Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe

The Sunday Times (London ^

[quesney]

MAY DAY protests in Greece turned violent yesterday as youths in gas masks and hoods set fire to vehicles, smashed shop fronts and threw molotov cocktails and rocks at police in an explosion of fury over austerity measures they claim will hurt only the poor.

Tourists were cut off from their hotels as thousands of communists, civil servants and private-sector workers converged on a main square in Athens to vent their rage at the European Union and the IMF.

“No to the IMF’s junta,” they chanted as a youth in a black hood produced a hammer to try to smash windows of the luxury Grande Bretagne hotel.

Another painted anti-capitalist slogans on the facade, and demonstrators intervened to prevent him from spraying an Australian woman with paint as she tried to get back into the hotel. Japanese tourists stood taking photographs of the mayhem with mobile phones before being forced to retreat, coughing and sneezing, under a cloud of tear gas.

The violence came as negotiations were concluding between the socialist government of George Papandreou, the IMF and the EU over a multi-billion-euro rescue package.

Anger has grown against the EU for insisting on tough austerity measures in return for a bailout worth an estimated €45 billion (£39 billion) this year alone, and up to €120 billion (£104 billion) over three years.

Some young Greeks prefer to blame their elders for the mountain of debt that has resulted in Greece, like a wayward child, being placed under the tutelage of the men from the IMF.

“I cannot help but blame my parents a little for what’s happened,” said Achilles Zacharoulis, a 36-year-old cardiologist. “They were here all that time,” he added, referring to the past three decades of mismanagement and fiscal insanity. “But what did they do to stop it?”

[quesney]

Cradle of Western Civilization - a bad omen, for sure.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

[Constitutional Patriot]

This is what socialism does...but don’t count on the academic and political “elite” to understand.

[misterrob]

"“I cannot help but blame my parents a little for what’s happened,” said Achilles Zacharoulis, a 36-year-old cardiologist. “They were here all that time,” he added, referring to the past three decades of mismanagement and fiscal insanity. “But what did they do to stop it?”"

[Carley]

They kept voting for promises of more and more and more ‘benefits’ Such as 50 hours pay for 40 hours work.

Retirement early for hazardous work, such as being a hairdresser.

America has A class of lazy louts just like that. We cannot let them win.

WE CAN SEE NOVEMBER FROM OUR HOUSE

[livius]

Achilles himself has probably been used to getting government freebies all his life, so maybe he should quit blaming his parents. At 36, he’s old enough to have tried to do something about it if he really didn’t like it.

[LibertyRocks]

Ah.... so the anarchists DID make an appearance for their beloved “May Day” (aka “International Worker’s Day) “celebrations” (aka violent riots).

[SkyPilot]

“We will live much worse than our parents,” he said. “Why should we be made to pay for their mistakes?” ...............Mikis Theodorakis, the 84-year-old musician who composed the score for the film Zorba the Greek, calls for revolt against what he sees as an American plot to turn Greece into a “protectorate”. Bureaucrats will raise their fists at the barricades in a general strike and protests on Wednesday to protect their considerable perks from the IMF. They and other public sector workers are virtually unsackable, can retire as early as 45 and get bonuses for using a computer, speaking a foreign language and arriving at work on time. Some of them get as many as four extra months’ salary a year, compared with the 14 months that are paid to other Greek workers. One of the most generous bonuses is paid to unmarried daughters of dead employees in state-controlled banks: they can inherit their parents’ pensions. Stefanos, 49, seems to embody the Greek good life. He retired as an army captain last year on a full pension and says he is quite happy planting his garden. He worries, though, about how to protect his savings from the crisis. “What about banks in Germany?” he asked friends around a dinner table in Athens. “There’s an awful lot of fat to cut from the system,” says Yannis Stournaras, a former government financial adviser, in what sounded like understatement. He is considered one of the architects of Greece’s entry into the euro zone in 2001 but dismisses as “utter nonsense” allegations that Greece fudged its figures in order to be admitted.

Yes, that sure does sound like America.

Boomers (and technically I am one) who never thought the bill would come due, and now that it is here, they are trying to slip out the back door before the waiter comes back with the manager.

The "worst generation."

[Leisler]

They are the benefactors.

"“I cannot help but blame my parents a little for what’s happened,” said Achilles Zacharoulis, a 36-year-old cardiologist. “They were here all that time,” he added, referring to the past three decades of mismanagement and fiscal insanity. “But what did they do to stop it?”"

This is happening all over the world. The old enslaving the young with debts. Japan, Europe, even China have declining populations. Countries like the Netherlands, their two main cities the majority of school children( the future ) are Muslim. I don't see them as willing acceptor of old, white, Christian debts. They'll not pay, and who's going to make them?

[Oldeconomybuyer]

"This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many."

-Barack Hussein Obama

[flaglady47]

“Boomers (and technically I am one) who never thought the bill would come due, and now that it is here, they are trying to slip out the back door before the waiter comes back with the manager.

The “worst generation.””

Oh, I don’t know. I too am of the boomer generation, the oldest end of it, however, it was my parents’ generation who voted Franklin Roosevelt, next door to a Commie, into office election after election. And it was my parents’ generation that gave their children everything they wanted as they didn’t want them to be poor like so many of them had been. Now, they worked their derrieres off to do so, with the best of intentions, but maybe that didn’t work out so well as it produced generations that felt entitled to all of the good things in life.

We all need to get back to basic values again, and this last deep recession (which we are still in, IMO) might be the boomer generation’s wake-up call. That and the Commie/Pinko Obama being in office and destroying all they have spent their lives working for, namely a comfortable retirement. A real eye opener for the boomer generation.

[Yardstick]

calls for revolt against what he sees as an American plot to turn Greece into a “protectorate”.

When VDH was travelling around Europe a year or so ago, he mentioned that the Greeks were the most socialist of all the Europeans, and the most reflexively anti-American.

[kindred]

This is what is coming quickly to America under the marxist obamanation of desolation administration.
Americans elected the communists and now they complain about economic disaster yet never consider that their obamanation is the reason and continue to blame the right for their own stupidity.

[kindred]

[-Barack Hussein Obama]

America,s first elected communist President and his dem and rino congressmonsters are doing their best to destroy all remnants of freedom that are left.
And the majority of fool Americans elected the monsters who are destroying America.
Stupid is as stupid does.

[riri]

I cannot help but blame my parents a little for what’s happened,” said Achilles Zacharoulis, a 36-year-old cardiologist. “They were here all that time,” he added, referring to the past three decades of mismanagement and fiscal insanity. “But what did they do to stop it?”" How have you been voting Achilles?

Here in Sweden, I want to shake the old people and say "Look what you've built, look at this --- YOU DID THIS! "

[rigelkentaurus]

“Boomers (and technically I am one) who never thought the bill would come due, and now that it is here, they are trying to slip out the back door before the waiter comes back with the manager. The “worst generation.”” I blame the generation that in in the early 1900s voted for the first Progressives (socialists, marxists, fascists, whatever you want to call them) including Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Willson. They also allowed the Constitution to be perverted with the 16th and 17th amendments which opened the door to tyranny. The next generation voted for Roosevelt who pushed the ball down the road, greatly extended the depression yet got credit for being good for the US? Then, the voted allowed LBJ to make it worse with the "Great Society". Boomers, of which I am one, could not get Congress under control even though we voted for Reagan twice. The Constitution was broken in 1913 - and that is the root cause of what we are reaping now.

[1234]

...Countries like the Netherlands, their two main cities the majority of school children( the future ) are Muslim.

this 'cause there are many Dutch converts, or immigration?

[Leisler]

Immigration and birth rates. The Muslim birthrate is, roughly, three times the Dutch, especially the urban Dutch. Rural, more conservative ( conservatives everywhere like children ) have a good, above replacement rate.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

“And it was my parents’ generation that gave their children everything they wanted as they didn’t want them to be poor like so many of them had been.”

It is not the fault of parents “giving their children anything”. The problems began, and are continued by allowing the communists and socialists to “guilt” us into believing that everyone is “entitled” to everything. They set up the welfare state to ensure that no matter how hard you worked, o matter how successful you were, the government would take your wealth and spread it around. Meanwhile, the lazy, criminal and non productive would be given more and more of your wealth, for the “common good”.

It has nothing to do with “bills coming due”. The financial meltdown and bankruptcy of this and other nations is by design to enrich the masters and keep them in power by employing all the “Cloward-Piven” strategies.

It worked. I don't believe there is going to be any peaceful means of undoing it at this point.