So what can be done about Greece?

[Stelio Kontos]

http://www.foreignersinuk.co.uk/news...s_mep_835.html



The bolded part would be funny if the Scandinavians didn't actually consider us "untermensch" material.

That's...thoroughly depressing.

It's folks like that ignoramus that make me say the Balkan nations should just form their own small trading bloc and a forum where diplomacy can go on between regional states without infringing on sovereignty or giving our sovereignty away to people who view us as lesser creatures.

[Ravenblade]

http://www.foreignersinuk.co.uk/news...s_mep_835.html



The bolded part would be funny if the Scandinavians didn't actually consider us "untermensch" material.

Let's fight generalization with even more blatant generalization. He's a rightwing populist. Name me a rightwing populist with unbiased view on and high esteem for foreigners. Apparently this wasn't the only case of racism and his membership of the European parliament ended within the same year this article was written in: 2009. I find accusations of Germans still being Nazis, all Scandinavians being racist is really poisoning the well and in general a topic-ender after all what does their opinion count for after such one accusation anway?

[Jackmoves]

The bolded part would be funny if the Scandinavians didn't actually consider us "untermensch" material.

I don't. Nor does most others, but keep having fun with generalizations. That guy is also from Danish folkepartiet(sp), basically a social conservative/xenophobic/racist party/whateveryouwannacallit. I expect things like that to be said by people like him.

[Wikiy]

Okay can I ask a question?

What the hell is wrong with the EU leadership that they're allowing countries like this into the Eurozone? Do Germany and France need an underclass THAT badly? I have nothing against Croatia or Croatians... but the fact that the EU hasn't learned its lesson after the PIIGS is astonishing. It's good to know the US doesn't have a monopoly on fantastically bad decisions, though.

Croatia isn't in the Eurozone and it wont be until the economy is fixed. Croatia being in the EU with a bad economy doesn't hurt the EU because we aren't directly interlinked with the EU through the Eurozone like Greece is.

Edit: I'd also like to add that Croatia had to go through an extremely rigorous reform process, by far more rigorous than any other country, and not because we were more fucked up than the rest but because the EU realized they need to be more strict with requirements. This is why no country will probably be joining for at least 10-20 years unless Icelanders change their minds.

Not everything is fine and dandy, also not in Greece, but I hate it when people spout nonsense and panic because they blindly trust news media.

Exactly. People here keep complaining about the recession but the truth is that people who have it just fine are the ones complaining, not the ones losing jobs. The average citizen is complaining when there's nothing to complain about (from the perspective of that average citizen). Cybran, you should come live here for a year and you'll see the media is blowing things out of proportion, especially the foreign media when reporting about Croatia because they're all prejudiced to think this is a war-torn shit hole, and that prejudice is beyond obvious in the articles reporting on Croatia's accession to the EU.

[Cybran]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...olidarity.html

“I think it’s a bit of everything for Germany: to show good will, vent anger over too little progress at the European level and to export more elements of the successful German model,” Carsten Brzeski, senior economist at ING Groep NV in Brussels, said in an e-mailed answer to questions. “Of course, it is the proverbial drop in the bucket, but something is better than nothing.”

Apparently the only thing that can be done is for Germany to wave it's finger at these countries and explain to them why they are so bad at running their own country.

[Ravenblade]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...olidarity.html

“I think it’s a bit of everything for Germany: to show good will, vent anger over too little progress at the European level and to export more elements of the successful German model,” Carsten Brzeski, senior economist at ING Groep NV in Brussels, said in an e-mailed answer to questions. “Of course, it is the proverbial drop in the bucket, but something is better than nothing.”

Apparently the only thing that can be done is for Germany to wave it's finger at these countries and explain to them why they are so bad at running their own country.

German state-owned lender KfW Group will provide Spanish development bank ICO with an 800 million-euro ($1 billion) blanket loan that can be disbursed to SMEs in Spain through commercial banks. The goal is to promote investments and new jobs in Spain, the German Finance Ministry said in a July 2 statement.[...]
Schaeuble has started similar lending programs with Portugal and Greece in an effort to bypass “the long route through European institutions” that’s hampering a faster recovery in the south.

In a May 21 letter to German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler, who’s also present at the signing today, Schaeuble expressed hope for “quicker support with tangible, psychologically effective results in a manageable period of time.”

Selectively quoting again, aren't we?

[Cybran]

Selectively quoting again, aren't we?

More loans. Nothing to write home about. How will the unemployed apply for that money and pay back the interest rates?

[Ravenblade]

More loans. Nothing to write home about. How will the unemployed apply for that money and pay back the interest rates?

Let's first establish whether you know what the KfW bank is since you so relaxedly are dismissing it as "nothing to write home about". See this article.
Secondly the goal is to speed up the process at which banks get money which they can distribute via loans to SMEs which then should help investments and creating new jobs. It's literally the taxpayer giving the guarantee for each loan since the KfW can get very cheap money from international markets at favourable conditions. Spanish companies are supposed to benefit from low interests which they could not get otherwise due to poor credit rating.

[Bolson13]

More loans. Nothing to write home about. How will the unemployed apply for that money and pay back the interest rates?

How about investing it through companies in more jobs?

And you really think anybody here up north still thinks we will be seeing any of that money back? It is going to be one giant write off. Especially Greece, we (let's say we paid off the banks) have already written off a bunch of the amount we loaned them and soon we will do it again. And their debts have been restructured. A lot of those loans were used to pay off loans with higher intrest. In the end, that is still a boatload of free money though you don't feel it right away. And what else were they going to use that loaned money for otherwise? Invest in jobs? So pile up debt on debt.

The debt restructuring wasn't bad at all. And like I said, most debt will be written off eventually anyways because the debt burden is still too high for Greece to carry. So they got free money through the debt resturcturing, free money through the bank's bank write off and will receive more write off's in the future.

But no, northern Europe are a bunch of racists and Germany is taking over. As always "not our fault" is the key word in Southern Europe. And heaven forbid we would give some advice on how to change something.......Stubborn, thats what southern Europe is. Too stubborn to learn from their own mistakes and too stubborn to take advice from others.

[larrakeyah]

http://www.foreignersinuk.co.uk/news...s_mep_835.html

The bolded part would be funny if the Scandinavians didn't actually consider us "untermensch" material.

Nothing new here, northern euros have always believed in Aryan supermen theories. The funny part is they try hard to hide their ideas but from time to time the mask slips. Brilliant stuff!

[Kalis]

Nothing new here, northern euros have always believed in Aryan supermen theories. The funny part is they try hard to hide their ideas but from time to time the mask slips. Brilliant stuff!

It appears that your entire knowledge of Europeans comes from some 1930s Nazi propaganda film.

[Tuor]

It appears that your entire knowledge of Europeans comes from some 1930s Nazi propaganda film.

Then you agree with what is typen in that article?? You agree with such statments such as ''... Southern European are not as smart as Northen European...''.

If you do then you literally saying that you are dump'er then northern euro, since you came from Malta .

The fact still stands, and the fact is that some northern countries (not saying wich ones) holded up some anti-semitic laws untill mid 60's .

If you consider yourself less smart then other people, that's your own problem, lets not assume everyone does.

[Reeve]

Then you agree with what is typen in that article?? You agree with such statments such as ''... Southern European are not as smart as Northen European...''.

If you do then you literally saying that you are dump'er then northern euro, since you came from Malta .

The fact still stands, and the fact is that some northern countries (not saying wich ones) holded up some anti-semitic laws untill mid 60's .

If you consider yourself less smart then other people, that's your own problem, lets not assume everyone does.

That's not what he was suggesting. He was suggesting that your source for that sentiment shouldn't be applied to that whole region of the world, that it's a reactionary thought leftover from the 1930s, but doesn't represent the ideas of the Northern Europeans of today.

Nowhere did he even hint that he agreed with the sentiment.

[Kalis]

Then you agree with what is typen in that article?? You agree with such statments such as ''... Southern European are not as smart as Northen European...''.

If you do then you literally saying that you are dump'er then northern euro, since you came from Malta .

The fact still stands, and the fact is that some northern countries (not saying wich ones) holded up some anti-semitic laws untill mid 60's .

If you consider yourself less smart then other people, that's your own problem, lets not assume everyone does.

Eh? Obviously I wasn't ageeing.

Also, I'm an Anglo-Cypriot, so I'm both Southern and Northern European.

...and Western European (depending on how you classify Europe).

...and, as Cyprus is the easternmost European state (Russia and the Ukraine extend further East, but start further West), I'm technically Eastern European as well

...and Middle Eastern.

[Tuor]

That's not what he was suggesting. He was suggesting that your source for that sentiment shouldn't be applied to that whole region of the world, that it's a reactionary thought leftover from the 1930s, but doesn't represent the ideas of the Northern Europeans of today.

He argued against someone who provided accurate data, and at lest one of those 3 nordic countries is well known to be very anti-semitic...

He literally called himself dump...

Nowhere did he even hint that he agreed with the sentiment.

If someone is defending someother, then normally its implicit some kind of ideal afiliation, since he argued against the one that in fact was defending him, lol... What do people call this??

[Reeve]

He argued against someone who provided accurate data, and at lest one of those 3 nordic countries is well known to be very anti-semitic...

He literally called himself dump...


If someone is defending someother, then normally its implicit some kind of ideal afiliation, since he argued against the one that in fact was defending him, lol... What do people call this??

And again, I think you totally misunderstood what he was saying. There wasn't a drop of agreement in what he said, explicit or implicit.

[Deleted]

He argued against someone who provided accurate data, and at lest one of those 3 nordic countries is well known to be very anti-semitic...

Yes, we're all a bunch of jew haters. Firstly, we're not, you'd have to skew statistics pretty damn lot to make us look as anti-semitic as you imply. Secondly, what kind of hypocrite do you have to be to accuse us 20 million+ Nordics of being generalizing nazis?

[Jackmoves]

He argued against someone who provided accurate data, and at lest one of those 3 nordic countries is well known to be very anti-semitic...

Rubbish. Do you got any examples of how any of the nordic countries are anti-semetic?

[Deleted]

The Greek problem in a nutshell "It is not our fault"

http://www.svd.se/naringsliv/nyheter...en_8323930.svd

Sorry about the article is not in English but this is a short account what Greek mininster Nikos Dendias say....

- The plan is hardly our fault. We are partial responsibility in a way [for Greece's debt levels before emergency loans] but I am sure that the European institutions saw that a bubble was being created in Greece without anyone really urged us to be more careful. I'm not saying that we have no debt, but others are also guilty, said Nikos Dendias.

How can Greece not be fully responsibility for the debt levels before emergency loans?

[Tuor]

Rubbish. Do you got any examples of how any of the nordic countries are anti-semetic?

I didn't wanted to name it, but since you seem interested... I have no other choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Sweden

This country suported anti-semitic laws even after the defeat of Germany in 1945...

Edit:

I remember seeing several documentary about this subject on TV, unfortenelly it seems i can't find any since i no longer remember their names's.