Generalization is a CRIME

We all do it! Even if you dont want to admit it! Even if we try we all still keep on doing it. From the simplest things to people. Sometime we dont even mean it, it just come all naturally.

And I guess there is the problem (and now I dont want to go down the road of think before you speak, write, etc). Its programed into us. Of course there the ones that we mean with the best intentions or with warning out concern and love. But there are the ones we hear so often we accept them as truth and we dont even realize that by saying them we heart others.

I dont like to generalize, especially about people or situations, because they are all different and we are all different. Unfortunately most people only understand the pain caused by these phrases if they are a victim of them or is something outrageous like racism, sexism, or some other form of abuse and even then there are so many people who think its OK. 

I know...I know...let it go, s/he doesn't know any better, but if we always let go these people will never learn. Lately this topic got under my skin, because it seems to be going around a bit too much.

Recently I was pulled away after paying in a supermarket, to show my bag, because I am a foreigner.
/and that means I steal....../

Not that long ago I heard a guy scream on the street from his car to the one in front of him, who was trying to park to a small space in a tight street that she must be a woman, because she cant park. (this happens a lot I know)
/if you are a woman it means you cant park, by the way it was a guy/

Today I read under a post a comment: lazy Greeks
/its the only thing people seem to hear about Greeks, so it must be true/

Somebody told a story about his friend and an unfortunate series of surgeries he had to go under, because the doctor screwed up, so all doctors are stupid and useless.
/one person makes a mistake and everybody else belonging to the same group or profession must be like him/

And the list can go on and on and on, and these are only "mild" ones.

I love chicken soup, and once I had a really bad one in a restaurant, it doesn't mean I will never eat chicken soup again, it doesn't even mean the chef was bad, or the ingredients, or that I will not eat in that restaurant again.

I'm sure like me a lot of people had a friend or more who betrayed them, but that doesn't mean that all people are bad, that you will never have an other friend.

The only generalization we should allow ourselves is that we are all humans. We can not even say anymore that we all have a heart or a pulse (there is a guy living with a fake heart, he doesn't have a pulse). That`s it. Other then that we are all different.

We all belong to so many groups, without even wanting to join in. We are women or men; white, yellow or black; parents or not; drivers or not; Eco friendly or not; meat eaters, vegan, vegetarians, etc; drinkers or non drinkers; smokers and non smokers; day walkers or night walkers; those of us who love movies and ones who dont; coffein drinkers and non drinkers; rule obeyers and rule bakers; rich or poor; and list can go on and on and on....did you join any of these clubs?

So why do people think its alright to heart the ones they dont think like you? What makes you better? NOTHING!

If you open the TV, watch a movie, read the net, or do anything practically now-days everything is full of hidden and very obvious messages and judgments. Things we should or shouldn't do. They repeat things over and over again up to the point that people take as a fact, like every day the sun comes up. And people dont even think about these anymore. I heard it on TV it must be true, or I read it in a magazine. We dont bother to actually take the time and look it up, whether if its true or not. We take it for granted.

And since everybody is doing it, you dont even question it if you should do it too or not?!

If you are living in your own country, you dont belong to some minority, you are an average person, who doesn't smoke, drink, drive a big car then probably you are less likely to be a victim of generalization except for being called a grey mouse.  But those of use, who dont live like this, we are victims of insincere people every day.

Think before you speak, you never know who you are hurting. Don't generalize based on what you hear, not even based on one experience. Everybody and everything is different and they all deserve a chance to live by their choices, even if you dont agree with them. Accept people for who they are.

Anger instead of coffein :)

I dont know how most of you get up, I get up make coffee and tea, prepare some things, check on the dog, open some windows, turn on the hot water (its a Greek thing, most houses dont have hot water all the time, you actually have to turn the boiler on and during the winter months even if you have some left form the previous night it gets cold by the morning) so do a little 20-30 minutes run around the house then I sit down to have my tea...

Being 2013 and all we dont have a newspaper coming to our door every morning like I used to have when I was a kid, but you still need to be informed about basic things (or at least I feel the need for this). And since I can not stand the stupid morning shows , they give me the chills. So I result to the 3rd option, the internet.

So after I check who is striking today, how is the weather going to be (sunny or rain its basically the two options :) ), and I check if any of my favorite pages posted any beautiful Xmas picks while i was sleeping, I go on to the news.

Old habits die hard I guess... I still read some of the news from home, then I go on to the news of Greece and then just to torture myself further with world news. There is no coffee that can get me going like the news, or more specifically the 'how angry I get when I read the news'.

I dont read the celebrity news, I really dont care who got drunk and who showed something and who slept with who. But somehow I can not stop caring about the world.

Maybe something was in the air today, because I wasn't alone this morning getting this wakeup-anger. We all have some kind of poison other then coffee that gets us going in the morning...so why we keep doing it?

But its not just in the morning, during our days we all find ourselves in situations that we could avoid or simply let go but we choose not to. It seems we need some amount of anger to keep us going. To show us we still care, that we didnt forget to fight for things....and still it seems we get angry for the wrong things....

What`s your poison that gets you going?

Greece Killed Mickey Mouse

 That was the first peace of news I read this morning.... Although I thought it was a joke, it isn't.

"Mickey Mouse has survived countless close shaves over the past 85 years, but it seems the lovable cartoon character has finally met his match - the Troika."

 Funny or not the Mickey Mouse magazine in Greece is one of the oldest papers in the country and yesterday they officially announced that they will be closing it down due to the recession. We have to admit the Troika is an enemy the drawers of Mickey haven't thought of. Just imagine how in one little cube suddenly Mickey meets the Troika. The Troika then says I am going to take you out Mickey. Then Mickey says: No, I am going to fight! Six years later Mickey gives up and moves out of Greece and the Troika laughs and says: You gave up easy, I didn't even get to use all my weapons yet.

If Mickey Mouse can not survive the crisis how can we?

Vacation?!

 Nowdays in this economical situation we are happy if we have a roof above our head, if we can pay our bills, and if we have enough to have a plate of warm food on our table every day. And most of the days it is enough, especially when we think about the ones who are less fortunate.

But then comes a part of the year when we want to be able to have just a little bit more. This is summer! We want to be like everybody else, or ourselves before the crisis, or we just plane and simple want to be normal and go for vacation.

Vacation....Such a simple world and still it has such a big meaning. When we hear vacation, we think about the beach, the sand, and most importantly relaxation. Something we all deserve after a year of work.

Or at least this used to be the idea. You work hard all year long so we can have a week of doing nothing in some other place then our home. Because if you would stay home you would just end up doing laundry, spring cleaning, repairs on the house you missed during the year, and things you have been putting off. We want to escape our lives for just a little, see something different, be with different people. We want a week when we dont have to worry about getting up on time, going to work, paying our bills, making deadlines, cleaning, cooking, etc....

When we were growing up there some things that used to be normal...one of these things is going for vacation. It was something that summer brought with it just like the hot weather and sunshine. It was not a question whether you go or not, it was a question where we go?

And now again it seems its not a question whether we go or not. We are not going. And with that you just want to sweep it out of your mind as fast as possible. Because you dont want to think about it and make your heart wanting for something you know you cant afford.

Vacation used to be something we all deserve, and now its something special for the rich...why? Why did we give up our right to relax? Do we work less then the generation before us? If we think its alright not to take a week off, why not just give up weekends as well?

I know going for vacation is something that needs planing and packing, and of course its never stress free. And you cant rest out the whole year in a week, but its still something we should all have. Its something we look forward to, its why we push through things during the year.

But what happens when we dont have vacation to look forward to? When they take this little pleasure out of our lives too...then what will help us get through the rest of the year?

"You become responsible forever, for what you have tamed"

`Men have forgotten this truth,` said the fox. 

`But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.`

/Antoine de Saint-Exupery/

I believe that we have all read this and most of us had parents who wanted to teach us to be responsible when we were children. How is it that we forgot?

I ask myself very often this question. I always had a soft heart, since I was very little, and I always wanted to take all the stray animals home. All of them! I didn't care if that cat had only one eye, or the dog wasn't pretty. I just wanted to take them home and love them. I was a lucky kid in this aspect, I grew up surrounded by lots of animals. I never much cared for people, they always have let me down. But animals were different, they were my friends, and they have always loved me, for who I am. They didn't care what I am wearing, if I am a popular in school, or for anything superficial people seem to value so much. They just cared that I was there to tend for them.

 

For as long as I can remember I was responsible for my own animals. I had to clean up after them, water them, feed them (except for the dogs), fix their places (of course when I was very young with help). First they showed me what they need, how much food they get every day, and after this it was my responsibility. Not all the animals were mine, so I wasn't the only one caring for all we had, but I helped out with all of them. I will try explain, so you can get a better picture. For example we had rabbits, that we got for every Easter. So the rabbit I got was mine, to name, to play and to tend for and when autumn came and the rabbit grew up I helped kill it and clean it. It may seem a little harsh, but from young age I was taught that animals have their purposes, there are the ones we eat, the ones we keep for protection, and ones we keep because they are pretty (like birds, they have their use, they make your garden or house beautiful, and they cheer you up with their beautiful songs). Of course participating in the rabbits end was not obligatory, but I had a stomach for it as they say, so I did and never regretted it. On the other hand we had a really big aquarium in the house, which was my father`s pride and joy so he fed the fish, but the aquarium was very big, so when cleaning came I helped.

During my childhood we have taken in lots of animals, dogs, cats, birds, you name it, we probably had it for a period of time. Of course there were the ones we only homed for a while, like a couple of birds that were hurt, or dogs our friends couldn't take with them when they moved away and later we found new homes for them (since we had limited resources too). But we have never throw and animal on the street, no matter how much trouble was with it. Once a Saint Bernard came to live with us, it was a cute dog, but it just didn't like to be closed up. We had a big part of the garden fenced down for the dogs, we had about 2 meter high fence above the ground, and about half a meter under. This dog would dig under it, or jump above it all time, so had to keep making the fence deeper and deeper and higher and higher. At the end we even had to make a concrete floor so it wouldn't dig out. And yes it was difficult with this dog, but we never thought about just letting it go because it would have been easier on us.

 

When my grandparents dog died, we went to the shelter close to us to pick them up an other one, to surprise them. It was the worst thing for me, I got so sad seeing all those animals in small cages cooked up, hardly getting any attention. I remember I kept begging my father if we could take some home (we already had 6 dogs at that time). So the answer was no of course.

 

We did buy 2 dogs in my childhood, however most the animals we acquired came to us by faith. They just sort of walked into our lives.

 

And a couple of months ago it happened again. I have lived most of my life in a house, with a garden. But as I grew up I moved into a flat, and now with my other half we still live in a flat (I hope one day this will change, I miss having a garden). We both think keeping a dog in a small apartment is a torture, its not good for anybody, not for the dog and not for the people. So even though we both love dogs (also I love most animals, he doesn't so much, but on dogs we both agree) we didn't get one, because we didn't want to put a dog in a small apartment, we felt is wasn't fair. We also moved around some the last years, so it would have made it even harder. But a couple of months ago, one day I was coming home and I saw a dog running throw the little grass (I wouldn't call it a garden) behind our building, but then it disappeared. Couple of days later I saw it again. Then I figured out she was living in an empty half building just across us. I took her food, petted her, it was love at first sight you can say. She was very kind, no barking, just a little scared (who can blame her living on the street?). A couple of days later I showed her to my other half, and they connected too instantly. So for a week or so I took her food whenever we had some leftover, I played with her, whenever I had some time and we were discussing what to do.

Of course my heart said to bring her up and that's that. But it wasn't so simple. We are on a tight budget and I didn't feel that it would be right, what if we cant feed her? What if she gets sick and we have to spend on a vet? Having some experience I know that just the vaccines cost dearly. Knowing that next year we are moving again was also an obstacle, since with a dog to find a house its not easy, and since we dont have a car transporting her from one city to an other will be difficult too. When we struggle to pay our bills, its hard to make a decision that you bring an other hungry mouth to the table
(and she was hungry). Well at the end our hearts were bigger than our pockets, so we brought her up. Bathed her, cleaned her from flees, got the vaccines (thanks god one of us is a doctor, because like this we only had to buy the vaccines, but we didn't have to pay for the vet to give it to her), got her a leash and a collar, and she got an old towel that she declared her bed. And we live happily ever after:-)

 

 

I told you all this little stories, so you can understand how I feel about animals. I hate animal torture, I hate people that buy animals and then throw them out. I dont understand how people can be so irresponsible with an other life. For me animals, are not just things that you can get rid of when you are bored of them. They need you, even if you are not in the mood to walk them or play with them. And more importantly, its not just that we can love them, they have feelings too. They love us with all their might, and they show this to us every single day, how can we be so mean to them?

Not that long ago (unfortunately!!) I was happy that they are making progress, they make new laws against animal torture. But if you truly look at it, they are almost no use. I can see so many times on the news, or newspapers animals that they have saved from being starved or found them completely destroyed and they are nursing them back to health. Nice, nice...but this isn't enough.  The law should also have a preventive affect, and most of the times what is the punishment? If they find the person responsible? The truth is that we can make as many laws as we want, fill up a whole library with them they wont change how people treat their animals.

For this the mentality has to change, the way people think. We are all God`s creatures. How would you like to be treated like this? Throw out on the road? Starved? Beaten? Of course what am I expecting of people?! They cant even treat each other with respect, how can I ever ask them to treat animals with it, especially if they think we are the dominant race. People think they can do whatever they want to everything that is around them, animals, nature. Makes no difference to them. People tend to forget that they are not almighty. Far from it. Just for a moment use your imagination and think that one day you are out in a forest and a bear or a mountain lion, or a wolf or anything comes out of a bush...you are standing there, no gun, and you know that the animal is bigger, stronger and faster than you... are you still the dominant species? Do you still have the right to disrespect an animal? Or would you like the bear to treat you with respect? Or is it alright if it kills you, just because he can. Or think about a tsunami, or an earthquake, or a volcano eruption... can you control that? Are we so foolish to think that nature is our slave?!

 

 I see that with life becoming more and more difficult people just seem to have an excuse for throwing their animals on the street, and funny thing is that they are not even the worst one. The worst ones are the ones that are just plain irresponsible, they buy or adopt a dog and then just get bored of them, because they realize that having an animal no matter how small it is, you have to take time and effort and love to care for them. I wish people would think before taking an animal home.
And I truly wish people would think about the animal they just carelessly pass by on the street. Because its so easy to walk pass by a someone who is bagging for money on the street and its even easier to pass by a poor animals who cant even speak up for themselves.

 People think one of the biggest problem nowdays is the how many people loose their homes and end up on the streets. Yes, this is a big problem, but by far its not the biggest problem we face nowdays. Its just a big problem, and an other big problem is people thinking that animals are here for us to do as we please with them. That they are disposable. They are not! They are just like you and me, and everybody else. And what affects us, affects them too! And there are so few who stand up and fight for them.

 Where we live the situation is really bad, and unfortunately seeing a stray dog is a very common thing. Sadly there are not enough shelters, there are lots of cities that dont have one, and even less people who are willing to hold out a helping hand for these poor animals. And there is too many of them who end up dead, because they poison them, or hit them with a car, or they just starve to death. We dont have a lot, but we are happy to share it, please think about it, when you throw out some left over food after three days, that you could be filling someones hungry tummy with it. It would take nothing away from you to help someone who cant help themselves.

 

There are so many who have said it before me in a nicer way, in a better way. But the meaning is always the same. And I think the dog says it instead of me, plane and simple so everybody can understand!

 

 Thank you for reading, please comment would love to hear your opinion.

HAPPY 200!!

I am  happy to announce that we have reached 200 pageviews. I would like to thank everybody who came by and read what I wrote. Thank you everybody, and please keep coming back!!

Spring at last

Since I have mentioned in my last entry that I have been busy spring cleaning, I thought that would a great topic today. And before you all run away, I am not going to give any advices on how to turn your house inside out, dont worry!

Spring means a lot of things, rebirth of nature, sunshine after a long winter, love in the air, almost the end of school, Easter, spring cleaning, the smell of fresh cut grass, etc... A lot of these meaning have to do with something new, and that's wonderful. One of the things that I like is the new hope in the air. Somehow no matter how dark something seems in a cold, dark winter night, when I still have the same problem on a warm spring day its just doesn't seem so impossible. I am full of hope (even if you think its foolish). I think its like when the sun comes out after all those dark days and it gets warmer and you are outside and you can feel the warmth of it on your skin, you just now (something inside tells you) that there will be summer again (even if a couple of weeks ago I felt like the sun will never come out again). So I feel like this with hope too, somehow something will change, its just has to.

It has been an ugly winter, and a long one too. Filled with much more than just snow and cold. It was filled with ugly things happening around us, wherever you looked. I dont even want to began to list them, because we will be here for a long time. And now the winter is over and spring is here, and maybe we will have some good news. Even though it didn't start out good, think about what happened in Boston (you know what I dont understand? If somebody would try to blow up an EU conference, a G8 meeting, a G20 meeting, or a negotiation between the troika and Greece, I couldn't blame them thinking if we wipe out these greedy politicians it will be better. But why people want to hurt their fellow human beings? This i dont understand! (and just to make it clear, politicians may be humans, but you got no proof, so they dont belong in the why hurt your fellow human beings!)). So even though it didn't start out good, there is hope that it will get better. Well at least in the summer all politicians go for vacation, then is as we call it back home, cucumber season (which means most of the news are not really important and half of the news is about football players(who cares?!)), and during this time if we dont even hear good news the bad ones seem to be less too.

But before summer can come, now its spring and we chouldnt be running ahead of ourselves, we must enjoy what we have now. Because for everything there is a season, and spring is a wonderful season to enjoy. Its warm enough to go for a walk but its cold enough to snuggle up to your special someone in the night.

Spring cleaning is an old tradition, from times where people didn't have so many belongings, when there were no washing machines, hoovers or central heating. All these wonders we enjoy nowdays, and they make our lives much easier. I remember when I was a little girl, I didn't understand the importance, why now we must turn the house out of all of its corners, especially because there were so many things to do around this time of the year (fix the garden, plant veggies, prepare for making preserves, etc). But as I became older and now I have my own to turn inside out, I find pleasure in it (alright, i am special that way, I like cleaning anyway not just in the spring). I treasure the first time its sunshine outside for a couple of days in a row and I can open wide up all the windows and doors and let the spring air fly through the house. I like to put away the winter clothes, its sort of a relief we wont need them again until next year, but I know because i put them away carefully that they will be there. Do all the little cleaning things you were not in the mood for all winter long (like cleaning the windows).

To clean your house is like giving it and yourself a fresh start. And we could all use a fresh start. Something filled with hope, the view of trees and flowers blooming, and the smell of freshly cut grass. When you look at the world like this you can believe that someday it will alright.
As you spring clean you also notice things around the house, some damages that time or the last winter did around you, and you plan. You plan what needs fixing and then slowly before the enxt winter is here you try to finish it. And I truly wish that the people who make dicisions about our lives would do the same.

Look around themselves, see what needs to be fixed, and do something about it. I do want to live in a world like this. Because for as long as I can remember, all I see is that there is a problem (you can pick anything), and then there are big words, promises, and at the end nothing really happens and looking back after years that problem is still there. And more likely it got worst. There are so many people unfortunately out there that think if I pretend that the problem doesn't exist, then it will go away on it own. I will never understand this kind of thinking. When there a problem you just gonna have to try to do something about it, even if you dont know the solution right away, thinking, talking about it and trying out different solutions will help you find the way to solve it. You cant just sit and be like the ostrich when it puts it head in the sand, trying to avoid danger. I know that when you have a lot of problems it can be overwhelming, and sometimes you just need to think about something else. This is absolutely normal. But eventually you are gonna have to go back to it. The longer we avoid an issue the more likely the worst it becomes. And this is what we see around ourselves nowdays, or at least this is how I feel.

I see the problems in the world and it seems nobody wants to deal with it, people just want to pretend its not there. And until they do there are more children who go hungry to school every day, there are more people who loose their jobs, more businesses that close down, more people who cant find a job for years, more young people who feel they will not be able to study, more young couples who feel they cant start a family, more people who feel they need to leave their home countries to put food on the table, more families who give up their children, more families who cant pay their mortgage or rent and they end up on the streets, and list can go on and on and on. And there seems to be nobody who is concerned about all these. Nobody! And you can see these problems becoming worst and worst and worst almost daily. I hear on the news all the time unemployment rose to that percent, new records since WWII, and then the next day new data, even higher. The last week I have heard of three suicides, I know it doesn't seem a lot, but let me explain. I have heard of these not from the TV or some newspaper, these three suicides were relatives of people that surround us. When I was younger I heard of suicides, on the news, usually the ones that they clime up some bridge or caused some big disturbances, but the ones I heard this week, were quiet ones. They were just desperate people, feeling there is no other way. And I felt so sad for them, and for the ones they left behind. (On a personal level I dont agree with suicide, I think its a selfish act, but also I dont have any children yet and I dont need to make a decision on giving them up, because I cant feed them. We have food on our table, and a roof above our head, so I cant say that I am absolutely sure I will never feel like this is the only way out.) It was even worst because even though I didn't know these people personally, I felt like it happened around me. Its like when the neighbor gets robbed, it wasn't you but it was right next door. Somehow they seem to think that the solution is establishing help phone lines. People dont want help lines, they want solutions. They want to work and feed their families. And there seem to be no one wanting to fix this problem.

But its spring, its the season for hope and new beginnings  so maybe we can hope that will this spring will change something...


Please comment, I would love to hear what you have to say:-)

Just a little bit busy:-)

Today I am going to be really short, because I dont have much time. I have been very busy the last weeks trying to catch up with spring cleaning, Easter is coming (orthodox Easter this year is on the 5th may) and we are also celebrating an anniversary, so busy busy busy... but I am soo happy to see that even though I have been busy elsewhere, you guys have been reading my blog. So thank you for everybody, and I promise I will be back soon with more:-)
But in the meantime I also wanted to to say, that I know that last couple of posts were about more politics, than general issues we are facing in our lives, but I also like to make things clear and sometimes the unbelievable lies we hear on the news day after day just get to me.
So please keep reading and comment if you feel like to, and I will be back next week with more....

Student Protest, Capital Control, etc

Protesting students and bank workers, capital control, still closed banks and last but not least politicians who are not really sure what to say. These are the latest news from Cyprus. So lets see them one by one.
Yesterday thousands of student left their classrooms to let the world see and hear what they are thinking. They said, they feel betrayed, like their future has been stolen from them. And I have got to say I agree, the only problem is that their generation is not the only one who lost their future. News were reporting about the horrible teachers who dragged poor children on the streets. Of course the reporters forget, that these "children" may be young, but that doesn`t mean they don`t have their own opinions. These students already have made up their own minds, there is no teacher who can drag them on the streets, if they dont want to go!! They are not entitled to vote yet, but they are not far from it by high school and since this is the time they all have to figure out what they want to do with their lives, of course they are entitled to be angry and say or try to do something about it, if they see the world going in the wrong direction. I think its marvelous that there are young people who are willing to stand up for what they believe in. They still have fire in them, not like the other generations. I do believe that the world should not go on like this, that they are slowly and very painfully killing is, whit this created crisis, and although there are strikes and protest I feel like nobody is really doing anything, and nothing is changing for the better. Because most people are afraid of the unknown, they are afraid if they dont obey the demands of the troika, than it will be worst then now. But when I see all these young adults on the streets, I have hope again. Throwout history is shows, that younger people have more fire in them, more want and need for changing things. I believe that my generation is the one that should do something, should change something so that the one generation younger then us, these high school students will have a future. But my generation seems to be waiting, for what I dont know?! Sometimes when I see people close to my age and they just shake their heads, and sigh like I am crazy for thinking this things, I am so disappointed and my heart just aches with this unbearable pain.  I just want to grab them and shake them up from this ignorance they are living in, they are like the ostrich that puts its head in the sand when danger comes, as the old saying goes. I see, just like those high school students our future slipping away from our hands like sand or water, and I feel the longer we wait the harder it will be to change things. Whenever there is a salary cut, and people go on the street to protest, they try to say something, they try to say we dont want this, but then after a couple of days, nothing changes and people just give up and go back to work, like this nothing will ever change. We can look at those students and take example of them, and be proud of them, that they said something. We should all truly think about that if these students, who care more about about trend, and dating, and parties, and smartphones, if they are on the streets saying something is wrong, then the rest of us are doing something very badly. We, all of us who are older then them, are responsible for them. We have to make sure that their biggest problems are choosing what they want to study after high school and figuring out what they wanna be when they grow up.
But students were not the only ones protesting yesterday. Also bank workers were protesting yesterday, and not just from Laiki. Which at first it might seem a little strange that from the two bigger banks (Bank of Cyorus and Laiki) they are eventually going to close down Laiki, then why the workers of Bank of Cyprus are protesting? Of course one reason could be because of sympathy, since they are all bank workers. But there is an other reason, which they are trying to hide and no major news or newspapers talk about. They said they are going to divide the assets of Laiki into good and bad. Which means then the good assets will go to the Bank of Cyrus, and the bad assets would just stay in Laiki, bankrupting it. But with the good assets they are also transferring a 9 billion euro ELA loan. What is ELA? ELA translates to Emergency Liquidity Assistance. Which is like a big loan shark to make it easy to understand. Practically when a bank feels short of cash and there is no one else who would give money to this bank, because they feel its too high risk and the bank may not be able to pay it back, but they fear it would have to big of an impact on the countries economy they turn to loan-sharks, just like deperate people take up usury loan. Of course just like in small, in big also they come with very high interest rates, and if there is no one else who would lend to a bank like this, then this bank is in big trouble, so desperation drives them their. You can say, its like one last thing to try before be go down under. So the workers of Bank of Cyprus fear that the bank may not be able to handle this debt (not good asset) being transferred to their bank, and they fear it might eventually collapse under its weight. Which would mean, that their bank will end up like Laiki, bankrupt and they will end up like the Laiki bank workers, unemployed. Now we can all understand, why they are protesting.
Capital control?! By now the politicians realized, they screwed up, big time. They know, that if they just reopen the banks, people will take their money out, and might cause damage that after this the politicians wont be able to fix. So they try by force (well not with a gun, but almost) to keep people from bankrupting their banks. I wonder, who gave the right to any politician to control what people do with their money? Or to be more accurate: Who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do with the money I worked for? Politicians seem to forget how sensitive people are about this issue. They think with capital control they can make people do what they want. Well in my dictionary, when a government uses force to reach its goals, we dont call that a democracy. Even if that force is not guns and soldiers. Where I come from, we call this a soft dictatorship. They think if everyone of them repeats it every day, that there is no problem, people didn't loose their trust in the banks, that nobody wants to take their money out, then it will come true or that like this they can brainwash people and reach a herd affect? Meaning, ah if nobody takes their money out, I wont either? Do they truly think that's how stupid people are?! Or if they think if they say it enough times it will come true, well let me tell you know: it wont. But lets see, what they are trying to do. So, there will be weekly withdraw limit, there will be no cashing cheques, fixed term deposits would have to mature before they can be withdrawn and even then you will not be allowed to withdraw it all at once, there might be control over debit and credit cards uses between banks and control on taking money out of Cyprus. And who know with they will come up before the banks reopen. Of course yet, we dont know what the limits will be, since these they haven't made public yet, and I am pretty sure they wont until the last minute, because it will anger people.
Although I have already mentioned above politicians saying things. There is one in particular that I would like to give some attention to. J. Dijsselbloem (Dutch financial minister and president of the euro group) said yesterday: "Currently there are no apparent signs of a higher-than-normal withdrawal of savings or of transfer of savings from peripheral to core countries." Wow, somebody should really shut this guy up! First he made the mistake saying what happens in Cyprus is a template to use for other countries, then of course he said no, no, I was wrong, It`s not a template, Cyprus is special. And since then every major politician alive is trying to say the same thing. So Cyprus, feel good about yourself, you might be in big trouble, but they think you are special! That will save you... And now he said this above mentioned little jewel yesterday. Just to explain... Dear Mr. Dijsselbloem, if the banks are closed of course there is no run on the savings, especially with the cash withdrawal limit, what you expect that people will take their money a 100 euro per day (which lots of them do)? No, they are waiting for the banks to open, so they can take their money out. But by then there will be capital control implemented, so still it will look like people are not running to the banks to take their money out. I mean, seriously (!) people like this are leading our lives and making decisions about our future! Really there must be something really wrong in this guys head! He shouldn't be allowed to talk, ever....Its like when you watch a movie, and it looks like the actors are flying in space, they are not (!) they are hung from strings in front of a green box! It looks like something, but its something totally different!
Well, today is a new day and its a new chance for the politicians to screw something up. Lets see how it goes. We might find out the capital control limits, or we might hear they are not ready to open the banks tomorrow, and its already Thursday, then its Friday so you know, its only two more days, we will open them on Monday. Anything can happen, we will see.

Until next time, thank you for reading and please comment:-)

Cyprus: Failure or Success?

The initial goal was to save Cyprus`s banks, well this they didn't manage to achieve. So If we look at it from this way, then it was a failure. But of course, by now nobody will remember what they really wanted to do in first place. The last week the politicians made such a big theatrical play, that by now all people remember is that they saved Cyprus from going bankrupt. And we are thankful for our saviors. Because once again they have us believing that it was such a long week for them and they tried really hard and they fought for us, and they managed to save us. The truth on the other side is, that all this was a well ahead planned act. They throw some phrases around, make it look like its the end, so people will panic, then they pretend to try really hard, then they come out looking like saviors just like when Moses made water out of the rocks in the desert. Unfortunately most people don't realize that they new well ahead Cyprus will not go bankrupt,they did the same act before, not once. They did this with Greece, we panic and they enjoy it, because like this the people seem to forget whats really happening. They just think, oh my god what will happen if we go bankrupt, it never happened before, we don't know how is it going to go down, so please just not the uncertainty. People rather live with whatever the troika forces on them, then face the unknown. Of course the agreement came in the last minute, not a moment before, just like everytime.
In the beginning they were talking about a 9.9% cut on the deposits above a 100.000 euros, by now they are going to close down Laiki bank, thousand of people will loose there jobs (which nowdays is almost a death sentence, because its so hard to find an other job), and any uninsured bank-accounts will be almost lost almost completely. The uninsured bank accounts are to raise 4.2 billion euros, which is far from the 5.8 billion Cyprus is needing (so where is the rest of the money going to come from? Obviously there will be some sort of take outs from the bigger deposits in the Bank of Cyprus too, no?!). Of course everybody is happy to hear that there will be no levy. Yes, that's true, there will be no levy, but at what cost?
IMF chief C. Lagarde said:
"This agreement provides the basis for restoring trust in the banking system, which is key to supporting growth."
Restoring trust in the banking system? For who? Who will trust a bank after this? Yes, the small deposits will be saved, for now. Who says this will not happen again in Cyprus or elsewhere? This is something that happens now for the first time, and after this they will be implementing this anywhere else, if they feel its needed. And the next time it happens, who is to say that they will leave out the small deposits? (There is an EU law that says, that the government has to ensure the deposits smaller then 100.000 euros, but if a government is bankrupt and has no money to pay salaries and pensions what makes you think that they will pay back the lost deposits? Honestly nobody thinks about this?! Yes, you can have a claim, what is it good for if there is nobody to get it from? There are so many people around the world that have been in a situation when somebody owes them money, but this person has nothing, no money no property so you can not get your money, you have the claim, but its worthless!) Anybody that has any brain will not trust a bank which is in the territory of the troika. I rather keep my money under my cover or in the chicken coop than in a bank, at least i know its there, even if like this I don't get interest after it. Or invest it in something solid, like a property, because whatever happens, the property will be there even if the economy falls.
The other problem Cyrpus will be facing the coming time is that lots of people have lost faith and trust in the banks, and who can blame them? As far as I know, we live in a free world so who is a government to tell me I can not take my money elsewhere, because in Cyprus they did on Friday. They will try everything for people not to empty the banks completely. Which is still a big chance, at least for those who happen to have a bigger horizon then what they want people to have. The story the troika and other politicians want you to believe is this: yes there was a chance for Cyprus to go bankrupt, but we avoided it, we saved your deposits because all that is lost is Russian money, so don't take your money out of the banks, it will be safe and sound. But the truth is that is that your savings are not safe, and it was not all Russian money that is lost.
They try  to make it look like that there is not a Cyprian or anybody else except for a Russian, who can have more then a 100.000 euros, why? I don`t understand this. Yes when you have nothing, and you compare it with a 100.000 euros with nowdays cut down salaries, then it is a lot of money. But think about it in an other way, you have been working your entire life and you collected for your retirement years, or you are collecting for sending your 3-4 kids to college, or you inherited a house that you sold, this money is not that much in that aspect. But its again a brainwashing technique, to ensure European people dont think they have lost, and a couple of Russian billionaires can afford to pay and they wont even feel this amount. And if they can`t? Yes I am sure there are some people that stole, cheated or killed for the money they have, there is lots of people who get their money illegally, but why do politicians think everybody is like them? Everybody thinks everyone else is like them, yes that's true. But you have to first of all have good faith in humans, because if I think everybody cheats, lies, kills for money then I don`t want to live in this world, second of all most of us are just average people, working hard to save something for the future for our dreams, and up to my knowledge we are the majority, not them!!!
And on the other hand can I ask that simply question why should anybody pay? Regardless of nationality. But this doesn't seem to bother Russia, since they announced they will be revising the 2011 2.5bn euro loan to Cyprus, to contribute to the restructuring efforts.
For me it looks like the troika is punishing Cyprus for being creative, Cyprus is a small country, torn apart by a war that still lives in people, and they have a lot of problems, so they try to make the best they can. On an island that struggles with water problems they can not survive on agriculture, so they try to make it on other things, like their banking system. It may not have been a perfect or even a good system, but the troika lead by Germany thought, how dare they trying to do this?
On one side they are saying there will be no measures on the accounts in the Bank of Cyprus, and that there will be no levy on any accounts. On the other hand Mr Dijsselbloem said: "The percentage to be levied on large deposits in the Bank of Cyprus will be resolved in the coming weeks." So where is the truth now?
The trouble is not over yet! Except Laiki and the Bank of Cyprus all other will open up tomorrow morning, the other two on Thursday, or at least its what they are saying.
Well after a completely ruined long weekend people tomorrow will get back to work, of course they made sure that people spent this three days worrying instead of their families, and instead of resting they will go back to work stressed and tired, but who cares? Its a "small" price to pay for saving Cyprus. The spring just started on the 21st of March and it brought with it trouble, I wonder what else we will see this spring?


UPDATE: They have announced later yesterday that no Bank will open in Cyprus until Thursday.


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Thank you for reading!