Πέρα από γυναίκες, βγάζουν τα ψυχοσωματικά τους και σε σκυλιά... _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Meet Sausage the riot dog, an amiable ginger mongrel resident of Syntagma Square in central Athens, who doesn't mind if you show up for a day of mayhem as long as he can join in. It's made him a local celebrity. He's appeared on the front of just about every newspaper in Greece and wagged his tail on TV screens and websites around the world. (Reuters)
The EU's latest NWO fighting force to quell potential rebellions....
http://www.eurogendfor.eu/
"The European Gendarmerie Force (EGF) is an initiative of 5 EU Member States - France, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain – aimed at improving the crisis management capability in sensitive areas. Since Wednesday, 17th December 2008, the High Level Interdepartmental Committee Meeting (CIMIN) decided to welcome the Romanian Gendarmerie to become a full member of the EGF. Therefore the EGF consists from that moment of 6 member states.
EGF responds to the need to rapidly conduct all the spectrum of civil security actions, either on its own or in parallel with the military intervention, by providing a multinational and effective tool.
The EGF will facilitate the handling of crisis that require management by police forces, usually in a critical situation, also taking advantage from the experience already gained in the relevant peace-keeping missions.
Based in Vicenza in the "Generale Chinotto" barracks, the EGF HQ is now developing a comprehensive and coherent operational system, which will permit to be ready in case of prompt deployment to crisis areas.
EGF goal is to provide the International Community with a valid and operational instrument for crisis management, first and foremost at disposal of EU, but also of other International Organizations, as NATO, UN and OSCE, and ad hoc coalitions."
From the same site and under Frequently Asked Questions, and I quote:
"Q.1.i. Who gives the mandate for operations in which the EGF is involved?
Ans. The EGF will always be deployed on a clear legal basis. Usually the mandate will be based on relevant UN Security Council Resolutions or on political guidelines from EU or other international organisations that intervene in the field of crisis management."
"Q. 2.c. What are the tasks the EGF can perform?
Ans. In accordance with the mandate of each operation, the EGF can perform a broad spectrum of activities related to its own police capability, such as:
- performing security and public order missions;
- monitoring of and advice for local police in their day-to-day work, including criminal investigation work;
- conducting public surveillance, border policing and general intelligence;
- performing criminal investigation work, covering detection of offences, tracing of offenders and their transfer to the appropriate judicial authorities;
- protecting people and property and keeping order in the event of public disturbances;
- training of police officers as regards international standards;
- training of instructors, particularly through co-operation programmes.
"
Ok I might not have a complete understanding yet but I can just about make out the outline of their operations. The other question remains ananswered:
...what is Eurogendfor doing in Greece?
Greek online blogs (all in Greek I am afraid but I list some below) are circulating reports that Eurogendfor has arrived in Greece this week. No official response to confirm or deny this, where is the truth?
How can one know the facts and why are the Greek mainsteam media not commenting on this issue?
I typed the word Eurogendfor in the BBC News, Guardian, The Independent search engines, no results came up.
For months the austerity program unfolded by the Greek government as a result of the IMF/EU requirements for budget deficit reduction has resulted in vibrand protest movement expressed through public protests & multiple strikes. Even retired policemen, retired army reservists have gone protesting as organised groups via their unions and associations. The Greek Riot Police (MAT) have been beating up protesters for weeks. Is it conceivable that EGF will be mobilised in Greece?
I hope the reports are unfounded and have only been spread to monitor public reaction, or could it be a hoax?. No Greek in their right mind would authorise the deployment of such force against protestors any such politician would be named a traitor, this is how the Greek psychi works, surely they know. It would finish PA.SO.K.
But if Eurogendfor is in Greece but not to fight the protestors then we have to ask again what they are doing in Greece?
Published: 19 October, 2011, 11:12
Edited: 19 October, 2011, 16:16
https://www.rt.com/news/greeks-strike-protest-biggest-163/
People demonstrate in front of the Greek parliament in Athens on October 19, 2011. (AFP Photo / Aris Messinis)
Police and protesters in Athens clash outside the parliament as the so-called “mother of all strikes” is underway in Greece. Around 125,000 people are taking part in the largest protest since financial turmoil began crippling the country.
In front of the parliament building, sounds like flashbangs just off Syntagma Square, used by police to stun, attract loud boos whenever they go off, as RT's correspondent Sara Firth reports.
The 48-hour general strike has started on Wednesday ahead of the parliamentary vote on Thursday. Parliament is still pressing ahead with another key vote to squeeze spending even further to stave off a catastrophic national bankruptcy.
Emergency powers have been invoked to force garbage crews to get back to work as an escalating campaign of strikes by public servants and other unions against austerity measures has crippled services in Greece. Garbage is left on every single street and corner. On Tuesday, which saw the 17th day of a collectors’ strike, Prime Minister George Papandreou issued a civil mobilization order.
The country is caught between severe opposition at home and intense pressure from foreign investors. Many analysts share the opinion that over the past weeks and months the eurozone leaders should have adopted a different option from the very beginning of the entire crisis, and that now there is no Plan B. There have been talks of a possible default for Greece. In the meantime, the people of Greece seem to have reached breaking point from the authorities’ severe austerity measures. _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Papandreou resigned in the summer in the midst of a 48hour strike and then re-called it.
He has already gone to see the President and has been in meetings with the leader of the 'Opposition'. That he has lost all credibility can be clearly discerned from the videos.
The issue is when he goes does the Euro go into meltdown or are they going to keep him hanging like a zombie alive when the situation goes totally out of control Argentinian style?
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 11162 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:52 pm Post subject:
Greek Parliament Passes Additional Austerity Measures
Published: Thursday, 20 Oct 2011
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44978274?
Greek lawmakers have passed a deeply resented austerity bill that has led to violent protests on the streets of Athens, despite some dissent from one Socialist lawmaker.
Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest against plans for new austerity measures on October 19, 2011 in Athens, Greece.
The new measures include pay and 30,000 staff cuts in the civil service as well as pension cuts and tax hikes for all Greeks. The bill passed by majority vote in the 300-member parliament.
Former Labor Minister Louka Katseli voted against one article that scales back collective labor bargaining rights. She voted in favor of the overall bill, but Prime Minister George Papandreou expelled her from the party's parliamentary group. The move whittles down his parliamentary majority to 153.
The vote came after violent demonstrations that left one person dead and 74 injured.
Default or credit event to occur now on Wednesday for the EU?
I'm sick of your constant criticism says sneering Sarko: French president tries to bar Cameron from crucial single currency meeting
‘You say you hate the euro, you didn’t want to join and now you want to interfere in our meetings’
Tempers frayed as leaders took steps towards a deal to strengthen the banking system, boost bailout funds and write off a chunk of Greece’s debts
By James Chapman
Last updated at 12:51 PM on 24th October 2011
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy told David Cameron he was ‘sick’ of his advice over the eurozone crisis last night as the EU summit ended in acrimony and indecision.
The pair clashed because Britain was pushing for a full meeting of all 27 EU leaders next week, rather than allowing the 17 countries in the euro to stitch up a deal on their own.
‘We’re sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do,’ the French leader is said to have told the Prime Minister in Brussels. ‘You say you hate the euro, you didn’t want to join and now you want to interfere in our meetings.’
Talking tough: Cameron said Britain would never join the euro
Biting back: French president Nicolas Sarkozy told David Cameron he was 'sick' of his advice over the eurozone crisis
Biting back: French president Nicolas Sarkozy told David Cameron he was 'sick' of his advice over the eurozone crisis
Mr Cameron’s gift of a pink woollen blanket for Mr Sarkozy’s new baby daughter Giulia apparently did little to lighten the mood.
The president went on to say he was ‘sick’ of picking up newspapers and reading advice on the eurozone crisis from the Prime Minister and Chancellor George Osborne.
More...
Cameron faces the mutineers: Talk of EU treaty fans the flames
Tory rebels face disciplinary action if they snub three-line whip on EU vote, Defence Secretary warns
SIMON HEFFER: Why the PM ignores the publicat his peril
Don't know why you're in the doghouse? Don't pass the buck, eat humble pie instead: New guide explains origins of well-known phrases... in a nutshell
Tempers frayed as leaders took tentative steps towards a deal to strengthen the banking system, boost bailout funds for debt-stricken economies and write off a huge chunk of Greece’s towering debts.
Europe’s 13th crisis management summit in less than two years ended with leaders having to agree to meet again on Wednesday to seek a comprehensive solution to the debt contagion threatening the future of the single currency.
Showdown: David Cameron pictured in Downing Street this morning ahead of the crunch debate on EU membership
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne arrives at Downing Street
Commons showdown: David Cameron and George Osborne are pictured in Downing Street this morning ahead of the debate on EU membership later
Angela Merkel presents Sarkozy with a teddy bear for his new baby daughter Giulia while David Cameron gave the French President a pink woollen blanket
Angela Merkel presents Sarkozy with a teddy bear for his new baby daughter Giulia while David Cameron gave the French President a pink woollen blanket
PUGH.jpg
Fears are growing that the package of measures will not be enough to withstand potential future economic shocks – amid warnings that Greece could swallow all the remaining eurozone bailout cash on its own.
And news of a slowdown in both manufacturing and services will do little to restore faith in the economic prospects of a Europe already afflicted with sluggish growth figures.
There is mounting alarm about the state of the Italian economy and its failure to take steps to get on top of its debts, which stand at 120 per cent of national income.
Ultimately, the Prime Minister had his way and another full meeting of all 27 EU leaders was agreed – though this will mean him having to tear up his travel plans for the week.
Proposed trips to Japan and New Zealand will be cancelled, while the Prime Minister is likely to arrive late for a Commonwealth summit in Australia with the Queen.
Mr Cameron won agreement from other leaders for unspecified ‘safeguards’ for Britain and other non-euro countries against potentially damaging rulings from a new, more closely integrated eurozone.
RECESSION FEARS OVER SLUMP IN MANUFACTURING AND SERVICES
Fears that the eurozone will slide back into recession intensified today as data revealed the fastest contraction in the manufacturing and services sectors for two years.
The bleak economic data will heap further pressure on politicians to thrash out a set of measures to rescue the eurozone's finances and restore market confidence.
The Markit eurozone purchasing managers index (PMI), where a figure under 50 indicates a decline, fell to 47.2 in October, its lowest since July 2009 and the second month in a row in which it has been in negative territory.
Markit's chief economist Chris Williamson said: 'The PMI signals a heightened risk of the eurozone sliding back into recession.'
Markit said manufacturing output fell for the third month running in October, while services activity fell for the second month, with the powerhouse German economy also showing signs of a slowdown.
Mr Williamson went on: 'Forward-looking indicators, such as the further lowering of expectations of services growth in the year ahead and the near-stalling of job creation, suggest that companies are bracing themselves for the situation to continue to deteriorate.'
In Germany, the manufacturing sector slipped into decline, while the country's overall output slipped to a modest increase compared to the strong growth seen in the first half of the year.
France saw a fall in private sector output for the first time in more than two years, led by 'a worryingly steep deterioration' in the service sector.
The only ray of hope was that price pressures have eased, especially in manufacturing, where they fell for the first time in more than two years.
After hours of talks, the leaders agreed that European banks will need Ł94billion of fresh capital over the next six to nine months to shield themselves against potential debt defaults by EU countries.
But the figure falls short of some market estimates of the necessary recapitalisation. A recent International Monetary Fund report identified a Ł175billion black hole in banks’ balance sheets stemming from sovereign debt writedowns, while other experts put the figure higher still.
Mr Cameron urged eurozone leaders to deliver a credible response to restore market confidence in the single currency.
After the six-hour summit in Brussels, he warned that the crisis was having a ‘chilling effect’ on all 27 EU economies, adding: ‘While the UK is not in the eurozone and has no intention of joining, it is in Britain’s interest to have a strong and healthy euro. Do people have the confidence that the eurozone is putting in place what’s needed to contain any contagion? We need further progress to that decisive solution.’
Mr Cameron repeated his pledge never to join the euro, describing it as ‘like the ERM [the disastrous Exchange Rate Mechanism] without an exit’. Greece and Portugal are already on life support, having had to be bailed out by eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.
Those two countries – and probably Italy and Spain – are expected to need more help to meet the new requirements for banks to protect themselves by holding more capital. Of Ł383billion in the Eurozone’s bailout fund, Ł116billion has already been spent propping up Greece, Portugal and Ireland’s struggling economies.
But more of the fund is likely to have go to Greece to stop it defaulting on its borrowing – and Italy alone is likely to need another Ł218billion next year just to service its existing debts.
Other countries will not be able to meet the bill for propping up banks deemed to be dangerously exposed to sovereign debt themselves.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that if Italy’s debt remains at 120 per cent of gross domestic product ‘then it won’t matter how high the protective wall is because it won’t help win back the markets’ confidence’.
Author: Yves Smith · October 23rd, 2011 · Comments (2) Share This Print 0 13
In the runup to the crisis, it was striking to read the undertone of worry in quite a few of the articles in the Financial Times, and I don’t mean only Gillian Tett’s fixation on collateralized debt obligations. It was palpable that a lot of writers were uncomfortable with how frothy the markets were, yet couldn’t say anything too much at odds with what their largely cheerleading sources were telling them.
Even though the overall mood at this juncture is far more downbeat, there is again a reporting gap between the pink paper and the two major US print business outlets, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times on the expected crisis nexus, the Eurozone. Both US media outlets have a prominent article on the latest Euro exercise in rescue brinksmanship. And they are almost the same story; indeed, at this hour, they perversely use identical photos of Merkel and Sarkozy conferring. They present the formerly aligned core nation leaders as being at odds, then widen the frame to explain the divisive issues. First,, the Germans want a deeper but voluntary haircut of at most 50% of Greek debt; the French do not want to go beyond the 21% reduction structured last July. The steeper writeoff would, of course, lead to a bigger hit to French banks. Second France (effectively) wants the ECB to provide further leverage to the EFSF directly, while Germany and the ECB itself are decidedly opposed (Germany wants individual states to be responsible for their banks, with the ECB acting as a guarantor). The Journal was thinner on details and focused on the hardening political stances, not just between France and Germany, but other states as well. Per the Journal:
People familiar with the negotiations said Germany and France remain so far apart on key issues that Ms. Merkel couldn’t get a green light to sign a deal from her increasingly assertive parliamentarians.
If you rated these articles as sobering, the far more detailed coverage at the Financial Times has an undertone of despair. And one story emphasizes an issue absent from the times and mentioned only in passing in the Journal: the experiment in Greece in radical austerity is killing the patient. From the Financial Times:
Greece’s economy has deteriorated so severely in the last three months that international lenders would have to find €252bn in bail-out loans through the end of the decade unless Greek bondholders are forced to accept severe cuts in their debt repayments.
The dire analysis, contained in a “strictly confidential” report by international lenders and obtained by the Financial Times, is more than double the €109bn in European Union and International Monetary Fund aid agreed just three months ago.
Under a more severe test run by economists for the so-called “troika” of lenders – the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission – Greece’s bail-out needs could balloon to €444bn, the study said.
Now before you attribute this shortfall to civil disobedience, which has been a contributor, an even bigger factor seems to be a major breakdown of a wide range of critical operations, such as power and garbage collection. And the bailout plan had some absurd assumptions, such as forecasting proceeds from infrastructure sales that were three times the level private sources expected them to fetch.
A must-read set of on-the-ground accounts in the Guardian (hat tip reader FlyingKiwi) gives a sense of how bad things are:
The poor and middle classes are being asked to pick up the bill for the excesses of the rich and corrupt; those who have declared their taxes correctly continue to be taxed more than those who don’t; and in a country with one of the highest cost of living, wages are being cut and taxes being raised….
I live in chaos. Chaos is a Greek word and aptly describes life in this country. I have been a good citizen of this country and have worked hard in the 25 years that I have lived here. I work from 2pm to 10pm daily. I put in 40 teaching hours per week. If you add the lesson planning and marking it’s nearly 50 hours per week. I only see my husband for half an hour a day as he teaches in a state school in the morning but because his salary is so low he needs to supplement his income in the evenings. How many of our European colleagues work so many hours?…
I can’t get to work easily most days because public transport is usually on strike three days every week. The streets are piled high with rubbish…
I work with a local council in Crete. There is an increasing sense of the country having fallen apart. All temporary contracts have been arbitrarily cancelled so we can’t run any sports or arts programmes, even those which are profit-making. No one answers the phones in the central offices in Athens because of the sit-ins, so we can’t work our way round the red tape.
The town hall itself has been occupied by strikers for the last week. The rubbish hasn’t been collected for three weeks. Standard processes are paralysed. This includes the payment of staff – many are owed over six months.
Now remember the earlier prevailing assumptions. Even though Greece was widely understood last year to be deeply underwater and independent observers all said a bond writedowns of at least 50% were in order, it was also assumed that Greece alone was a manageable problem. The danger was seen as contagion to bigger economies, particularly Spain and Italy.
But Greece alone is morphing into a potentially unsolvable problem. The EFSF, with its CDO-like structure and its not-very-convincing of states guaranteeing the very same fund they are borrowing from, was always better on paper than it would work in reality. Given the difficulties of getting approvals even for existing plans that are in desperate need of reworking, the only way out of the box would seem to be to resort to the ECB (as in “print”). But Germany remains firmly opposed, and the ECB is not too keen.
The FT highlights a second issue: given the difficult of getting any fix approved, and that Italian bond spreads are elevated, it seems crucial to get a big enough fix approved. But given the impasse over Greek haircuts, the belated willingness to consider a much larger bailout fund is exposing its widely discussed design flaws (this blog was far from alone in pointing them out). Again, the FT:
The fight between Germany and France over how to increase the firepower of the eurozone’s €440bn ($609bn) rescue fund comes down to a fundamental question: is there enough money in Europe to prevent a run on the €1,900bn Italian bond market?…
The rescue fund, formally called the European financial stability facility, is only able to raise cheap money for bail-outs because it relies on the fiscal reputation of its two biggest members, France and Germany. They are two of only six nations in the 17 country eurozone that have a triple A debt rating.
But as the crisis in the eurozone has grown, spreading from small peripheral countries to major economies such as Spain and Italy, the sheer size of countries’ debts that need to be supported by the EFSF has threatened to buckle the hastily constructed edifice – and the weak point is in Paris.
Adding new money to the fund has proved impossible because it would probably force a downgrade of French debt, making the entire EFSF rescue system collapse. Plans to increase the fund’s firepower have similarly run into trouble because the leading “insurance” scheme – which would use the EFSF to guarantee losses on Italian bonds – saddles France with too many liabilities.
There are other possible ways out of this seeming impasse, such as having the IMF assist in rescues in Spain and Italy. The Eurocrats have managed in the past to cobble deals together at the 11th hour, even if they satisfy the markets for only a few days. But every time, the issues that need to be solved are more daunting, and the various government leaders believe or pretend they have less bargaining room than they did in the past. While it would be better if I were proven wrong, there is not much cause for optimism here
In the meantime was does this imply to you? After announcing a referendum yesterday - the idea is quashed today. Who's pulling the strings?
Quote:
6.23pm: We still have no word from Athens about the cabinet meeting that was due to start over two hours ago. However, there are reports that the idea of putting the bailout terms to the Greek population may already have been shot down.
Dow Jones is quoting a Socialist Party official who says the idea of a referendum vote on Greece's bailout plan is "basically dead".
Greece crisis: Papandreou's referendum is a gamble too far
In an open debate the Greek people are unlikely to chose to stay in the euro – something September's protests made clear
Costas Lapavitsas
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 November 2011 18.15 GMT
Article history
Athens civil servants protest on 21 September in renewed demonstrations against public sector cuts and dismissals. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/EPA
The referendum announced on Monday by the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, is probably the final bell before Greece defaults and quits the euro. Assuming it is not withdrawn amid all the political turmoil afflicting the ruling party, the vote is planned for January, and the issue will presumably be the latest bailout. But the real question will be: "Euro or drachma?"
Greece's ruling elite understands the dilemma perfectly, hence the negative reaction of political parties and the press to Papandreou's initiative, with six senior officials of his own party calling on him to resign. If the vote goes against the euro, Greece's economic, political and diplomatic strategy of the last 30 years would be deeply shaken. The repercussions would be incalculable, for Greece but also for Europe.
Papandreou's decision has not been taken lightly, even though it has a whiff of the unpredictability of his family as politicians. The main reason for it is that Greece has become increasingly ungovernable through successive European Union "rescue" packages.
Rapid unravelling of domestic political power began in the summer, with mass gatherings across Greece's major urban centres. The largest were in Syntagma Square in Athens, where the Aganaktismenoi (the "Outraged") dismissed the political system and demanded "real democracy". An enormous demonstration took place in June, the government was shaken and Papandreou even resigned for a few hours, seeking a coalition government with the opposition. But a lack of political focus by the Aganaktismenoi allowed the government to escape.
In September popular unrest returned even more decisively, led by trade unions that had broken their links with the ruling party. Local authority employees allowed rubbish to accumulate in the cities. Electricity workers said they would not co-operate with a government plan to collect a property tax via electricity bills. Civil servants began to occupy ministries and other institutions, profoundly weakening the capacity of the Greek state to collect taxes and cut expenditure.
The balance was probably tipped on 28 October, the anniversary of Greek entry into the second world war. Traditionally there are student and military parades in urban centres, the largest in Thessaloniki. In an unprecedented act, crowds of bystanders disrupted parades across the country, including in Thessaloniki. Government representatives were hounded and the president was called a traitor. The mechanisms of symbolic and ideological power of the Greek state buckled.
The reaction of the crowd signalled a development that has been in the offing for a while. By imposing ruthless austerity, privatisation and liberalisation, the EU has eventually succeeded in igniting the nationalist sentiment of Greeks. The rejection of the latest bailout has taken a nationalist tinge, often directed against perceived German domination.
Lest it be misunderstood, this is not yet virulent nationalism. It is more a reaction to the loss of national sovereignty and independence that would result from the permanent monitoring of Greek finances by EU bureaucrats, and from the plan to sell a huge range of public assets to pay off debt.
It is also a reaction to the palpable weakening of the democratic process in the course of the crisis. Papandreou is fully aware of the risk of being branded a traitor, fairly or unfairly. He is also aware of the advancing collapse of his government. But he is reluctant to hold fresh elections because he knows his party would be destroyed. And so he has opted for the desperate gamble of the referendum in the hope of buying time, as well as scaring people with the "euro or drachma" question.
It remains to be seen whether there will be a referendum. The government has to win a vote of confidence in parliament this week, which is far from certain. There could well be rapid political change that instead leads to elections.
The import of Papandreou's move, however, is that it has put the real dilemma of this crisis in front of the Greek people. If debated freely, there would be no guarantees that the Greeks would opt for the euro. And if they chose to quit, it is possible the monetary union would begin to unravel.
Greece quitting the euro of its own accord would probably come as a surprise to policymakers in the EU. They never really intended to drive Greece out since the risk to banks would be enormous. Misled by the meek attitude of the Greek government, they imposed ever harsher measures, imagining they were doing Greeks a favour. Someone in the bubble of Brussels should have told the decision-makers what was really happening among Greece's grassroots.
The real risk was always that Greece would be forced by necessity to break free of the euro, and this is now more likely than ever.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 11162 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 6:27 pm Post subject:
There is no democracy
Greek PM drops euro referendum plan
(UKPA) – 1 hour ago
Greece's prime minister has abandoned his explosive plan to put a European rescue deal to a referendum.
George Papandreou opened emergency talks with his opponents, who performed a U-turn and agreed to broad austerity measures in exchange for a European bailout.
Mr Papandreou ignored widespread calls for his resignation and instead invited the opposition to join negotiations on the bailout. He told an emergency Cabinet meeting that early elections would force Greece into leaving the euro, with disastrous effects for both Greece and other European economies.
Mr Papandreou sparked a global crisis on Monday when he announced he would put the latest European deal to cut Greece's massive debts - an accord that took months of negotiations - to a referendum.
The idea horrified other EU nations and Greece's creditors, triggering turmoil in financial markets as investors fretted over the prospect of Greece being forced into a disorderly default.
Two officials close to Mr Papandreou said that the referendum idea has now been scrapped, after the debt deal won support from the opposition.
Mr Papandreou spoke to conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras in the afternoon, his office said, before a major address to his Socialist party deputies in parliament.
Speaking to his ministers, Mr Papandreou said his proposal to hold a referendum "has at least brought many people toward a rational view" of Greece's dire economic situation. Several Greek MPs had called for a coalition unity government to approve the bailout package without a referendum, but Mr Papandreou said stepping down would make things worse.
"Elections as a solution, today and at this moment, would mean a much greater danger of bankruptcy and of course exit from the euro," he said.
The drama in Greece sent immediate ripples throughout Europe. Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government in Italy was teetering as well after it failed to come up with a credible plan to deal with its dangerously high debts, and Portugal demanded more flexible terms for its own bailout. _________________ www.actorsandartistsfor911truth.org www.mediafor911truth.org www.pilotsfor911truth.org www.mp911truth.org www.ae911truth.org www.rl911truth.org www.stj911.org www.l911t.com www.v911t.org www.thisweek.org.uk www.abolishwar.org.uk www.elementary.org.uk www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149 http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/
Actually the fact of the matter happens to be that Merkozy's threats are void: if Greece were to exit the Euro, it would be the end of the currency.
In such a scenario, the surplus EU nations would have to:
- recapitalise the ECB
- rescue German and French banks from their exposure to Greek public and private debt
- offer seas of liquidity to a European financial system where trust among the already half-bankrupt banks will evaporate completely
And then the markets will simply sniff out that the other peripheral countries (Portugal, Ireland etc.) could well consider restructuring their sovereign debt...
Not to mention the pressures on the bigger economies of Italy and Spain, and even France.
Within weeks, the surplus nations will be looking at a cost of trillions in order to salvage what will be left of the Eurozone.
As Larry Elliot writes in the Guardian, if the single currency shrinks to a handful of surplus countries, its value will go through the roof, which will kill Germany's exports.
Actually the fact of the matter happens to be that Merkozy's threats are void: if Greece were to exit the Euro, it would be the end of the currency.
In such a scenario, the surplus EU nations would have to:
- recapitalise the ECB
- rescue German and French banks from their exposure to Greek public and private debt
- offer seas of liquidity to a European financial system where trust among the already half-bankrupt banks will evaporate completely
And then the markets will simply sniff out that the other peripheral countries (Portugal, Ireland etc.) could well consider restructuring their sovereign debt...
Not to mention the pressures on the bigger economies of Italy and Spain, and even France.
Within weeks, the surplus nations will be looking at a cost of trillions in order to salvage what will be left of the Eurozone.
As Larry Elliot writes in the Guardian, if the single currency shrinks to a handful of surplus countries, its value will go through the roof, which will kill Germany's exports.
Thus the surplus nations will simply pull the plug on the currency.
There is no debt in each nation, it's just credit from thin air to facilitate trade debits person-s to person-s, no debt is owed to the issuers, it's just credit from thin air. So people are foolish to pay debt to the people that issue it from thin air.
As for the corporations to corporations of each country, let them sort it out between each other, hopefully the corporations will fail and good riddance to junk goods and services including the issuers that facilitate all the corporations.
We’re going to be in trouble if China and Russia want hard assets and we have nothing to give but slave labour (For junk) and further wont accept hard asset debts written off.
Greece's economy blew apart because a bunch of olive-spitting, ouzo-guzzling, lazy-ass Greeks refuse to put in a full day's work, retire while they're still teenagers, pocket pensions fit for a pasha; and they've gone on a social-services spending spree using borrowed money. Now that the bill has come due and the Greeks have to pay with higher taxes and cuts in their big fat welfare state, they run riot, screaming in the streets, busting windows and burning banks.
I don't buy it. I don't buy it because of the document in my hand marked, "RESTRICTED DISTRIBUTION."
I'll cut to the indictment: Greece is a crime scene. The people are victims of a fraud, a scam, a hustle and a flim-flam. And––cover the children's ears when I say this––a bank named Goldman Sachs is holding the smoking gun.
********
This is an adaptation of an excerpt from Vultures' Picnic, Greg Palast's new book, out next week, an investigator's pursuit of petroleum pigs, power pirates and high-finance fraudsters. Read the first chapter or just get the book here.
********
In 2002, Goldman Sachs secretly bought up €2.3 billion in Greek government debt, converted it all into yen and dollars, then immediately sold it back to Greece.
Goldman took a huge loss on the trade.
Is Goldman that stupid?
Goldman is stupidlike a fox. The deal was a con, with Goldman making up a phony-baloney exchange rate for the transaction. Why?
Goldman had cut a secret deal with the Greek government in power then. Their game: to conceal a massive budget deficit. Goldman's fake loss was the Greek government's fake gain.
Goldman would get repayment of its “loss” from the government at loan-shark rates.
The point is, through this crazy and costly legerdemain, Greece's right-wing free-market government was able to pretend its deficits never exceeded 3 percent of GDP.
Cool. Fraudulent but cool.
But flim-flam isn’t cheap these days: On top of murderous interest payments, Goldman charged the Greeks over a quarter billion dollars in fees.
When the new Socialist government of George Papandreou came into office, they opened up the books and Goldman's bats flew out. Investors' went berserk, demanding monster interest rates to lend more money to roll over this debt.
Greece's panicked bondholders rushed to buy insurance against the nation going bankrupt. The price of the bond-bust insurance, called a credit default swap (or CDS), also shot through the roof. Who made a big pile selling the CDS insurance? Goldman.
And those rotting bags of CDS's sold by Goldman and others? Didn't they know they were handing their customers gold-painted turds?
That's Goldman's specialty. In 2007, at the same time banks were selling suspect CDS's and CDOs (packaged sub-prime mortgage securities), Goldman held a “net short” position against these securities. That is, Goldman was betting their financial "products" would end up in the toilet. Goldman picked up another half a billion dollars on their "net short" scam.
But, instead of cuffing Goldman's CEO Lloyd Blankfein and parading him in a cage through the streets of Athens, we have the victims of the frauds, the Greek people, blamed. Blamed and soaked for the cost of it. The "spread" on Greek bonds (the term used for the risk premium paid on Greece's corrupted debt) has now risen to get ready for this––$14,000 per family per year.
Euro-nation, the secret Geithner memo, and the Ecuador connection
Why did the Greek government throw its nation's fate into Goldman's greasy hands? What the heck was in the "RESTRICTED" document? And why did I have to take it to Geneva, to throw it down in front of the Director-General of the WTO for authentication, a creepy French banker I otherwise wouldn't bother to spit on, and then tear off to Quito to share it with the grateful President of Ecuador?
To give you all the answers would require me to write a book. I have: Vultures' Picnic––in Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Fraudsters.
It's really quite important to me that you read it, that you get it now. That's a funny statement, I suppose, from an author. But if you've been reading my stories in The Guardian or watching my reports on BBC Newsnight, you've gotten the facts; but I really want to let you inside the investigations, to cross the continents with me and follow down the leads so that you can get a full picture of The Beasts. The Beasts and their trophy wives, intelligence agency go-fers, political concubines and bone-breakers. And besides, it's enormous fun when it's not scary as sh*t.
********
Here's a taste of Chapter 12 - The Generalissimo of Globalization - from the film-enhanced eBook edition. [And more on the 1% Greece-ing us, check out the upcoming issue of In These Times.]
Vultures' Picnic - Chapter 12 - The Generalissimo of Globalization
http://www.VulturesPicnic.org
BBC's Greg Palast's crew of journalist-detectives chase down British Petroleum bag men, CIA operatives, nuclear power con men----and "The Vultures," billionaire financial speculators who, through bribery, flim-flam and political muscle, take entire nations hostage for mega-profits.
The action begins when the Deepwater Horizon explodes in the Gulf of Mexico and a confidential cable arrives on Miss Badpenny's desk from a terrified insider. He has the real, hushed-up facts of the disaster----which can only be found hidden in the files of a Central Asian dictatorship.
Palast sets off for Baku to investigate the sexiest Muslim woman on Earth and the whereabouts of millions of dollars in a brown valise. Then he jumps the globe to an Alaska Eskimo village after receiving an extraordinary note from the Chief of Intelligence of the Free Republic of the Arctic.
Along the way, Palast gets drunk, gets sober, gets laid, gets arrested. It's pulp non-fiction. Columbo with marital issues and a dying father.
Note: I will be in Chicago for In These Times on November 29, part of our 15 city tour that begins this coming Sunday, November 13, in Portland, then moves to San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Denver, Boulder, New Mexico, Albuquerque, Chicago, Madison, New York, DC, Houston, Burlington, and Atlanta. Find out more info here.
***
Greg Palast is the author of Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Carnivores, which will be released on November 14 by Penguin USA.
Greeks are still searching for a quisling PM.
Its all fake anyhow as the new bailout treaty implies a Brussels commissioner now runs the country for good...
An analysis about the role of the IMF in Greece coupled with many eyewitness reports for the first time published in the English language in one location. What is happening, how it happened and what might be the eventual outcome of this rape of a country and its people. The first book of its kind that charts the rise and fall of the Greek Indignants. Worth a read for all those disgusted and appalled at the global banksters treatment of nations in the current light of the growth of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the heart of the USA.
Publication Date:Oct 15 2011ISBN/EAN13:1466399465 / 9781466399464Page Count:224Binding Type:US Trade PaperTrim Size:6" x 9"Language:EnglishColor:Black and WhiteRelated Categories:Political Science / Economic Conditions
Post categories: Back Stories
Adam Curtis | 18:00 UK time, Thursday, 3 November 2011
In the present crisis over Greece there is a furious argument about whether the Greek people should be allowed to vote on the proposed solution. Many of the voices against this come from the world of finance and economics. They say that the crisis is too dangerous to leave to the will of the people.
I just wanted to show why some Greek politicians - and especially George Papandreou, even though he may have retreated from a referendum - might think it important to allow the people a voice.
I have discovered a film in the archives that dramatically tells you why. It was made in 1974 and is an engrossing history of the Colonels' coup in Greece in 1967 - and what life was then like for the Greek people under the military dictatorship that held power for seven years.
As you watch it you realise, given what the Greeks have been through, it is no wonder that politicians, especially Papandreou, think the mandate of the people is important.
The present language of the finance technocrats, and their supporters in the media, portray the Greek people as just another group of lazy southern Europeans who have fed too long at the trough of state money. A bit like us - but more nonsense.
What is forgotten is that from 1967 to 1974 the Greek people lived under a harsh and violent dictatorship that tortured and murdered thousands of ordinary people. The Colonels also corrupted the society by handing out vast loans to individuals in towns and villages across the country - to buy their loyalty. At the same time the repression and torture bred a powerful resistance that finally burst out in incredible bravery in 1973.
This is the strange and twisted society that the present Prime Minister's father, Andreas Papandreou, inherited when he became the newly elected leader in 1981. He was faced by the task of rebuilding the peoples' trust in democracy and the state. Partly he did it through state spending - and in that policy lie many of the roots of today's crisis.
The discussion of Greece today in the press and the political offices of Europe is almost completely ahistorical - everything is couched in utilitarian terms of economic management. I just think it is important to put the present crisis in a wider historical context. Above all the extraordinary history of the military dictatorship and the savage effects it had on the whole of Greek society.
First - here is a short compilation of some of the best bits of the news coverage from the time.
Back in 1965 Mr Papandreou's grandfather, who was also called George, was the Prime Minister - leading the progressive Centre Union Party. Young right-wing officers in the military became increasingly concerned about the influence of George's son, Andreas who they saw as a dangerous leftist.
The officers were convinced that Andreas wanted to remove Greece from its frontline role in the Cold War - they believed this would open the door to communists. For eighteen months there was political chaos. Then new elections were scheduled for May 1967 - which George Snr. was certain to win.
So, on the 21st of April, the officers mounted a coup. They used a NATO plan for neutralizing a communist uprising in the event of a Soviet invasion.
The news coverage starts with a wonderful piece of reporting by the Panorama reporter John Morgan at the first press conference held by the officers after the coup. Then there are sections from other reports that both give a brilliant sense of the absurdity of the military men who now took control of the country, but also of the total fear they induced. I have included some vox pops taken by a crew inside the country in 1972.
Here is the film about life under the Colonels. It is called Greece - The Seven Black Years. It was made in 1974 - and broadcast in early 1975.
Its commentary is very much of its time - but the film has a power both in the details and in the way it is made. It shows that along with the terrible torture, the Colonels exercised control through financial means - or what one villager calls "the big money".
The film starts with these details and some great interviewees, and then builds to a very moving climax with the students who took over the Athens Technical University in November 1973 and stood against the military might of the Junta. There is extraordinary film of what then happened - and it also tells you a lot about the radicalisation of many of the Greek people today, and how important democracy is to them in the face of unelected elites who try and control them and their society. A belief in democracy born out of struggle - something that we may have forgotten.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 11162 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:58 pm Post subject:
Really shocking back story not being told by the BBC
When your country goes broke - With Max Keisar and Directed by Stacy Herbert
It happens all over the world, but it's been a long, long time since a European country has had the experienced. Default. National bankruptcy.
There is something positive in the whole situation.
The traditional parties are now being run directly by Bilderburg and the Trilateral Commision in the form of unelected banksters.
Democracy and the EU are contradictions which cannot be resolved in our lifetime, we will either get one or the other as they are incompatible. We have gone from multiple referendums on the Lisbon Treaty to slanging matches in mentioning the word referendum, to banksters doing politics.
All we need to seal the totalitarian path is army generals...a few concentration camps along the way and we might just as well be back where we started...
But that is the problem. History never repeats itself directly, they wont be able to get away it as the lives of nations will override their decisions as any government even a dictatorship with no modicum of consent cannot survive forever as society cannot last indefinitely in a state of suspended animation where cuts are always one way, and the money flows in another direction....
Since the IMF arrived GDP collapse has been around 16% officially.
Another couple of years like this and meltdown will be guaranteed indefinitely......if civil war doesn't erupt, Libyan style.
2012 is going to much harder than 2011
Greek economic crisis turns tragic for children abandoned by their families
The government scrambled on Thursday to defuse the political furore sparked by the resignation of two financial crime prosecutors who cited state interference with their high-profile investigations.
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos discussed the matter at a special meeting on Thursday with the heads of the country’s three high courts (Council of State, Supreme Court and Council of Auditors) as well as Supreme Court prosecutor Ioannis Tentes, who - earlier in the morning – had ordered an emergency investigation into the allegations of the two: Grigoris Peponis (pictured), who headed the financial crimes unit at the public prosecutor’s office, and his deputy, Spyros Mouzakitis.
Tentes ordered deputy public prosecutor Fotis Makris to carry out a preliminary probe into the reasons cited by the two prosecutors for their resignation, submitted on Wednesday in a letter to deputy Supreme Court prosecutor Nikos Pantelis.
Following similar appeals by the main political parties, Papademos urged Tentes to conclude his preliminary investigation as early as possible - “if possible, today” - and proceed to formal questioning of suspects.
In their resignation letter, the officials noted that they had accepted their appointment as chief “economic and taxation crime investigators” in the end of March, “with a deep sense of duty and motivation to contribute to the common good … despite a negative climate and in full knowledge of the peculiar relation between contemporary Greek society and the fast evolving phenomenon of financial crime”.
But the government, they complained, not only deprived their office of rudimentary administrative support and computer terminals, but “a new bill uses false pretexts and unfounded arguments as reasons for attempting to replace us and get rid of our presence,” the letter said.
“Since we have never vied for high office and privileges, we don’t accept being public prosecutors under prohibition and under dictation. Moreover, we don’t accept being used as an alibi and a Siloam pool of absolution for all sorts of organised interest groups and their various mouthpieces that are actively engaged within the grey zone of economic crime.”
Hot cases
Some of the high-profile cases which Peponis’ office was investigating were:
The resignation of the former secretary general in charge of the finance ministry’s information system, Diomidis Spinellis, who accused financial crime squad officials of blocking the collection of heavy fines on fuel market racketeers as well as his revelations about tax inspectors pocketing 40 percent of every fine that results from their audit
The allegations of former board member of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (Elstat), Zoi Georganta, against the authority chairman, Andreas Georgiou, that he distorted the country’s budgetary statistics for 2009 and 2010 to inflate the final deficit figures which prompted the enforcement of harsh austerity measures
Excessive indebtedness of the two main political parties that have borrowed tens of millions of euros from Greek banks using their future earnings from the state as collateral for loans which they are now unable to service
Allegations of insider trading and speculation against Greek bonds by people linked to former premier George Papandreou, using credit default swaps (CDS) purchased from the state-owned TT Hellenic Postbank.
The case against 29 people, including navy officers and former defence ministry officials, in connection to an order by the government for four German submarines a decade ago that involves the Ferrostaal company
The investment by social security funds in high-risk structured bonds, which costs the funds several million euros in losses and kickbacks to fund officials and intermediaries
In recent weeks, Peponis has headed Operation Handcuffs, which is resulted in the arrest and charging of a number of prominent businessmen for tax evasion.
In November, he secured a copy of a list of the country's biggest tax evaders, after he threatened to investigate finance ministry officials who were refusing to hand it over
Admissions
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and his colleague at the justice ministry, Miltiadis Papaioannou, issued a joint statement late on Wednesday suggesting that the two prosecutors’ letter was “a hasty and excessive public reaction”.
They added that it was also “harmful to the institution of justice” since the bill which they admitted having prepared, would replace deputy appellate court prosecutor Peponis with a higher court judge, namely a deputy Supreme Court judge.
The two ministers also admitted that the change of the law was being initiated only nine months after the creation of the post of economic prosecutor, and after a “wide discussion at a meeting in which Mr Peponis participated, together with deputy Supreme Court prosecutor, Mr Nikoloudis, and the head of the Financial and Economic Crime Unit (SDOE), former prosecutor Ioannis Diotis, who agreed that the institution [of the economic prosecutor] was functioning satisfactorily as it stands”.
How a routine jab sent me so mad I sobbed (and saluted) through the Royal Wedding - then became convinced I was the Messiah...
By Malcolm Brabant
Last updated at 12:53 AM on 1st January 2012
Comments (4) Share
Before wielding the syringe, the middle-aged nurse in the scruffy Greek prefectural office warned me to expect symptoms similar to mild influenza.
But nothing could have prepared me for the catastrophic adverse reaction that I endured and which has left me a ruined, broken man.
Stamaril, the yellow fever vaccine made by Sanofi Pasteur, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives. But the jab fried my brain and transported me to within a whisper of death and paralysis.
Anguish: BBC Correspondent Malcolm Brabant with his wife Trine and their son Lukas outside their new home in Copenhagen
It has taken my little family and me to the gates of hell. Since April, I have spent more than three months in the intensive care units of psychiatric hospitals in three countries, and there is a possibility that I will never fully recover.
(Malcolm has had three psychotic episodes. In between, he is lucid, aware that he has endured a period of serious mental illness. He can remember most of what has happened to him during the psychotic episodes. He also keeps a diary and has been filmed frequently. This account was written last week, during a lucid period.)
'I needed the inoculation as protection against mosquitoes that carry the yellow fever virus and kill an estimated 200,000 people each year in sub-Saharan Africa and South America.'I needed the inoculation as protection against mosquitoes that carry the yellow fever virus and kill an estimated 200,000 people each year in sub-Saharan Africa and South America. I was due to fly to Ivory Coast to shoot a series of films about victims of the country’s civil conflict for Unicef, the United Nations children’s fund. It was supposed to be my second assignment for Unicef TV, an organisation that requires sensitive videography and story-telling.
I have been a freelance BBC foreign correspondent for 22 years and had been in Athens for the previous eight years, with none of the benefits enjoyed by journalists on the staff.
Well respected: Malcolm Brabant was the BBC's Athens correspondent - but was unable to report on rioting in the Greek capital due to his illness
Work and money was scarce at the start of the year because of the BBC’s focus on the Arab uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa. Interest in the Greek financial crisis had waned. So I leapt at Unicef’s offer to fly to West Africa.
But the immunisation made me too sick to travel. Within 24 hours of the jab, I was confined to bed with a temperature of 103.6F (39.8C). We knew instantly this was a reaction to the inoculation, since no one else was sick and nothing had happened to me apart from the vaccination. I was shivering and rocking the bed so violently that it slammed against the bedside table.
My wife, the Danish author Trine Villemann, couldn’t believe the severity of the fever and changed thermometers. The second thermometer confirmed the first reading. I was gripping on to the duvet for dear life because I was simultaneously freezing and drenched in a cold sweat.
Trine applied over-the-counter medicines such as Ibuprofen to try to suppress the fever but my temperature hovered resolutely at 104F (40C) and on occasions spiked as high as 104.5F (40.3C).
The body’s normal temperature is 98.6F (37C).
Petition: Mr Brabant's wife, Trine Villemann is now trying to obtain the findings of an investigation
I had a battery of examinations in hospital and was admitted when my liver test produced an abnormal result.
The fever was depriving me of sleep and the insomnia left me emotionally exhausted.
I suffered my first hallucination 11 days into what was now a severe illness that was baffling Greece’s top infectious diseases experts. I was convinced my Kindle e-book reader flew across the hospital room from the bed to a chair.
Despite being a veteran, cynical journalist, I started to believe that I had supernatural powers.
Thirteen days after the shot, doctors began giving me steroids to try to dampen the fever. At long last, they succeeded. But my mental downward spiral steepened the next day, Friday, April 29, the day Prince William married Kate Middleton.
I was watching the ceremony on television with Trine, who has written two books about the Danish royal family. This was supposed to be a treat for her because of her professional interest.
But I spoiled the occasion. Every time I saw someone in uniform, I jumped up and saluted. I was in floods of tears and in hyper-patriotic mood at witnessing a British ceremony at its finest, weeping over the flowers and the music.
Trine never got to see the Royal couple say ‘I will’. She switched off the television because she thought I was too distressed.
She ordered me to have a rest and left my room. When she returned an hour later, I was still sobbing.
Later that day, I became convinced that I was the Messiah. The trigger was a midnight email from Bob Traa, the head of the International Monetary Fund team in Athens, who was agreeing to a highly prized off-the-record meeting about the Greek economic crisis. I was delirious. I never thought he’d see me.
I sent back a crazed reply saying: ‘I’m getting very tired now. I need to sleep because we have a lot of work to do. One thing I will say is that Greece has really been kind to me and it has cured my son.
‘It is God’s country. Its people are fantastic. Sorry, the bed is shaking.God bless. Malcolm.’
'The bed was pitching so violently, I thought it was a sign from Heaven that the second coming had begun.'Indeed, the bed was pitching so violently, I thought it was a sign from Heaven that the second coming had begun. A few days later, Trine transferred me to the Sinouri Clinic, a poor Athenian imitation of Britain’s Priory. ‘You had called me and told me you were Jesus,’ she says.
I was sitting on the windowsill of my room on the 15th floor of the hospital, looking towards the dome of an Orthodox church. ‘I am going to fly with the angels,’ I said.
Apparently, it is quite common for the insane to be convinced that they are Jesus Christ. My experience in Athens in April and May was similar to that of Jim Carrey when he played an ordinary American who suddenly developed divine powers and became Bruce Almighty in the movie of the same name.
There were times when I was confused about whether I was Christianity’s Joseph figure or the Messiah himself. It was excruciating trying to persuade Trine that our son Lukas was in line to save the world like me.
‘Do you know who I am?’ I used to beg.
‘Yes, I know who you are,’ she would reply. But her eyes told me she didn’t believe me.
I thought I had been chosen because of my understanding of the media and new technology. I decided to test my powers and flushed my Kindle in the lavatory, then picked it up and turned it on. The display flickered briefly and then it expired permanently. I thought perhaps this was just teething trouble and was certain that other miracles would ensue.
For a week, I disappeared into a mental black hole and had no inkling of just how mad I had become. Then, gradually, I returned to consciousness and became self-aware.
Bad reaction: The Stamaril vaccine that Malcolm took
But during the psychotic episode, I became convinced that the British Government knew that I was the Messiah and had put cameras in the bathroom of my room in the psychiatric ward. I spent hours in the bathroom denouncing various Greek politicians for being corrupt.
I was sure that a video-feed from the bathroom was being played to 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and the White House. During one session, I was certain that the Queen Mother had returned from the dead and was roaring with laughter at my antics.
I interpreted ‘messages’ that meant the British Royal Family was going to step aside so that Lukas could become King and could have the protection the next Messiah would require.
I was getting messages from the dead people that, during the sane period of my life, I have always regarded as my guardian angels. They included my son James, who would have been 33 years old this year and who died in his pram of cot death when he was just four months old.
I would get an electronic buzz when the guardian angels wished to speak. The spirits ‘on the other side’ included Danny McGrory, one of my best friends in journalism, who died of a sudden stroke; Kurt Schork, a Reuters correspondent who was killed in Sierra Leone during the civil war; Terry Lloyd, the ITN reporter killed in Iraq, who had given me my first job in journalism; and Bill Frost, a brilliant Radio 4 correspondent who died prematurely young.
They set me a series of tests, and were cackling with laughter as they commanded me to drink my own urine from the porcelain bowl and to clean my teeth with a toilet brush. I complied with their demands. Urine doesn’t taste as bad as you might think, but I refused to go along with my guardian angels’ most outrageous demand – to eat my own excrement. ‘There are limits, chaps,’ I said.
Emotional moment: The Royal wedding in April put Malcolm in a 'hyper-patriotic mood'
It was excruciatingly frustrating trying and failing to convince anyone that I was the next Messiah. I tried to recreate the stigmata by squashing fresh strawberries, brought to me by my wife, and painting ‘blood marks’ on the wall of the bathroom. I commanded her to dress me up in a nappy made from a sheet so I could lie in bed like a divine infant. I also insisted she polish my halo.
The owner of the Sinouri Clinic, a psychiatrist called Pantelis Lazaridis, declared that I had suffered what he called ‘an acute organic psychotic event’.
Throughout my illness, Trine was conducting an investigation into the cause. We both knew the trigger was the yellow fever inoculation. A specialist at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases said he suspected the jab was contaminated. Professor Eleni Giamarellou, Greece’s leading specialist in infectious diseases who treated me at Athens’ Ygeia hospital, believes I was hypersensitive to the drug and suffered an allergic reaction to it.
'Despite the devastating impact on me, the Greek health authorities have displayed no interest in investigating whether other syringes were contaminated' Despite the devastating impact on me, the Greek health authorities have displayed no interest in investigating whether other syringes were contaminated. Sanofi Pasteur denies there is any link between my illness and its vaccine.
The company is also asking for more data and claims we have prevented its investigators from having access to my medical records. That is simply not true. My wife sent the company an email giving them permission to talk to Professor Giamarellou and Dr Laziridis.
With the help of anti-psychotic drugs, prescribed by Dr Laziridis, I returned to sanity in time to be able to vigorously cover the Greek economic crisis for the BBC in June.
But there was no escape from the devastating impact of Sanofi Pasteur’s vaccine.
In July, I found myself sectioned in a secure psychiatric ward in Ipswich, the town where I grew up.
I had returned to Britain because I lost faith in the efficacy of Greek psychiatric care. The specialists in Ipswich decided I needed to be protected from myself after I suffered a major relapse and displayed more bizarre behaviour.
I escaped from a psychiatric crisis team. Wearing excessively tight Lycra shorts and jacket, I took my bike on the train to London, with the aim of acting as a peacemaker in the BBC journalists’ strike. I demanded to see the director-general and the strike leader.
As I was being gently shepherded out of Television Centre to a BBC car to take me back to Ipswich, I spotted Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, who is partially paralysed after being shot in Saudi Arabia in 2004. I told him about my Messianic convictions and rubbed his back in the hope of accomplishing a miracle cure.
Frank was really graciously indulgent and said: ‘I’ll take whatever I can get.’
My performance in front of senior BBC managers and other colleagues demonstrated that I was certifiable and reinforced the stigma attached to mental illness.
But it isn’t just me who has suffered. Trine and son Lukas have also been tormented by my psychotic episodes.
How a routine jab sent me so mad I sobbed (and saluted) through the Royal Wedding - then became convinced I was the Messiah...
By Malcolm Brabant
Last updated at 12:53 AM on 1st January 2012
Comments (4) Share
Before wielding the syringe, the middle-aged nurse in the scruffy Greek prefectural office warned me to expect symptoms similar to mild influenza.
But nothing could have prepared me for the catastrophic adverse reaction that I endured and which has left me a ruined, broken man.
Stamaril, the yellow fever vaccine made by Sanofi Pasteur, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives. But the jab fried my brain and transported me to within a whisper of death and paralysis.
Anguish: BBC Correspondent Malcolm Brabant with his wife Trine and their son Lukas outside their new home in Copenhagen
It has taken my little family and me to the gates of hell. Since April, I have spent more than three months in the intensive care units of psychiatric hospitals in three countries, and there is a possibility that I will never fully recover.
(Malcolm has had three psychotic episodes. In between, he is lucid, aware that he has endured a period of serious mental illness. He can remember most of what has happened to him during the psychotic episodes. He also keeps a diary and has been filmed frequently. This account was written last week, during a lucid period.)
'I needed the inoculation as protection against mosquitoes that carry the yellow fever virus and kill an estimated 200,000 people each year in sub-Saharan Africa and South America.'I needed the inoculation as protection against mosquitoes that carry the yellow fever virus and kill an estimated 200,000 people each year in sub-Saharan Africa and South America. I was due to fly to Ivory Coast to shoot a series of films about victims of the country’s civil conflict for Unicef, the United Nations children’s fund. It was supposed to be my second assignment for Unicef TV, an organisation that requires sensitive videography and story-telling.
I have been a freelance BBC foreign correspondent for 22 years and had been in Athens for the previous eight years, with none of the benefits enjoyed by journalists on the staff.
Well respected: Malcolm Brabant was the BBC's Athens correspondent - but was unable to report on rioting in the Greek capital due to his illness
Work and money was scarce at the start of the year because of the BBC’s focus on the Arab uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa. Interest in the Greek financial crisis had waned. So I leapt at Unicef’s offer to fly to West Africa.
But the immunisation made me too sick to travel. Within 24 hours of the jab, I was confined to bed with a temperature of 103.6F (39.8C). We knew instantly this was a reaction to the inoculation, since no one else was sick and nothing had happened to me apart from the vaccination. I was shivering and rocking the bed so violently that it slammed against the bedside table.
My wife, the Danish author Trine Villemann, couldn’t believe the severity of the fever and changed thermometers. The second thermometer confirmed the first reading. I was gripping on to the duvet for dear life because I was simultaneously freezing and drenched in a cold sweat.
Trine applied over-the-counter medicines such as Ibuprofen to try to suppress the fever but my temperature hovered resolutely at 104F (40C) and on occasions spiked as high as 104.5F (40.3C).
The body’s normal temperature is 98.6F (37C).
Petition: Mr Brabant's wife, Trine Villemann is now trying to obtain the findings of an investigation
I had a battery of examinations in hospital and was admitted when my liver test produced an abnormal result.
The fever was depriving me of sleep and the insomnia left me emotionally exhausted.
I suffered my first hallucination 11 days into what was now a severe illness that was baffling Greece’s top infectious diseases experts. I was convinced my Kindle e-book reader flew across the hospital room from the bed to a chair.
Despite being a veteran, cynical journalist, I started to believe that I had supernatural powers.
Thirteen days after the shot, doctors began giving me steroids to try to dampen the fever. At long last, they succeeded. But my mental downward spiral steepened the next day, Friday, April 29, the day Prince William married Kate Middleton.
I was watching the ceremony on television with Trine, who has written two books about the Danish royal family. This was supposed to be a treat for her because of her professional interest.
But I spoiled the occasion. Every time I saw someone in uniform, I jumped up and saluted. I was in floods of tears and in hyper-patriotic mood at witnessing a British ceremony at its finest, weeping over the flowers and the music.
Trine never got to see the Royal couple say ‘I will’. She switched off the television because she thought I was too distressed.
She ordered me to have a rest and left my room. When she returned an hour later, I was still sobbing.
Later that day, I became convinced that I was the Messiah. The trigger was a midnight email from Bob Traa, the head of the International Monetary Fund team in Athens, who was agreeing to a highly prized off-the-record meeting about the Greek economic crisis. I was delirious. I never thought he’d see me.
I sent back a crazed reply saying: ‘I’m getting very tired now. I need to sleep because we have a lot of work to do. One thing I will say is that Greece has really been kind to me and it has cured my son.
‘It is God’s country. Its people are fantastic. Sorry, the bed is shaking.God bless. Malcolm.’
'The bed was pitching so violently, I thought it was a sign from Heaven that the second coming had begun.'Indeed, the bed was pitching so violently, I thought it was a sign from Heaven that the second coming had begun. A few days later, Trine transferred me to the Sinouri Clinic, a poor Athenian imitation of Britain’s Priory. ‘You had called me and told me you were Jesus,’ she says.
I was sitting on the windowsill of my room on the 15th floor of the hospital, looking towards the dome of an Orthodox church. ‘I am going to fly with the angels,’ I said.
Apparently, it is quite common for the insane to be convinced that they are Jesus Christ. My experience in Athens in April and May was similar to that of Jim Carrey when he played an ordinary American who suddenly developed divine powers and became Bruce Almighty in the movie of the same name.
There were times when I was confused about whether I was Christianity’s Joseph figure or the Messiah himself. It was excruciating trying to persuade Trine that our son Lukas was in line to save the world like me.
‘Do you know who I am?’ I used to beg.
‘Yes, I know who you are,’ she would reply. But her eyes told me she didn’t believe me.
I thought I had been chosen because of my understanding of the media and new technology. I decided to test my powers and flushed my Kindle in the lavatory, then picked it up and turned it on. The display flickered briefly and then it expired permanently. I thought perhaps this was just teething trouble and was certain that other miracles would ensue.
For a week, I disappeared into a mental black hole and had no inkling of just how mad I had become. Then, gradually, I returned to consciousness and became self-aware.
Bad reaction: The Stamaril vaccine that Malcolm took
But during the psychotic episode, I became convinced that the British Government knew that I was the Messiah and had put cameras in the bathroom of my room in the psychiatric ward. I spent hours in the bathroom denouncing various Greek politicians for being corrupt.
I was sure that a video-feed from the bathroom was being played to 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and the White House. During one session, I was certain that the Queen Mother had returned from the dead and was roaring with laughter at my antics.
I interpreted ‘messages’ that meant the British Royal Family was going to step aside so that Lukas could become King and could have the protection the next Messiah would require.
I was getting messages from the dead people that, during the sane period of my life, I have always regarded as my guardian angels. They included my son James, who would have been 33 years old this year and who died in his pram of cot death when he was just four months old.
I would get an electronic buzz when the guardian angels wished to speak. The spirits ‘on the other side’ included Danny McGrory, one of my best friends in journalism, who died of a sudden stroke; Kurt Schork, a Reuters correspondent who was killed in Sierra Leone during the civil war; Terry Lloyd, the ITN reporter killed in Iraq, who had given me my first job in journalism; and Bill Frost, a brilliant Radio 4 correspondent who died prematurely young.
They set me a series of tests, and were cackling with laughter as they commanded me to drink my own urine from the porcelain bowl and to clean my teeth with a toilet brush. I complied with their demands. Urine doesn’t taste as bad as you might think, but I refused to go along with my guardian angels’ most outrageous demand – to eat my own excrement. ‘There are limits, chaps,’ I said.
Emotional moment: The Royal wedding in April put Malcolm in a 'hyper-patriotic mood'
It was excruciatingly frustrating trying and failing to convince anyone that I was the next Messiah. I tried to recreate the stigmata by squashing fresh strawberries, brought to me by my wife, and painting ‘blood marks’ on the wall of the bathroom. I commanded her to dress me up in a nappy made from a sheet so I could lie in bed like a divine infant. I also insisted she polish my halo.
The owner of the Sinouri Clinic, a psychiatrist called Pantelis Lazaridis, declared that I had suffered what he called ‘an acute organic psychotic event’.
Throughout my illness, Trine was conducting an investigation into the cause. We both knew the trigger was the yellow fever inoculation. A specialist at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases said he suspected the jab was contaminated. Professor Eleni Giamarellou, Greece’s leading specialist in infectious diseases who treated me at Athens’ Ygeia hospital, believes I was hypersensitive to the drug and suffered an allergic reaction to it.
'Despite the devastating impact on me, the Greek health authorities have displayed no interest in investigating whether other syringes were contaminated' Despite the devastating impact on me, the Greek health authorities have displayed no interest in investigating whether other syringes were contaminated. Sanofi Pasteur denies there is any link between my illness and its vaccine.
The company is also asking for more data and claims we have prevented its investigators from having access to my medical records. That is simply not true. My wife sent the company an email giving them permission to talk to Professor Giamarellou and Dr Laziridis.
With the help of anti-psychotic drugs, prescribed by Dr Laziridis, I returned to sanity in time to be able to vigorously cover the Greek economic crisis for the BBC in June.
But there was no escape from the devastating impact of Sanofi Pasteur’s vaccine.
In July, I found myself sectioned in a secure psychiatric ward in Ipswich, the town where I grew up.
I had returned to Britain because I lost faith in the efficacy of Greek psychiatric care. The specialists in Ipswich decided I needed to be protected from myself after I suffered a major relapse and displayed more bizarre behaviour.
I escaped from a psychiatric crisis team. Wearing excessively tight Lycra shorts and jacket, I took my bike on the train to London, with the aim of acting as a peacemaker in the BBC journalists’ strike. I demanded to see the director-general and the strike leader.
As I was being gently shepherded out of Television Centre to a BBC car to take me back to Ipswich, I spotted Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, who is partially paralysed after being shot in Saudi Arabia in 2004. I told him about my Messianic convictions and rubbed his back in the hope of accomplishing a miracle cure.
Frank was really graciously indulgent and said: ‘I’ll take whatever I can get.’
My performance in front of senior BBC managers and other colleagues demonstrated that I was certifiable and reinforced the stigma attached to mental illness.
But it isn’t just me who has suffered. Trine and son Lukas have also been tormented by my psychotic episodes.
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