Category: World
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Rule by troika
When no single party won an outright majority at the May 6 general election, Greece held a second election on June 17. The stock, bond and money markets were ecstatic when the right-wing New Democracy topped the poll and immediately formed a three-party coalition with Pasok, the social democratic party, and the Democratic Left party.…
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A nation out of work
Unemployment in Greece has reached a new record high in April of 22.5 per cent, up 0.5 from March. The jobless rate is now 6.3 per cent higher than one year ago and climbing. Greece, in the fifth year of recession, has twice the jobless rate of the average in the 17 countries sharing the…
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Graffiti with a message
Greece’s rising graffiti artist is a young local guy by the name of Kostas Louzis who signs his work “Skitsofrenis” (skitso is Greek for sketch). He’s a serious environmental activist whose biggest work spans an extraordinary three kilometres along the roadside from Kalamata to Sparta. The images are of a planet in agony – burnt…
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Sweden stalks Julian Assange
As the Australian Government – in the form of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and Foreign Minister Bob Carr – is cooperating in the extradition of Australian citizen Julian Assange to Sweden, I thought it was time to put the spotlight on the plucky Scandinavian kingdom. Most Australians regard Sweden as a shining…
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The right eye of Venice
Methoni at the south-west point of the Peloponnese was the “vine-producing Pedasus” of Homer’s Iliad. In the 13th century it became the biggest Venetian citadel outside Venice itself, and the ruins of the great fort are still there today, maintained (frugally) by the Department of Antiquities. Methoni was known as “the right eye of Venice”…
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Corruption pervades Greek arms contracts
Athenians are currently enthralled by the high-profile corruption case against one of the most senior members of the Pasok, “socialist” government, former Defence Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos. The ex-minister, his daughter Areti and his ex-wife Vicki Stamati are all in custody as evidence of complex money-laundering charges makes front-page news almost every day. As Defence Minister…
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The condition of Greek workers
On Monday former ACTU president Sharan Burrow, now general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), came to Athens to present the findings of a European survey of workers’ conditions at a press conference. The situation in Greece, she said, was now “dire”, with 91 per cent of Greek workers on reduced incomes. Warning…
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A tale of two cities
In London, Baron Green of Hurstpierpoint is the British Government’s Minister for Trade and Investment. Between 2003 and 2010 he was CEO and chairman of HSBC, the bank that laundered billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and pariah states. He is also an ordained minister of the Church of England who wrote the 1996…
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Into the wilds
We’ve been in the Deep Mani, the southernmost part of the Peloponnese, discovering stories of warrior women and relics of the one of the oldest known civilisations in all of Greece. Our way led over winding mountain coastal roads into the wildest, most barren landscape we’ve yet seen. Clinging to folds in the stony hills…
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A vision of classical Greece
It’s one thing to read about an early civilisation or see pictures of its monuments. But to stand above a great amphitheatre, and look across what remains of the city below, is something quite different. You feel its history all about you. Ancient Messini in the southern Peloponnese is one of the most significant sites…