Wednesday 27 January 2010


Normally in the village tractors are working in the fields or seen taking the whole family to church on Sunday mornings. Recently however local farmers have taken to the towns and main road causing total chaos and road blocks demonstrating in respect of the lack of payment of EU subsidies from the government.  To my eyes (the eyes of a foreigner living in Greece) this seems to happen this time of year, every year!  With the current economic climate and especially the position Greece finds itself in financially within the EU surely there must be a bit of give and take on both sides.  These road blocks in the rural towns and villages inconvenience only the locals; the road blocks on main motorways in and out of the country preventing entry of foreign trucks etc. may be a way of demonstrating, but will actually costing the Greek government millions of euros in damages to other EU counties......worsening the Greek debt and hence reducing even more the money available for internal expansion and payment.
If farmers want negotiations with the new government then plan them through the correct channels, have your unions represent you at both local and national levels....if they can not do this why have a union at all? This is a new government in power that you the people voted in......give them a chance..........................

Saturday 23 January 2010

Earthquakes No2

Since 18th January 2010, the Corinth region is experiencing an important seismic crises with more than 130 earthquakes of magnitude spanning from 2.5 to 5.3 in less than 5 days.

The Corinth rift has been long identified as a site of major importance for earthquake studies in Europe, producing one of the highest seismic activities in the Euro-Mediterranean region: five earthquakes of magnitude greater than 5.8 in the last 35 years, 1 to 1.5 cm/year of north–south extension, frequent seismic swarms, and destructive historical earthquakes (Source: Corinth Rift Laboratory). Visit Corinth Rift Laboratory web page for more information.
 



as reported on :-
http://www.emsc-csem.org/index.php?page=current⊂=recent&evt=GREECE_january_2010

Friday 22 January 2010

Earthquakes...



When a severe earthquake or volcanic eruption occurs in part of the world I often query the knock on effect across the globe. After the devastating quake in Haiti we have seen an increased number of quakes in and around Greece, indeed over the last two days various sizes of quakes going up to 5.4 have been noted by the Geophysics stations in Patras (see http://www.geophysics.geol.uoa.gr/stations/maps/recent.html ). Of these only two were felt in and around our area of Messini (to my knowledge).

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Cadbury & Kraft


The result of the newly announced takeover

TAXING YOUR TRAILER !!!!


Back late last year I imported along with my UK registered car my caravan. Now without being repetitive on the blog, the customs import, whilst lengthly went quite well and all the papers were issued and cost me around 400 Euros. As I needed to use the car I obviously had to pay the Greek road tax, but I did not require the caravan so held back taxing this until today.....Now the first hurdle was that you needed an "engineer'' (draftsman) to draw up plans of the caravan (no don't ask me why...you just do!!), and we had that sorted at a cost of 50 Euro. So off with my import papers from customs and plans to the registration office for the plates.
PROBELM ONE:-
The caravan was in my name and the car in my wifes.  So we had to go to the tax office and make a written statement that I "sold" a percentage of the caravan to her.....(I sold her 10%, bet I never get the money though). Paid 5.40 E to have the paperwork verified and lots of rubber stamps later this was sorted.
So off back to the registration office....
PROBLEM TWO:-
They asked for residency certificates, now when we registered the car and obtained Greek plates they did not want residency certificates...why now (don't ask, they just DO!). So not yet having these its off to the police station tomorrow

Watch this space for more "exciting" tales of time wasting.........

Friday 15 January 2010

War crimes




News that diaries naming German soldiers involved in reprisal killings in Cephalonia (as depicted in the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin)  have emerged and that Italian authorities have opened new investigations into ex-soldiers that are still alive that were involved in the massacre must raise questions with many.

Whilst such incidents brings an abhorrence in my mind to embark on what will be a long legal trial costing many millions of euros against men that are now well in their 80's should also be given consideration. Yes, these guys deserved to be punished, but after all this time perhaps a public apology for their actions that were probably created by total "brain washing" by German authorities during war years; a look at their current life style, and their contribution to society in the years after the wars could be more productive.
The money that would have been spent on the war crime trials would be far more use allocated to current day charities giving aid to war and disaster victims.  I bet many relatives of brave soldiers who died in such tragic circumstances in Cephalonia would see such aid as a fitting commemoration.

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Its rains in Greece as well !!!!



Two days in a row rain !  This is just not acceptable, I even got wet yesterday when I had to go to Kalamata on business. 

With the start of the new year and the system Greece has of road tax I decided it was time I started the bureaucracy to obtain road tax for my caravan (yes they have to be taxed as well as your car). I had previously late last year obtained all the import papers when I arrived with it from the UK, but I decided  not to tax it (92 Euro) for just two months. (as in Greece you pay for a whole year no matter when you tax a vehicle....no exceptions).
I now needed an "engineers" inspection and drawing before I could complete the papers for the tax office. Again last year I was introduced to a person who could do this, but when I got to his offices next to the tax office they had been converted to a cafe !!!!  However in true Greek form in the corner of the cafe with papers piled high on a desk was a lady sorting some road tax forms for people.  Now call me cinical but I think this was a person trying to capitalise on the business that was there and make a euro on the side.......
She spoke no English, and my attempts to ask where Nikos the engineer had gone had her leave the table and go and serve coffee !  Anyway the people in the licensing office told me where he had moved to, so problem solved.

So giving Nikos all the forms, measurements, details and photos of my caravan I wait to see what he presents me with next week.............I just know this is going to be    h  a  r  d  ........

Friday 8 January 2010

Greece tax proposals



Almost all news channels in Greece are currently covering the tax proposals being put forward by the government to resolve the current critical situation the country finds itself in. The task of preventing tax evasion is mammoth as few Greeks appear to declare true earnings. Now if, like me your earnings (pension) is taxed in the UK then many of the current proposals will have little / no effect on us, however I do have some concerns for the future effect should proposals relating to property & inheritance tax be applied.

If I read the proposals correctly (slightly difficult as they are all in Greek and the best online translator seems to struggle) then it is proposed to give allowances against tax returns for many, many personal purchases. These include installation of heating, air conditioning, some fuel costs, certain household maintenance, insurances and even some food purchases. The purpose is to force the retailers to give receipts (as you will have to produce these to claim the allowance) and this means even the local market stall holder.

Other allowances will be forthcoming for disabled personnel.

I am uncertain if the proposals will resolve the current tax evasion, as I see the local traders having two tariffs, one for the cost with a receipt and one for the cost without !!!!

The alternative solution becomes far more of a worry to me. The potential massive government tax hike that could be applied to food and other basic necessities.

Thursday 7 January 2010

Its all GO but no SNOW

With Christmas and New Year celebrations behind us and all the Christmas decorations taken down and packed away for another I guess its is now time to concentrate on the garden, olive trees and other such “winter” jobs. Now I have to be careful not to make my UK friends too envious, so I will not dwell on our morning stroll on the beach at Velika with the dog this morning in 19 C temperatures, nor will I make fun of snow bound Britain where it appears nobody has ever heard of SNOW CHAINS and risk life and limb whilst slipping and sliding on the roads whilst using all year round tyres totally unsuited to winter weather.

No, giving it second thought I will dwell on the tyres issue! In several European counties if you have an accident in snowy weather and have ventured to some areas without the correct tyres or snow chains you are heavily fined by the police. Listening to the UK news I have yet to hear any reporter or motoring expert raise the issue of snow chains. It hit home this morning that any person under 30 years old will not have experienced snowy weather conditions (or will not remember it) if they have not ventured outside the UK. During my trips to Greece in winter months I would not venture through Austria & Italy without my snow chains !!!!

Anyway back to normal Greek village life and the garden………second thoughts again, I think its time for an Ouzo and listen to the noise of chain cutters downing olive branches as the harvest is collected in…….

Saturday 2 January 2010

New Year's Party

I hope all my friends and readers had great New Year celebrations (and can remember it!). I was a little surprised how quiet the village was and indeed few houses seemed to be celebrating; there was no one to be seen in the street at the stroke of midnight.
We had our own party (a few ex-pats) and after the evening meal we were joined by some of our Greek village friends who brought with them a home made Vassilopita (which was just as well as the one we had brought in the local supermarket was awful, being no more than a dried type of bread) which got ceremoniously cut according to tradition after we toasted the New Year and sang Auld Lang Syne as we watched from the balcony  fireworks exploding over the city of Kalamata and town of Messini.
Being some two hours ahead of the UK it was too early to call relatives there (as one of our friends did a previous year only to be asked if they were @#*!ed as it was only 10pm.), so family greetings had to wait until New Years Day.