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A whole island pretending to be blind...: New book reveals how Greeks cheated THEMSELVES into ruin
DailyMail.com ^ | 3 July 2015 | Flora Drury For Mailonline

Posted on 07/03/2015 8:10:40 PM PDT by Rockitz

Greece in teetering on the brink of ruin - and it is hard not to feel sympathy for the pensioners crying in the street and the mothers facing empty supermarket shelves.

Yet those reading a new book may find themselves feeling a little less compassionate towards the Greeks. It reveals an eye-popping catalogue of benefits scams and tax avoidance schemes that have robbed the public purse.

James Angelos' The Full Catastrophe: Travels among the New Greek Ruins lays bare the corruption which filtered through all levels of society - from the islanders who pretended to be blind, to the families who forgot to register their parents' death and the doctors who 'earn' just €12,000 a year - yet live in Athens' most exclusive neighbourhood.

It was the rumours of an 'island of the blind' which first bought Angelos, a journalist, to Greece in 2011.

He had heard that on Zakynthos, something like two per cent of the population were registered blind.

All was not quite how it seemed, however, and it transpired that 61 of the 680 'blind' residents were quite happily driving around the island.

In fact, an astonishing 498 of those 680 were not blind at all - or even partially sighted.

But being 'blind' had its advantages - in particular, the €724 paid in benefits once every two months, and a reduction in utility bills.

..........

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Germany; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: alexistsipras; europeanunion; france; germany; greece; greekcrisis; greekorthodox; jamesangelos; nato; orthodox; pages; syriza; thefullcatastrophe; unitedkingdom; zakynthos
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To: HLPhat

you’re now just babbling.....incoherently.....trying to appear smarter than you are.

All hat, no cattle.....bye odd little lib.


81 posted on 07/06/2015 9:45:02 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: C. Edmund Wright

>>now you’re babbling...

Was Alan Greenspan babbling when he asserted to Brooksley Borne that the market would take care of FRAUD and so there didn’t need to be any rules against it?

http://www.google.com/search?q=Fraud+Greenspan+Borne&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Oops!


82 posted on 07/06/2015 9:48:48 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

>>trying to appear smarter than you are.

Says phoney talking head wearing the squirrel.


83 posted on 07/06/2015 9:51:23 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

>>bye odd little lib.

Poor little RINO squirrel.

Doesn’t do very well when it gets pushed off its running wheel/taking points.

LOL.


84 posted on 07/06/2015 9:57:37 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: HLPhat

maybe you should read my Amazon best selling book about the GOP -e.....at a minimum, you just made a fool of yourself calling me a RINO.

You are really strange....thinking self responsibility is a RINO concept, and that blaming biz more than government is conservative. You are bass ackwards, and again, showed yourself a fool with your RINO comment. Really a fool.


85 posted on 07/06/2015 10:08:55 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: HLPhat

that proves my point you dumb bass......

Maybe you’re too new around here to know this is a free market website. We’re not statists, like you must be.


86 posted on 07/06/2015 10:10:18 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: C. Edmund Wright

A Republic is a system of governance characterized by the rule of law.

How’s that workin’ for ya, RINO?


87 posted on 07/06/2015 10:17:39 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: HLPhat
What does that mean? We weren't debating rule of law.....far as I know, we have no disagreement on that. WTF has that got to do with who almost always initiates the relationship between government and businesses? Not a damned thing. By the way, how did your establishment book do?
88 posted on 07/06/2015 10:21:16 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: C. Edmund Wright

>>All hat, no cattle....

Yeah I got your Cow right here little man:

Ex 32:7-8

. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'

NIV

 

89 posted on 07/06/2015 10:22:52 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

Is the “Market” a Created Thing - and how does that work out in the context of Romans 1:25+?


90 posted on 07/06/2015 10:26:25 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: HLPhat
more babbling from you....you should read more.....here's more for you...
91 posted on 07/06/2015 10:26:27 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: C. Edmund Wright

More self-worshiping evasion from the Grinning chimp who wears a Squirrel on its talking head.


92 posted on 07/06/2015 10:28:13 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: HLPhat

You’re as ignorant of your Bible as you are economics.

Romans 1:25 doesn’t have a thing to do with who is at fault in Greece, or in the economic meltdown here. Zip zero nada. You are clearly grasping at straws, drowning, and changing subjects every second.

I see in your posting history you use the same Bible quote and the same Founder’s quote for all topics. Again dude, read more, get out more......taking one single verse and mis applying it is just another of your RINO leftist tactics.


93 posted on 07/06/2015 10:28:58 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: HLPhat

oh now you’re also jealous of my hair I see...


94 posted on 07/06/2015 10:29:42 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: C. Edmund Wright

Is the Market/Economy a Created Thing - Yes or No?


95 posted on 07/06/2015 10:29:56 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: JustTheTruth
When bankers foolishly keep lending to spendthrift people and governments

They don't foolishly lend, this is a formula. They do it over and over again. They influence elections to ensure it continues. They help ensure the fixes are more taxes and regulations to ensure it only gets worse.

And the rubes? Fall for it everywhere it's tried. We are only slightly better than the Greeks because we don't ALL work for the government. Yet.

96 posted on 07/06/2015 10:32:24 AM PDT by riri (Obama's Amerika--Not a fun place.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
"you have a very odd emphasis on this....but tell me, please, how do bankers make money when they loan out money that isn’t paid back? How does that work?"

When the government bails them out with taxpayer money.

97 posted on 07/06/2015 10:35:29 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: riri

>>They do it over and over again.

Yep. It’s a cycle derived from human nature that’s been getting gamed/exploited through out history.


98 posted on 07/06/2015 10:36:01 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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To: HLPhat

By Created, do you mean by man or by God?
It’s created in the sense that everything that exists can be said to be a creation. To say God created the market specifically is plausible, but more a by product of human nature, which He did create. This is semantic foolishness and games.

But you asked, so what do you say?

And what does it have to do with this topic, besides nothing?


99 posted on 07/06/2015 10:36:35 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: C. Edmund Wright

>>oh now you’re also jealous of my hair I see...

Nope. I just think it probably looked more natural when the squirrel was still wearing it.


100 posted on 07/06/2015 10:38:46 AM PDT by HLPhat (This space is intentionally blank.)
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