Hi from Greece after taking a break from the wonderful beaches here.
After reading the papers here for the past few weeks I am beginning to realize the magnitude of the illegal immigration problem. Every day there are reports of boats and trucks full of people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Kurds, etc etc trying to make it to the "promised land" of Europe. The Albanian mafia is now even more powerful than the Italian mafia a paper reported since they now control the human trade, along with drugs and weapons. the Italian beaches are getting flooded with boats from Albania every day. Very sad to see all these people paying thousands of dollars in fees to these gangsters for transport to a land where they can work and make some money. The international community must do something to resolve this ever growing problem.
Again the greek papers' crime pages are filled with crimes from Albanians. I met a guy who lives 15 mins away from the Albanian border, the stories he told us were simply amazing.
In Serbia, everyone was bitching for elections and now that Milo announced them they don't want to participate. It appears they have decided on one guy but that Drakovic guy is such an ass that they will probably fail again to unseat Milosevic. MIlo caught four "Terrorists" in the border, another masterful ploy to win votes, that guy's resilience is simply incredible.
the current announcement of the two vp's in the US election have simply reaffirmed my decision to vote for the Greens, anything but the usual suspects. Call it a protest vote for me<g>
the greek stock market has corrected big time here, reached a high of 6,500 in October 1999 and now is at 3,700. Great lesson for lots of people here who thought that they were all Peter Lynch (including my father).
The current fuss over a European Union mandated measure for identity cards (not to show religion) have made the influential Greek Church figures cry foul and sent thousands to the streets to protest the "evil" measures. I hope the current govt does not give in to these backward looking ayatollahs who have been screwing the people for centuries. Actually, if the govt could get the Church's property all Greeks could buy 3 cars each, huge fortunes they have accumulated.
Things are getting better here slowly but still much remains to reach the truly European status, it takes time to change the mentality here.
But vacationing here still remains great
Just saying hi
Later, back to the beach
George |
