Posted on 05/07/2010 3:36:40 PM PDT by RightOnline
We've all been watching the video of the Greek riots of late. The coverage, even on Fox News, seems to be clearly implying that the Greek citizenry are angry over upcoming spending cuts due to Greece's horrific financial situation, need for EU bailout monies, etc. In effect, we are being told that this is just a bunch of spoiled brats who are used to sucking off of the public teat and are angry that their cushy pensions, etc. may be cut even slightly.
Well, according to a conversation I had this afternoon, this is anything but the case.
I have a good friend in Massachusetts who is Greek (artist by profession). Born in Greece, parents moved to the U.S. some years ago and are successful restauranteurs. Dual citizenship....Greek, U.S. Their ties to the "home country" are very wide and very deep. They speak Greek around the house and the restaurant...you get the idea.
According to my friend, what is REALLY happening is something completely different from what we're being told, and also explains why Washington is very concerned. I don't claim this to be the gospel truth, I only report to you, my fellow FReepers and lurkers, what I've been told by someone close to the situation whom I trust.
They're fed up. They're fed up with a corrupt, Socialist government. They're fed up with cronyism. They're fed up with rights and freedoms being taken away. They're fed up with watching their national treasure being squandered. They're fed up with the fact that their voices are not being heard and have NOT been heard for years.
Greece is the cradle of Democracy, and they are a fiercely proud people. We've all been led to believe (yes, including me) that they drank the Socialist Kool-Aid and sold their collective soul to the State for a false sense of security.
Instead.....I'm trying to choose my words carefully here......it seems that what we are seeing is something akin to our Tea Party movement, but VERY angry and even violent and not organized. Their citizens are furious. The announced cuts to pensions, etc. were not the 'cause'; merely a straw that broke the camel's back.
IF what my friend says is true, then I will say I have a whole different perspective on what is going on there, and even a new respect for the Greek citizens themselves. No, NO one has the right to torch a bank and kill employees inside. Violence is NOT the answer. That said, I think we can all agree that a citizenry will only take so much before they finally take to the streets.
I'm not Greek and have never set foot in the country. I merely pass this on as (rather impassioned) input from someone I respect and trust and who is very, very close to the reality that is Greece today. If this is closer to the truth, and if the same is inevitable soon in Portugal, Spain, and Italy......could this possibly signal the beginning of the end of European-style Socialism? Is that why Obama & Co. are actually watching events in Greece so closely, possibly concerned that the same could happen here?
Food for thought. I say we give the Greeks the benefit of a doubt, and I encourage the media to dig much deeper and speak with people on the streets there to better understand their anger and frustration. We just may find that we have far more in common with them than we have differences.
Wrong characterization in this case. I think we’ve all experienced such people in life (”gee, my country has it ALL right and you Americans are so screwed up on A or B or C....”). Not the case here; no idealistic or romantic view of the ol’ home country. I’ve heard FAR more criticism of “the home country” than I’ve ever heard praise. That’s why the conversation today really got my attention. They are constantly in touch with family and friends back home. Again, just reporting here what I was told. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if the media have this all screwed up. Guess time will tell.
Dukakis?
Further,I personally abhor "dual citizenship";it only ensures divided loyalties.
Exactly. I pointed this out to my friend, as well. What they really need is a Tea Party movement of their own: pretty organized, based upon strong core beliefs, and committed to good behavior and non-violence.
Clearly a lot of the rock & bottle throwers in Greece are anarchists, leftists, troublemakers, etc. However, they don’t represent the REAL reasons Greeks are so angry with their government.
Hint: I don’t speak Greek. Answer your ‘question’?
The common man always wants a bit better deal, and is usually willing to vote for someone who will give him more for less. It is human nature that is at fault. The United States Constitution was crafted with checks and balances in place to prevent this tendency from creating the current conditions.
The left has worked for decades to weaken and break those chains, and have made great progress in doing so.
Intimating that TEA Party people have much in common with rioting communists is a stretch.
Many foreigners assume,correctly,that few Americans know anything other than English.And if you are an American who does understand the visitors' language it can be very revealing if you do NOT let them know it.
Now, I'm not coming down particularly on the Greeks, but the "common man" here in the United States is now nearly 50% on the public dole in one way or another.
Yourself excepted of course, but most of our "common man" folks on the street are more and more these spoiled brats who vote only based on what's in it for them, hat in hand, gimme, gimme, gimme.
Let's not kid ourselves about the root cause of the problem, politicians do only what they need to be re-elected, it's the "common man" who keeps voting for the politician who promises them the most pie.
Guess you still don’t get it. I give up.
I think they are rioting because they want more pie!
Riots like these are organized by unions with deep communist ties. They don't necessarily want more, but they don't want lose what they have, which is what will happen if new austerity measures are put in place. I would be inclined to put more stock in this story if the protests were peaceful, like our tea party gatherings, but these were violent protests...the hallmark of communists and anarchists.
Did someone say more PIE?
True story, much like the ending of Atlas Shrugged.
What worries me though?
Where are WE going to move to when collapse of the United States of America draws a bit closer...
From what I have read from the horse’s mouths in blogs, the violence is being led by anarachists and Muslims who are flat out communists (black shirts) like our labor union and SDS asses. However, there may be many of the protestors who are as you say - want to end the communists’ corruption and return to freedom. They reject the choice being given to them of global banksters or communists. For us the global banksters are the Demorepublcrat party.
It is the communists tossing the violent fit that they are losing power over the Treasury. I am sure there are others who are against them and want Western freedom restored.
If the Greeks "back home" are rioting then they are part of the problem ,not the solution.And if the "good Greeks" have only now thought of doing something about their country,then they must have been content to live with the problems.
The types of Greeks that firebombed that bank and burnt three people to death have absolutely nothing to do with the types of Greeks that your friend and his family represent.
It is like comparing the Tea Party protesters in America with the Anarchist rioters at WTO Conferences. Although both are angry, they are coming from totally opposite poles.
Tea Party protesters and conservative Greeks like your friend are angry that Left-wing politics are bleeding America and Greece dry.
The Anarchists, the Leftists and the union thugs that are rioting in Greece are angry that the blood for them to feed off of does not keep gushing out of the national carotid arteries once Greece has been bleed dry. They demand that Germany slit open up its financial veins to keep the blood supply flowing .... or else they will riot and kill.
My interpretation of events in Greece is that both perceptions are correct. The demonstrators and rioters are unified only by their opposition to the socialist government, but there are at least three entirely different dissatisfied groups.
- Communists and “anarchists” of various stripes who comprise most of the rioters and all of the really serious violence. They want a fundamental transformation. Communists and anarchists are differentiated mainly by their favorite colors, red and black, respectively and their favorite slogans. Their political agenda would lead to the same end result if one or another prevails. This group would include almost all of the sociopaths. They also get the lion’s share of time on TV news because they supply the action.
- Employees of government and government-owned enterprises, pensioners, and other welfare state recipients. They want the status quo of the good old days of relatively high salaries along with Christmas bonuses, Easter bonuses, and summer vacation bonuses of one month’s pay each and other special allowances. They contribute the largest numbers to the crowd, but only a small percentage would toss a brick at the police unless provoked.
- Productive people who have been overtaxed for far too long to pay for government excess and deprived of their individual liberty by big welfare-state government. They’re highly annoyed that they will pay the bill for all of the austerity measures taken by Parliament, which include higher income, property, and business taxes and a 23% VAT.
My Greek friends have told me that Communism is popular among college students, but after they graduate and get a job the vast majority understand fully that it is nonsense. They likened it to the way a child eventually learns that Santa Clause isn’t real.
But consider this. How long have we put up with the same things from Washington? How long have we sat on our collective asses and watched Washington (especially Roosevelt, Johnson, Carter) grow Big Government....and stayed largely silent?
The Tea Party movement, God bless ‘em, is a VERY recent phenomenon. The Greeks don’t have such an organization (not yet, at least). In today’s society, there is still a Silent Majority that feels largely powerless in the face of monolithic central government(s). This is what happens in nations vs. city-states. We are only just now understanding how to make OUR voices heard.
Guess the Greeks need to do the same. Rioting isn’t the answer and neither I nor my friend suggested otherwise. Violence is not the answer......but we all know that an angry populace will only stay angry AND silent for so long.
Thank you for your post. Having a fair number of friends who live or have ties to those who live outside the US, I don’t doubt for a moment that we’re not getting the whole picture. People in other countries certainly don’t even come close to getting the whole picture about what’s happening in the USA.
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