How the world sees Greece
Greece 'making progress' on long path to growth: IMF The Daily Star But the IMF emphasised that "restoring growth remains the overarching precondition for whether Greece succeeds" in its bailout programme with the IMF and European Union, and much work remains to be done especially in terms of structural reforms. |
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Sleep proves how inequality touches even our most intimate lives – just ask those who toil for low pay with inadequate rest
For Bob Iger, boss of Disney, the day begins at 4.30am. "I exercise … I look at email. I surf the web. I watch a little TV, all at the same time. I call it my quiet time, but I'm already multi-tasking." Attaboy, Bob! Mind you, no early bird gets near a worm if Brett Yormark, chief executive of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, has his way. Brett's up by 3.30am and in the office within an hour, from where he bombards flunkies with apparently "motivational emails". Weekends are down time, so he only clocks in at 7am.
Some executives seize the day so firmly they might as well not bother with a kip at all. Take Dan Akerson, head of General Motors: he's up before dawn to phone subordinates in Asia, but has confessed to Associated Press that even sleeptime is plagued by the question, "Why is the stock not doing better?" Still, his schedule means such dark nights of the soul are at least ultra-short.
"Lunch is for wimps," claimed Gordon Gekko 25 years ago. But that fine aphorist of late capitalism missed an efficiency saving. Now it's sleep that's for wimps*. As the interviews quoted above show, business tycoons can barely greet a journalist without boasting about how early they rise and how much they pack in.
"Life is too exciting to sleep," the CEO of AOL, Tim Armstrong, told the Guardian last month. What pre-dawn enticements could he possibly mean? "Historically, I would start sending emails when I got up. But not everyone is on my time schedule." Tim's now a reformed, tranquil character. "I have tried to wait until 7am." He might once have seemed a bit of only-in-corporate-America exotica, but what was striking about that article was how British and European executives now seek to ape those early-to-rise habits: a fund manager up at 5am, an ad exec working out by 5.45.
The image Armstrong and his kind are seeking to project with such remarks is easy to read: look how productive I am. Employees, shareholders and pension-fund investors are meant to gaze in awe upon these treadmill-pounding, conference-calling, BlackBerry-monitoring titans of the corporate world. What inspiration! What value for money! Iger must be worth every penny of the total $40m (£25.7m) awarded him by Disney last year; never mind that it's 719 times what the median American household earned in the same year. GM may only have been kept afloat by the US government, but Akerson puts in enough hours to earn his $11.1m (£7.1m) pay package: a mere 198 times the average American household income.
Far be it for me to claim these people aren't toiling away. In previous periods of massive inequality, such as the 1920s, those at the top generally lived on inherited wealth or interest. One of the outstanding features of the new plutocracy is that they are working rich: corporate bosses, talented traders, hedge-funders. In George Osborne's dichotomy of strivers versus skivers, they fall on the government-approved side.
But no matter how dedicated or gifted, Bob Iger is certainly not doing the work of 719 American households. Nor is the average FTSE-100 chief exec on £4.7m a year (according to detailed research by the thinktank One Society published in September 2011) really working harder than 219 British workers – even if we take into account massive talent, diligence and responsibility. Such massive handouts are far less to do with actual input and far more to do with sweetheart deals doled out by remuneration committees and nodded through by apathetic fund managers.
Sure, it suits the right-wing propagandists to bang on about how busy the elite are. Indeed, one trope of this economic crisis is that the victims – be they Greek pensioners or British welfare claimants – are lazy or, as Osborne puts it, have "the curtains drawn all day". But it's a lie: studies show that people at the bottom of society have among the least amount of sleep – and the most disturbed. According to analysis conducted by Stella Chatzitheochari at the Institute of Education, 18% of men in routine jobs such as cleaning and waiting get less than 6.5 hours' sleep – against 13% of their professional counterparts or 15.9% of managers. And that, she points out, is before you take into account commuting times or shift work, both of which affect disproportionately those in the worst and most insecure jobs. Look at sleep for however a brief period and you see how inequality touches even our most intimate lives.
A couple of years ago, I interviewed a cleaner at Buckingham Palace. Anthony, as we called him, had to make a three-hour round trip to get to work from his one-room bedsit, because he couldn't afford rents any closer in. He did two jobs and relied on public transport and the result was three hours' sleep a night. By Friday night he was so exhausted, he would crawl into bed fully clothed and sleep until the next evening. Anthony's housing estate was full of people like him, he said: the cleaners, the cafe staff, the office security guards. And they were all doing the same sort of hours.
It didn't sound particularly heroic to me. But then Anthony hadn't chosen this lifestyle and he wasn't boasting; if anything, he seemed slightly ashamed. And Anthony and his neighbours don't get profiled in the papers.
* The internet claims the latter phrase was used by Margaret Thatcher, but it doesn't sound Iron Lady-like and isn't in my dictionary of quotations. Readers, help us out.
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Tax evasion by the wealthy and self-employed is leaving those on salaries and pensions to bear brunt of austerity measures
Greece has not done enough to clamp down on "notorious tax evasion" by the rich and self-employed, leaving those on salaries and pensions to take most of the pain from the austerity measures imposed as part of the country's €240bn (£202bn) bailout, according to a much-anticipated verdict on its economic measures published on Monday.
The International Monetary Fund, one of the contributors to the Greek bailout, also said – at the conclusion of its mission to the debt-laden, recession-hit country – that a "taboo against dismissals" in the overstaffed public sector had led to a surge in unemployment in the private sector.
Greece has pledged to cut about 20% of the public sector – or 150,000 jobs – between 2010 and 2015 to help reduce spending, but progress has been slow, while unemployment has topped 27%. A bill has been passed recently to allow 15,000 public-sector posts to be axed.
However, the IMF said Greece had made progress in a socially painful recession. It had made "exceptional" improvements on its fiscal position, its competitiveness and preserving stability in the financial sector. "The achievements to date are evidence of a very strong and persistent determination on the part of Greece and its European partners to do whatever it takes to restore Greece to a sustainable situation inside the euro area," the IMF said.
The debt-to-GDP ratio for Greece is around 160%, but the IMF has called for this to be cut to 120% by 2020, resulting in the imposition of tough conditions.
But restoring growth to the country is "the overarching precondition of whether Greece succeeds", according to the IMF. In the face of criticism that some of the problems were caused by austerity measures, the Washington-based fund said that the deeper-than-expected recession was caused by a loss of confidence, concerns about a euro exit and political uncertainty.
The IMF is concerned about the lack of structural reforms, which has left the rich relatively untouched in an economy where 70% of the income is declared by wage earners and pensioners. "Very little progress has been made in tackling Greece's notorious tax evasion. The rich and self-employed are simply not paying their fair share, which has forced an excessive reliance on across-the-board expenditure cuts and higher taxes on those earning a salary or a pension," the IMF said.
The government's medium-term reform programme assumes an improvement in tax collection of 1.5% of GDP, but the IMF regards this as "very ambitious", given progress so far. It said that, as well as improving tax collection, reform of the labour market was needed to open up competition, and more should be done to pare back the public sector. "Decisive corrective actions are needed in each of these areas to promote an early supply response and achieve a more balanced distribution of the burden of adjustment," the IMF said. "The mission welcomes that the government is refocusing its programme in recognition of these problems."
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IMF: Greece Making 'Progress' on Economy Reason Debt-laden Greece has made progress in improving its finances, but the country must do more to fight tax evasion, the International Monetary Fund has said. In a report, the IMF said Greece had made "exceptional" progress on reducing its budget deficit ... |
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IMF says Greece must move away from across-the-board budget cuts Kathimerini Greece needs to avoid across-the-board budget cuts that disproportionately hurt pensioners and employees as it moves into the next phase of its bailout and tries to restore growth, the International Monetary Fund said. Three years after receiving its ... |
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 Kathimerini | IMF's mixed report on Greece feeds into political row about economic recovery Kathimerini The report identifies Greece public debt as being too high and underlines that its eurozone partners will need to live up to their commitment to provide ìadditional relief if needed.î So far, the eurozone has not identified what this might be and all ... |
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 Kathimerini | Greece seeks stringent penalties for racist crimes Kathimerini The government is expected to table for public consultation in the coming weeks a new bill introducing tougher punishment for racist and xenophobic offenses, which will bring Greece in line with a European Union directive dating back to 2008. Skai TV ... |
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MUNICH (AP) — An alleged German neo-Nazi accused of involvement in a 10-person killing spree appeared confident and calm Monday as her murder trial opened amid tight security, intense media interest and an immediate request by the defense for a new judge.
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 Brisbane Times | Greek community's traditional home under threat - Brisbane Times Brisbane Times The traditional home of Brisbane's Greek community could be demolished to make way for a park, council documents show. The owners of Hellenic House in South Brisbane have asked to demolish four tin and timber properties on Russell and Browning ... |
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Greece schools unveil revamped website Rochester Democrat and Chronicle “One of our goals the district really wanted to work on was improving communications and our connections with the community,” said Jeff Henley, Greece's interim director of information technology. “So we started looking at different websites that were ... |
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Greeks are becoming increasingly vocal in their disgust at the presence of fascists on their political scene
For many Greeks, Orthodox Easter is a chance to see friends and family, to eat good food or to worship. But for the neo-Nazis in Golden Dawn, who only recently made the switch from "Hellenic" paganism to a professed love for Christianity, it has been an opportunity for propaganda. Last Thursday, the party made headlines with its attempt to stage a "Greeks-only" food distribution in Athens's Syntagma square. The next day, when Athenians were driving back to home towns and villages, Golden Dawn members held open motorway toll booths – which have become a symbolic point of resistance against the rising cost of living in the wake of austerity – so cars could pass for free.
Such stunts have become common for a party that seeks to exploit anger at Greece's social crisis, along with the undercurrent of racism that has accompanied it. As one Golden Dawn voter in the Athens suburb of Petropolis put it to me when I visited Greece last month, she saw them as the only party who would make politicians take responsibility for their "lying and cheating" against the people. She's not alone: almost a year after the elections that saw Golden Dawn shoot from obscurity to the third-largest party in Greece's parliament, it maintains a steady 10-12% in the opinion polls.
What is new, however, is that in the case of Syntagma, the event was prevented from going ahead in the square. A truck carrying food intended for distribution was blocked from entering the square by riot police, who then used teargas – a treatment usually reserved for leftwing demonstrators – to disperse about 50 Golden Dawn members who had assembled for the handout. Later, a Golden Dawn MP, Giorgos Germenis, tried to punch the Athens mayor, Giorgos Kaminis, who had requested the police intervention, as he moved to shut down a Golden Dawn stall selling Orthodox Easter candles to children. Germenis also reportedly reached for a gun – something he has since denied doing.
If the incident revealed something of the true face of Golden Dawn – cheap populist tricks, backed up by violent threats – it stands in sharp contrast to the general pattern. Its members frequently stage "Greeks-only" food handouts and blood donation drives, and they are rarely challenged by the authorities, despite the blatant racism of such initiatives, in a country where violence against ethnic minorities is on the rise.
This fits with a wider atmosphere of impunity. Klio Papapantoleon, a lawyer who has represented victims of assaults committed by Golden Dawn members, told me that the Greek justice system had been "unusually lenient" in judging them, while clients and witnesses had often been "obstructed and encumbered by police officers" when trying to pursue a complaint.
Encouraged by this treatment, Golden Dawn has been doing its best to sink roots into Greece's institutions, building networks of support inside the police force, entering hospitals and, perhaps most worryingly, trying to win teenage recruits by spreading its ideas in schools.
A recent Council of Europe report concluded that Golden Dawn's well-documented role in perpetrating racist violence meant it could be banned under existing laws, yet for now the Greek government seems unable or unwilling to act, preferring to mimic its rhetoric: in February, 85 MPs from New Democracy, the largest party in the coalition, signed a motion that called for anybody not of the "Greek race" to be barred from joining the country's police and armed forces. This contrasts with a recent crackdown on leftwing groups, which has included raids on squats, the closing of Athens Indymedia and the ongoing terrorising of villagers in the north of Greece opposed to a gold mining project.
Yet while journalists understandably want to draw attention to the threat Golden Dawn poses, every piece of sensationalist media coverage reinforces the party's deliberately crafted image. The violence it inspires is real enough, but Golden Dawn is far from being in a position of power. Its activist base remains small; it can not mobilise supporters in large numbers; and its rallies often take place unannounced, so that anti-fascist activists do not have time to gather and chase its members off the streets. The food handouts, staged mainly for the benefit of the media, pale in comparison with the network of solidarity initiatives like the "potato movement" – markets that allow farmers to sell their produce directly to customers, at around 30% less than supermarket prices – or volunteer-run medical clinics, or free after-school tuition for children, that are helping Greek people cope with the impact of mass unemployment and falling salaries. By contrast, as a member of Solidarity4All, a national network that co-ordinates such initiatives, described it to me, Golden Dawn's handouts are a grim affair: "They buy the food, they make everyone listen to 30 minutes of political speeches, then they make everyone wait in line. There's no co-operation."
What's more, many Greeks are simply disgusted by the presence of fascists on their political scene. They are becoming increasingly vocal about this, in public displays of solidarity with immigrants, as they did in a anti-fascist protest in Athens on 19 January, backed up by demonstrations outside Greek embassies around the world. Elsewhere, the expression has been more blunt: last month in Chania in Crete, angry residents threw the party's parliamentary candidate into the sea. International pressure has even forced the Greek government into making noises about tackling the problem, but it is at grassroots level where Golden Dawn is being opposed most effectively, and where it will ultimately be defeated.
One Golden Dawn member I interviewed last year, on condition of anonymity, put the party's appeal to me succinctly: "We do what others don't dare." This is posturing, and it can be broken. But it has to be broken now, before it's too late.
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IMF Warns of More Debt Relief Ahead for Greece ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル日本版 BRUSSELS—The International Monetary Fund reopened the debate over whether European governments will need to take losses on their bailout loans to Greece, stating Monday that Greece's debt remains "much too high" and European commitments to ... |
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MUNICH (AP) — A high-profile murder trial involving an alleged German neo-Nazi has been put on hold after defense lawyers accused the presiding judge of bias.
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MUNICH - The highest profile trial of neo-Nazis in years began Monday in Munich, with four men and a woman facing charges in the killings of nine ethnic minority businessmen — eight Turks and one Greek — and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007.
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MUNICH (AP) — The highest profile trial of neo-Nazis in years began Monday in Munich, with four men and a woman facing charges in the killings of nine ethnic minority businessmen — eight Turks and one Greek — and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007.
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 The Daily Star | Greek debt down but economy still limping eNCA The Fund called on the Greek government to strengthen the independence of the tax administration to make it easier to reform the system. It also said Greece must lay off public workers to be able to hire new qualified staff, and not just rely on ... Greece: IMF hails economic 'progress' but warns on tax evasion IMF Warns of More Debt Relief Ahead for Greece Greece must clamp down on tax evaders, says IMF |
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 BBC News | Greece: IMF report says economic 'progress' being made BBC News Debt-laden Greece has made progress in improving its finances, but the country must do more to fight tax evasion, the International Monetary Fund has said. In a report, the IMF said Greece had made "exceptional" progress on reducing its budget deficit ... |
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 Yahoo!7 News | IMF Says Greece Must Move Away From Across-the-Board Budget Cuts Bloomberg Greece (GDBR10) needs to avoid across-the-board budget cuts that disproportionately hurt pensioners and employees as it moves into the next phase of its bailout and tries to restore growth, the International Monetary Fund said. Three years after ... IMF slams Greece for 'notorious' tax evasion by rich, self-employed IMF: Greece making progress but must do more on taxes IMF Warns of More Debt Relief Ahead for Greece - NASDAQ.com |
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