CRISIS ATHENS: The price of everything, and the value of nothing.
One building ,not as yet for sale in central Athens is that of the left-wing Party led by Alexis Tsipras, Syriza. But across from that square and two blocks down, the People’s Republic of China has bought a building that was once a major department store.
“The Chinese already own half of Piraeus, and they are trying to buy the rest of it,” said a Greek businessman as we drove together Friday night to a restaurant in the outer southern suburbs of Athens.
“Over there – not far from the Syriza building – is an old warehouse bought by the Chinese,” another source told me as we walked about in the warmth of an Athenian early afternoon, “They have four floors in the building blocked off. Nobody knows what happens in there”.
Today, in April 2013, everything in Greece is for sale. Two days ago a small girl – aged no more than ten I would estimate – came up to me, playing her violin in a main market thoroughfare close to the Acropolis. She wasn’t much of a violinist, but after finishing the piece, she said something to me…and of course, I didn’t understand. A man watching nearby, resigned of expression, said “She is saying she costs very little for your pleasure”.
I gave the kid a small coin and asked the bloke if this was commonplace. “Not common,” he replied, “but not rare either. These bastards will reduce us to an animal state”. I wanted to ask him more, but he waved me away. I don’t blame him; imagine how I’d feel in my own country, being asked by a passing Swede if all English prepubescent kids now whored on the streets.
In a Telegraph piece posted last night from Rhodes by Harriet Alexander, she notes that a ……..
full article at source: http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/crisis-athens-the-price-of-everything-and-the-value-of-nothing/
Related articles
- CRISIS ATHENS: The price of everything, and the value of nothing. (hat4uk.wordpress.com)
- GREECE EXCLUSIVE: Tsipras dilemma as anti-euro feeling splits the Left (hat4uk.wordpress.com)
- CRISIS ATHENS: The price of everything, and the value of nothing. (philosophers-stone.co.uk)
- Tsipras clarifies stance on memorandum (ekathimerini.com)
- John Ward – Greece Exclusive : Tsipras Dillema As Anti-Euro Feeling Splits The Left – 18 April 2013 (lucas2012infos.wordpress.com)
- PASOK-SYRIZA: Tsipras And Venizelos Meet With Destructive NGO “Council On Foreign Relations” (xaameriki.wordpress.com)