The Poverty of the Greek people

[C. Flower]

Attachment 219
Food for thought: This barrel contains three spuds, which is more than enough to fill the container with potatoes. The bag beside it was also planted with three seed potatoes (variety Orla). The problem with the sack, as you can see, is that it sags a bit.
Both containers have been topped up with seaweed, grass cuttings (in moderation), soil and last year's badly made compost. In addition to a barrel of spuds, I should have a barrel of nice garden compost afterwards.
We - the family and I - have five hens, two pigs, a polytunnel and assorted containers. We produce a large amount of food and also collect a fair bit as well from nature's bounty. Much of this stuff we give away to friends and neighbours and receive as many gifts of other stuff as the seasons dictate.
One year I fattened two heifers on grass - which grows in abundance in our climate and is regarded as a nuisance by the lawnmower brigade. We produced so much meat that we had difficulty giving it away.
If there was a left party willing and able to distribute it, I would be happy to get involved in a food-distributing network.
Once in my innocent and revolutionary youth I attempted to get inner-city dwellers interested in producing food. Even with trade union backing, only a couple of people expressed any interest and then wanted to know if there was a grant or a 'scheme' involved.

Impressive. How many acres are involved?

Hens and ducks, fruit, herbs and salad greens are the most I've managed and take up very little time.

I've thought about geese, to keep the grass down, but people seem to hate them because of them being reputedly noisy and aggressive.

[Binn Beal]

Just a big garden but the heifers had the use of a field of rough grazing of about three acres.

Should we switch this to a thread on The Poverty of the Irish People?

[ZeroWedge]

Once in my innocent and revolutionary youth I attempted to get inner-city dwellers interested in producing food. Even with trade union backing, only a couple of people expressed any interest and then wanted to know if there was a grant or a 'scheme' involved.

Classic left wing behaviour. Always looking for someone else to leech off.

[Binn Beal]

They weren't left wing, just inner-city, unemployed, beaten-down people, robbed of everything, even their dignity by the smarmy self-serving corrupt elite. I was the naive left-winger offering to give something for no personal gain. Still at it, by the way, like most socialists.

[Spectabilis]

Maith thú, Binn Béal.

[Slim Buddha]

Classic left wing behaviour. Always looking for someone else to leech off.

How many right wing politicians involved in the destruction of the economy and the impovrishment of the nation are leeching grossly inflated pensions from the taxpayer when really, let's face it, they should properly be in jail?

Let's see..................

Brian Cowan
Mary Harney,
John O'Donohue
Dermot Ahern
Noel Dempsey
Martin Cullen
etc. etc.etc. ad nauseum.

[Binn Beal]

Here's the full list of where our annual €8.8 million is going.
http://www.fairocracy.com/facts_and_...n_ireland.html

[Slim Buddha]

Here's the full list of where our annual €8.8 million is going.
http://www.fairocracy.com/facts_and_...n_ireland.html

Thanks for that, Binn Beal. It strikes me that a few of these boyos and girlies are adding cream to the cake in Euro pensions too. Ex-deputies Aylward, Hyland, O'Kennedy, O'Connell, McCreevy, Higgins (Jim), De Valera, Burke (Richard), Doyle, Desmond and Bruton (J) to name but a few are receiving superannutory recognition for their trojan efforts at various troughs in Euroland.

[ang]

Panorama on BBC1 - Greece

[fluffybiscuits]

Impressive. How many acres are involved?

Hens and ducks, fruit, herbs and salad greens are the most I've managed and take up very little time.

I've thought about geese, to keep the grass down, but people seem to hate them because of them being reputedly noisy and aggressive.

Free range hens are excellent and are easy to raise if you have a couple of acres. The lairs pellets (not sure if I spelt them right) are cheap enough and they eat scraps only issue being they crap everywhere. Raise as few chicks and then there will be ample supply of chickens to eay and a few eggs Love geese myself, some say they are as good as a guard go.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archive...arm_geese.html

[Ephilant]

Sadly, I have to report another poverty driven suicide. Not too many details have been released yet, we do know that a 60 year old man threw himself of his 6th floor balcony in Galatsi, Athens. An eviction note was found in his flat. Neighbours say the man had been struggling for a good while after his pension was cut to almost nothing and he could not pay his bills etc. One neighbour said they had taken turns to support the man with daily meals and she had noticed that his mental health was deteriorating rapidly. They could however not get the funds together to get the care he needed, and neither could he. RIP

[Ephilant]

The Acropolis became the latest scene of a suicide driven by poverty. Again, very few details have been released, other than that the vicitm is a 41 year old bank official who worked for ATE bank. this particular bank is under investigation for supplying PASOK and ND with unsecured loans worth just over 200 million €. RIP

[fluffybiscuits]

The Acropolis became the latest scene of a suicide driven by poverty. Again, very few details have been released, other than that the vicitm is a 41 year old bank official who worked for ATE bank. this particular bank is under investigation for supplying PASOK and ND with unsecured loans worth just over 200 million €. RIP

Rates of suicide being under reported I think. Huge increase in numbers of people in anti depressants and other medication.

http://www.rt.com/news/greek-commit-...es-crisis-073/

[Ephilant]

Rates of suicide being under reported I think. Huge increase in numbers of people in anti depressants and other medication.

http://www.rt.com/news/greek-commit-...es-crisis-073/

You are very correct there. Suicides are usually expressed as x per 100.000. Greece used to have one of the lowest figures in Europe standing at 2.8 per 100.000 in 2009. Then the crisis hit, and there was officially a surge of 40%. Today, it is estimated that we are hitting 7 per 100,000. But let's not forget those who feel they have no other solution in other parts of the world. Germany counts 9 per 100,000, while Finland has the sad record of 34 per 100,000.
The fact that we don't hit that kind of statistic is due to mainly 2 reasons. The totally uncompromising position of the Church who still to this day refuse to give a suicide victim a church burial. In a highly religious country like Greece, this is very traumatic. Not that it results in less suicide, it just results in false reporting and thus bad statistics. Police in Greece will tell you that they are convinced that most of the single car crashes are suicides. They invariably report them as accidents to spare the family the trauma of a refusal of the religious ceremonies. Many families will ask their doctors to give a "different" cause of death, and the doctors happily oblige, thereby reducing the trauma for those left behind.
The other reason is our still strong social fabric where family and community manage to intercept many people suffering from depression, anxiety, and other conditions that could lead to suicide. It is not uncommon for somebody in a town or village to simply walk over and ask you if you are ok, whether you actually know them or not. If you suspect something wrong, even if it's a hunch, you ask, you engage with the person, and you help. Sometimes it's good that almost everybody knows your business. This part of communal life has however almost disappeared in the cities, with the sad results that somebody's anguish does go unnoticed for too long.
Many doctors who see suicidal patients will ask them if they have family outside the cities, and will prescribe a prolonged stay with the family before resorting to psychiatric drugs.
And we do of course also have our natural ally, our weather. there is a lot of truth in the French saying that poverty is only half as bad under the sun. And it shows in the statistics that are available, during our "winter" months, suicide rates increase significantly.
One thing we seem to have a lot more of than any other country are so called "political suicides", where people use their fragile mental state to make a political statement like Dimitris Christoulas did.
One thing we don't have according to the statistics is child suicide. Spare a thought for the youngest suicide victim in the USA, a 6 year old girl.

[fluffybiscuits]

You are very correct there. Suicides are usually expressed as x per 100.000. Greece used to have one of the lowest figures in Europe standing at 2.8 per 100.000 in 2009. Then the crisis hit, and there was officially a surge of 40%. Today, it is estimated that we are hitting 7 per 100,000. But let's not forget those who feel they have no other solution in other parts of the world. Germany counts 9 per 100,000, while Finland has the sad record of 34 per 100,000.
The fact that we don't hit that kind of statistic is due to mainly 2 reasons. The totally uncompromising position of the Church who still to this day refuse to give a suicide victim a church burial. In a highly religious country like Greece, this is very traumatic. Not that it results in less suicide, it just results in false reporting and thus bad statistics. Police in Greece will tell you that they are convinced that most of the single car crashes are suicides. They invariably report them as accidents to spare the family the trauma of a refusal of the religious ceremonies. Many families will ask their doctors to give a "different" cause of death, and the doctors happily oblige, thereby reducing the trauma for those left behind.
The other reason is our still strong social fabric where family and community manage to intercept many people suffering from depression, anxiety, and other conditions that could lead to suicide. It is not uncommon for somebody in a town or village to simply walk over and ask you if you are ok, whether you actually know them or not. If you suspect something wrong, even if it's a hunch, you ask, you engage with the person, and you help. Sometimes it's good that almost everybody knows your business. This part of communal life has however almost disappeared in the cities, with the sad results that somebody's anguish does go unnoticed for too long.
Many doctors who see suicidal patients will ask them if they have family outside the cities, and will prescribe a prolonged stay with the family before resorting to psychiatric drugs.
And we do of course also have our natural ally, our weather. there is a lot of truth in the French saying that poverty is only half as bad under the sun. And it shows in the statistics that are available, during our "winter" months, suicide rates increase significantly.
One thing we seem to have a lot more of than any other country are so called "political suicides", where people use their fragile mental state to make a political statement like Dimitris Christoulas did.
One thing we don't have according to the statistics is child suicide. Spare a thought for the youngest suicide victim in the USA, a 6 year old girl.

Sounds very similar to here years ago. Children born outside of wedlock and suicide were buried outside the graveyard...