Posted on 06/21/2012 9:00:12 PM PDT by Veggie Todd
Starving Greeks queued around the block for free food handouts yesterday as the country's politicians managed to end a crippling stalemate to form a coalition government. Young children as well as the elderly waited in line in Athens to collect the parcels of fruit and vegetables donated by farmers from Crete to help ease the devastating austerity faced by many Greeks.
But as hungry people collected food, a few miles away a new conservative-led alliance was formed, vowing to renegotiate the country's strict European bailout in a bid to breath economic life back into the debt-stricken country.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161651/Starving-Greeks-food-thousands-politicians-finally-form-coalition-government--long-last.html#ixzz1yUWLjifR
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Is this ping-worthy?
LOL. I read it as starving GEEKS.... thought the IT business is in trouble there.
Coming soon to American cities near you ...
Is the Orthodox Church helping, as well?
One thing geeks don’t do is wait in line. Or rather, people disposed to waiting in lines do not possess the markers to become geeks.
If Greeks were really starving, we’d have photos of their physical condition instead pictures of people getting on line.
Gives meaning to the expression “Beware Greeks bearing gifts”.
The first picture is from the Ethiopian famine, and the second is from the Holocaust, where concentration camp inmates were deliberately served starvation rations.
At least their public employees unions still have their pensions though. That’s all that matters.
Also look up “Ukraine Famine 1932-1933” for more; Stalin’s “terror-famine in Ukraine” and “famine-genocide in Ukraine.”
Socialist PASOK party leader Evangelos Venizelos
Stupid comment. Of course, they’ve BEEN well-fed. Artificial prosperity based on borrowing and spending OPM is what led to the current situation. So many are noticeably rotund at present. However, If distribution of food and medicine to those in need doesn’t pick up soon there may be more resemblance coning between the photos than you would suppose.
That’s what I was wondering as well.
I’m not belittling people who may be in need, but this needs a little discernment.
I hope the churches are also helping them.
It's a bunch of BS. Even during the depths of the Great Depression, nobody starved, and that was before the Green Revolution that increased crop yields by an order of magnitude. Europe is self-sufficient in food. If people are prepared to do odd jobs and barter their labor while waiting for something better, they can eat without asking for handouts. But that would mean actually working for a living...
Not true. 4 million starved to death in the Great Depression.
Some folks don't have a clue.
/johnny
This is false.
My family watched some do that.
Spread your BS elsewhere. People died.
/johnny
Lies only work for a short time. I know myself. I know my enemy.
/johnny
And that the good guys wore White Hats, while the bad guys wore Black Hats.
Also people believe that there were Nazi Death Camps in Poland, but no Poles were killed.
I got news for you. If you had to 'eat' what they had, you would SWEAR TO GOD you were starving.
There are people that want to downplay our previous failures as humans. I understand that. But when I screw up, the only way to fix it is to admit it and move forward.
Too much TV in some cases. Too much communist propoganda in other cases.
/johnny
Lets us play. We've danced this dance before.
/johnny
While there is evidence that many people died from malnutrition, there is no evidence that millions of people died because of the Great Depression.
Greece has about 11 million people and is roughly the same area as Louisiana and the same population as Ohio.
To give this data some perspective, the largest US metropolitan area by population is the New York metro area with a population of 18.9 million. Second in size is the Los Angeles with a population of about 12.8 million. Chicago ranks third with 9.5 million.
Imagine what it is going to be like when the house of cards collapses here in the USA with 30 times the population of Greece.
Greece should follow Iceland’s lead and do something about their problem themselves starting with kicking the govt out, and then arresting the bankers
Interesting observation.
I wonder what precipitated the malnutrition if it wasn't the fact people had no jobs and no money to buy food.
Maybe people just decided to starve themselves and their kids to death to make the bankers and politicians look bad in the history books.
Rural farmers and their families didn’t go hungry, if they managed to keep the farm. They often had little else, but food was not one of their problems. Those who lost their farms, and many did, had a pretty tenuous existence. Poor and working class people in urban areas didn’t fare as well, and food was at times a problem. Hunger and malnutrition was more the issue than literal starvation as far as I know, in the United States. In other parts of the world, however, starvation was an issue, sometimes deliberate.
Bottom line, the mortality rate in the US didn’t spike during the Great Depression, in fact it continued to decrease throughout the 1930s.
If the Great Depression had caused many people to die, one would expect to see a rise in mortality during that period. And if 4 million people had died who otherwise would not have, it would have been a sharp rise.
“devastating austerity”
Yea, right. They’ve been sucking off the government teat and now they will suffer. I have no sympathy for them because they are just one domino in the line that is going to take everything down.
As long as they deal with Brussels, this is their future.
Go a week without eating and then describe how you feel. Are you starving or are you just going thru some Zen moment.
“Bottom line, the mortality rate in the US didn’t spike during the Great Depression, in fact it continued to decrease throughout the 1930s.”
Doesn’t mean people didn’t starve. You’re also assuming that causes of death were recorded accurately, which we know wasn’t always the case 80 years ago.
My family's little farm has been in the family for a long time, and was paid off. There was very little impact to them, other than the iceman being paid in eggs, the carpenter with chickens, milk, and vegetables, etc.
Nowadays, here, running a small farm is not a way to easy wealth, but if TSHTF, I am grateful I know how to raise vegetables and chickens.
I've underlined the key part. Doesn't mean they're actually starving yet. Just doing what comes naturally to people used to living off handouts in one form or another.
I’ve read that pensions have been cut, pay is miniscule, jobs are scarce, medical attention and drugs are scarce and expensive, but taxes and utilities have increased. So, if a box of groceries is on offer, it would be foolish to turn it down. The money can be used elsewhere. Families have doubled and tripled up and people are stockpiling fuel, mostly bottled gas, for cooking and warmth in the winter.
Also, as many preppers have advised, when everyone is hurting, even the prepared should accept the free food, so as not to stand out.
I saw this article a day or so ago and IIRC, the food was donated by Cypriot farmers. It is summer. One supposes there is agricultural excess. In an economic Depression, markets are likely depressed. Better to give away excess than let it rot.
As to starvation in the Depression, local elders have told us many stories of families eating pancakes 2x/day for years. Just pancakes. Potato soup was common. Summer was better. Hunters and fishermen and dairy farmers did ok for themselves. And yes, the government did come in and slaughter pigs to raise the price of pork for the middleman. They then implied to the city folk that the farmers were eating well, while they were not. Relatives who were urban have told me this and they believed it.
Hunger and malnutrition are painful and corrosive, as is poverty in the presence of high taxes and poor services. Until someone experiences it for themselves, it is probably best not to judge. I have concluded that, regardless of the Greek economic habits,the political economy encouraged dependence and discouraged participation in taxation. People are not individually blameless, but as things progress here at home, we see similar attitudes and behavior.
Deliberate phrasing to create the subliminal suggestion that "austerity" equates to "starvation".
This'll be us in ten years if we don't make drastic changes and get back to freedom and self sufficiency.
Agreed. It’s like the hunger task forces in many American cities. They tell stories of food pantries being emptied as signs that Americans are hungry. No, it’s just there’s free food being offered. Who am I going to believe: the do-gooders who say there’s thousands of hungry people in my part of the country or my lying eyes that see very large bellies (and other body parts) everywhere I look?
Agreed. It’s like the hunger task forces in many American cities. They tell stories of food pantries being emptied as signs that Americans are hungry. No, it’s just there’s free food being offered. Who am I going to believe: the do-gooders who say there’s thousands of hungry people in my part of the country or my lying eyes that see very large bellies (and other body parts) everywhere I look?
Baloney. Let's see your documentation.
Not only that, all the lefty rags would be still be screaming about the deaths as a failure of capitalism. Deaths from starvation surely would have been written about by many people.
People going hungry for a period of time is not the same as people starving. If you think people starved to death, let’s see your facts. Otherwise don’t make statements you can’t support.
“Otherwise don’t make statements you can’t support.”
Speaking of which why don’t you show where I stated people starved to death?
There is little difference between malnutrition and starving. If someone doesn’t eat for a week they are starving and probably suffering from malnutrition. Arguing about the difference is infantile.
The point of this thread is the Greek economy is collapsing and people don’t have enough to eat. There are a myriad of indications this could spread to numerous other countries in Europe and possibly the US.
Meanwhile you want to argue about what constitutes starving.
A very high percentage of Americans are living off handouts. I wouldn’t be so quick to condemn the Greeks when we are doing pretty much the same thing.
I quote: “doesn’t mean people didn’t starve.” By using that statement, you’re implying some people did starve. Show me the stories and facts about people starving during the Depression. Practically everyone of a certain age (I’m 62) has heard or read stories about how hard the Great Depression was from family members and/or historical literature. However, I’ve never read or heard one single piece of information stating that people starved. So I’d stay away from statements wondering if people starved if I have no facts to back it up.
“I quote: “doesn’t mean people didn’t starve.” By using that statement, you’re implying some people did starve.”
Yes some people did starve. Did I say they starved to death?
hmmm?
well no I didn’t. I don’t really care what you’ve heard. I’ve heard plenty and read plenty and its not my job to educate you.
These people are not starving. They are collecting free food. The headline is very misleading.
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