Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic
What would YOU do?
Your country is on the verge of bankruptcy. The government owes billions to the national workers' health insurance funds. The government's deficit is double the EU limit. The education system is the worst of the EU-15 (European Union 15 member states prior to the latest countries who joined this year). Xenophobia is the highest in the EU-15. Over half the senior citizens live on less than 400€ a month. Unemployment is steadily increasing. The roads are abysmal resulting in many needless fatalities.
Would you blow 8 billion euros on the Olympic Games? Is that what your country needs? Apparently, that's what Gianna Aggelopoulou-Daskalaki thought her country of Greece needed.
She brought the games to Greece. She was the president of the Athens Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. The one who was basking in the glory of a 'successful' (whether they were a success for Greece, remains to be seen) games while they were here. But where will she be when it comes time to pay for the Games? Where will she be when she has to answer to the people for spending more than 6 billion euros over the initial budget of 2 billion euros?
Of course, she'll explain away the extra costs because of delayed construction and extra security. The security costs alone were 1.6 billion euros. Even if you remove that expense, the Games still cost Greece over triple the amount originally budgeted. The fact that the construction was delayed still falls under Gianna's responsibilities. After all, what part about "organization" didn't she understand when she became president of the Organizing Committee?
Did Greece really need more stadiums which will fall into disrepair immediately after the games? (This has already happened...newspapers have already published pictures of the garbage strewn about the stadiums;) Or did Greece need better schools, better healthcare, better roads, less bureacracy and long-term employment options by re-training workers and investing in new businesses? If you were anyone but Gianna and her cronies in the government, I'm sure you'd choose the latter options.
And that's not all she's responsible for. She also set fire to the Filothei forest behind her house with fireworks which took 75 firemen to extinguish. (Click for pics... http://www.scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/737/index.php) As far as I know, she has not been charged for this incendiary display which was not on the official Olympics program.
While Gianna and the members of the Greek government rearranged the deckchairs on their sinking ship this past summer, the Greek citizens worried the whole time about paying for such an expensive cruise.
Your country is on the verge of bankruptcy. The government owes billions to the national workers' health insurance funds. The government's deficit is double the EU limit. The education system is the worst of the EU-15 (European Union 15 member states prior to the latest countries who joined this year). Xenophobia is the highest in the EU-15. Over half the senior citizens live on less than 400€ a month. Unemployment is steadily increasing. The roads are abysmal resulting in many needless fatalities.
Would you blow 8 billion euros on the Olympic Games? Is that what your country needs? Apparently, that's what Gianna Aggelopoulou-Daskalaki thought her country of Greece needed.
She brought the games to Greece. She was the president of the Athens Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. The one who was basking in the glory of a 'successful' (whether they were a success for Greece, remains to be seen) games while they were here. But where will she be when it comes time to pay for the Games? Where will she be when she has to answer to the people for spending more than 6 billion euros over the initial budget of 2 billion euros?
Of course, she'll explain away the extra costs because of delayed construction and extra security. The security costs alone were 1.6 billion euros. Even if you remove that expense, the Games still cost Greece over triple the amount originally budgeted. The fact that the construction was delayed still falls under Gianna's responsibilities. After all, what part about "organization" didn't she understand when she became president of the Organizing Committee?
Did Greece really need more stadiums which will fall into disrepair immediately after the games? (This has already happened...newspapers have already published pictures of the garbage strewn about the stadiums;) Or did Greece need better schools, better healthcare, better roads, less bureacracy and long-term employment options by re-training workers and investing in new businesses? If you were anyone but Gianna and her cronies in the government, I'm sure you'd choose the latter options.
And that's not all she's responsible for. She also set fire to the Filothei forest behind her house with fireworks which took 75 firemen to extinguish. (Click for pics... http://www.scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/737/index.php) As far as I know, she has not been charged for this incendiary display which was not on the official Olympics program.
While Gianna and the members of the Greek government rearranged the deckchairs on their sinking ship this past summer, the Greek citizens worried the whole time about paying for such an expensive cruise.
Hello, another comment from me! So my darling witchie, I've known for a while now that your not exactly a card carrying member of the "I love Gianna Aggelopoulou-Daskalaki fan club" but come on, in this post you seem to be blaming her and her alone for pretty much everything from the crucifixion of Christ onwards.
First of all, the fire. Gianna threw a party on Saturday 14th August (one night after the magnificent opening ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games), the party was to celebrate what had been acomplished, after all the bad press the games had been recieving both at home and overseas, the venues were ready and the opening ceremony went without a hitch. So anyway, Gianna threw a party, and part of the party involved a firework display. Unfortunately during the display, something went wrong and they started a forest fire. However, you have to put these things in perspective, NOBODY lost their life thank God and at the end of the day, she had recieved permission for the display from the relevant authorities.
Now the site you link us too for the pictures is shocking. Basically the first line reads "a forest fire for the games", right so you really think for one minute that it was done on purpose? You think Gianna & Theodoros thought "well what can we do at our party thats really different?", thats unfair. If the truth be told, she was really upset about the fire and is paying for trees to be replanted. But that's not reported on the site you link too (it's a kind of 'power to the working classes' kinda site), uses words like "rich parasites" and they also seem to have a problem with the northern suburbs! But I'm sure the readers will see through that as quickly as I did.
As for the games, again you seem to blame Gianna and Gianna alone for bringing them here. Remember she was part of a bidding committee that the government backed so really if you have an issue about Greece even applying for them, maybe you should put your questions to them. I mean, you do a wonderful description of day to day life in Greece, you mention the roads, the economy, the xenophobia and them again use those statistics to attack Gianna. I find that amazing.
But anyway, I'll hush now! I look forward to tomorrows installment on your site :-)
Posted by
Anonymous |
10/11/04 18:18
EllasDevil...good post! Although I am genetically linked for life to the SeaWitch...it doesn't mean that I agree with EVERY word she says! You both raise valid points. I shall take them under advisement!
HRH Queen Bee
Posted by
Anonymous |
11/11/04 00:11