And, on the island of Crete, a businessman hanged himself due to economic difficulties.
So the Troika and its failed austerity policies have taken two more victims.
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On Wednesday, the Troika called for an additional 14.5 billion euros in austerity measures for Greece, to be imposed within the next three years.
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Taking their marching orders from the Troika, the political predators of New Democracy, PASOK, and Tourism Services, who have controlled Greece since the last election fraud, have announced that Greece is FOR SALE. The government-of-the-regime estimates a total of 6.9 billion in total assets will be privatized.
This ruthless and illegal coup plans to literally sell profitable public property, owned and paid for by the Greek People for decades, for prices that have no relation to reality.
It's unbelievable, but true. In an official document, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund or TAIPED, who are tasked with the process of privatization by the Troika, has assessed that the state property will be sold for only 6.9 billion.
Further outrage! The sell off of the public's profitable assets will not contribute to or in any way relieve the Greek People from the burden of debt.
TAIPED is the liaison between the buyers and sellers of public property. According to official documents, TAIPED has pegged the price of public assets to current market prices for listed companies and offers submitted by prospective suitors for different companies or public property.
According to TAIPED, the property prices for Greece's public assets are:
- The PPC (electric company) not more than 350 million euros
- Old international Airport is not to exceed 700 million euros
- EYDAP (Athens Water and Sewage Company) will cost 200 million euros
- EYATH (Thessaloniki water company) 80 million euros
- Via Egnatia 50 million euros
- OPAP (Hellenic Petroleum), which has hundreds of millions in revenue annually, is to be sold for only 500 million euros
- The state lottery will be sold for 550 million euros
- All regional airports are on the block for 400 million euros
- All ports, Piraeus, Thessaloniki, and other smaller ports for 420 million euros
- The property of the IBC (Olympics Press Center) 80 million euros
- The Hippodrome just 60 million euros
- The rest of the Athens International Airport 800 million euros
- The Post Office just 80 million euros
- Finally, the luxurious hotel Astir Vouliagmeni for only 30 million euros! Two to three years ago, the two villas on Mykonos had an estimated value of 1 billion each!
A total of $6.9 billion euros FOR ALL OF THIS!!!
Before the sell-off of the Greek Peoples' assets begins, the public needs to trigger the application of Article 120 of the Greek Constitution.
As the blog Prime Economics states in a February 23, 2012 post entitled, Greece: Towards the Creditors' Constitution?:
There is time to regroup and say no. Greek Constitution, which came into force in 1975 -- thus after the ousting of the right-wing military dictatorship -- and was last amended in 2008, has some very important protections built into it.Alexis Tsipras says the government-of-the-regime is trying to convince the Greek people that if they sell off all of the public assets for pennies on the euro, it will relieve the austerity measures.
First, as to sovereignty. The Troika's first stumbling block is Article 1:1. The form of government of Greece is that of a parliamentary republic.And all who would seek to undermine this popular sovereignty should beware. Article 120 provides a rather fierce rampart against "usurpation" of the Constitution, "in any way whatsoever":
2. Popular sovereignty is the foundation of government.
3. All powers derive from the People and exist for the People and the Nation; they shall be exercised as specified by the Constitution.3. Usurpation, in any way whatsoever, of popular sovereignty and of powers deriving therefrom shall be prosecuted upon restoration of the lawful authority; the limitation from which punishment for the crime is barred shall begin as of the restoration of lawful authority.And Greeks may in some cases resist "by all possible means":4. Observance of the constitution is entrusted to the patriotism of the Greeks who shall have the right and the duty to resist by all possible means against anyone who attempts the violent abolition of the Constitution. ["]
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There were huge protests in Spain over the weekend, as Prime Minister Rajoy officially announced that he will impose the same failed austerity policies imposed on the Greek people.
StopCartel TV broadcasts live from Athens, Greece AT A NEW TIME " weeknights @ 6pm Athens time. The following post is a loose transcript of the July 16, 2012 broadcast.
The southern part of Crete apparently has more oil than Iran! Speaking on STEP FM in Canada, Professor Antonis Foskolos from the Department of Mineral Resources and Engineering of the Technical University of Crete. said that "we committed a crime back in 1997 when they stopped investigations."
Foskolos said that the hydrocarbon fields under Crete are immense with at least 22 billion barrels of oil. The Herodotus Basin he said has some 14 to 15 billion barrels of oil, while there are only 400 million barrels in Patras. He also noted that the deposits of natural gas recently found in Cyprus are still "small" because there are at least three other layers that have yet to be investigated. Cyprus has four layers.. said Foskolos... but the aforementioned basin under Crete has "7 layers"!
The Professor said that once the oil begins being exploited it will all be exported, since the whole area Crete has an additional 22 billion barrels of oil totaling some 38 billion barrels! "We are at the level of Iran in relation to stocks," (meaning oil reserves) noted Foskolos and concluded by saying that in 2016-2017 this development, and these riches will change the face of Greece. This "will change the strength of the country. "
In an earlier report on hellasfrappe Foskolos had said that the two areas that in his professional opinion have significant amount of deposits are nine mud volcanoes southeast of Crete, in the Greek Herodotus basin. More precisely, the mud volcanoes in this area contain high amounts of hydrocarbon reserves, primarily natural gas, of approximately 1.5 trillion cubic meters! (Click here for that story)
This is comparable with what has been found in the Nile Delta, the Caspian Sea (deposit Shah Deniz), Norway and elsewhere.
In his expert opinion, the south eastern basin of Herodotus in Crete has reserves that surpass two trillion cubic meter mark. This is a vast amount and can only be compared to what was discovered in the Nile Delta (by SHELL, BP) . He says the sediments are of the same origin and geological formations are very similar. In all so far, it is estimated that there are 3.5 trillion cubic meters of gas located there, which can be equaled to 20-22 billion barrels of oil!
The benefits for Greece are obvious. Foskolos believes that the exploitation of these deposits will create a total of 300,000 jobs. At least 100,000 in the primary sector and 200,000 jobs in the secondary sector, while all revenue can be reaped by the Greek state in 25 years amounts to 437 billion US and this is not counting the profits from the pipeline that will transport the natural gas to Europe ( at a length of 1000 km at a cost of approximately $ 20,000 / km, or 25 billion US dollars.)
Other experts agree with Foskolos as well. A separate report on the Chaniotika nea site said that Professor Giannis Makris says that there are two potential hydrocarbon reserves southwest of Crete, where sediment thickness frin 10 to 12 kilometers, and there are hydrocarbon reserves in Western Crete where there are 3 fields of mud volcanoes.
[Link]