normal by the day. [Kathimerini English Edition] Greek gov’t seeks military camp to serve as prison for state debtors
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy
Gradually, Greece turns into the 21st century version of the dark and gloomy world of Charles Dickens: with households burning wood for heating, with workers working for nothing, … and to put the icing on the Greek cake, soon also with debtors’ prisons. What we reported in January, turns into reality: tax prisons! The government seeks a military camp to turn it into a prison for those unable to pay their debts: to tax office or social security funds, for example.
However, this prison conditions will not be as harsh as in the Marshalsea prison, where Willam Dorrit spent long time.
Modern Greek imprisoned debtors, for owing the state more than 5,000 euro will “live in humane conditions,” as the ministry of Justice told members of the Parliament on Thursday.
“The state is seeking a military camp within the limits of Attica prefecture for the housing of state debtors charged with prison penalties, ” deputy Justice minister Kostas Karagounis told MPS adding that the special prison for debtors will improve their detention conditions that will be more humane.
Yes, the humane factor will be that they won’t be held together with murderers, drug dealers or robbers.
The plan to build economic prisons is inevitable after the relevant decisions and circulars issued by the Finance Ministry. Last February, the ministry decided to impose even prison penalties to debtors owing the state more than 5,000 euro. Debtors will have a chance to start paying their debts in installments - deadline up to 4 months – before they will be put behind bars.
The Finance Ministry apparently considers prison penalties as the only way to enforce the bankrupt little devil to “give the state what belongs to the state” even that’s emergency property taxes, solidarity tax and trade tax and possible income taxes that can soon sum up to 5,000 euro debt within two years, interests included.
Of course, the state would rather proceed to an agreement arranging up to 48 installments so the debtors could slowly pay the money they owe.
But what if they can’t pay? What if they have no assets that the state can confiscate? They can spend several months in a so-called tax-prison and enjoy humane conditions….
And thus in the company of big fish, like businessmen owing the state several million euro or even billions! Like the man arrested on Thursday for allegedly owing the state 6.3 billion euro, as Greek media report.
PS I asked a friend “Will ever those who brought the country to this economic situation go to jail?” His advice was “Omit the question mark!”
back to Dickens & Little Dorrit times
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