Taxes not collected.....

We hear constantly about Greek people avoiding paying taxes, under declaring incomes etc., but sometimes the government departments do very little to even try and collect taxes / utility bills.

I have become accustomed to having to collect my water bill from the local taverna each year around September. For those of you wondering why it goes to the local taverna and is not delivered to my house like normal mail let us just say "its always been that way, why change it?"...the reply I got when I queried it some years back after not seeing a water bill for four years!  No one told me I had to pick it up at "the pub"!

Well last year it never appeared until mid November, this year its not appeared at all........yet when you go into the water authority offices there always appears lots of staff, oh yes and lots of coffee cups!

The very same thing occurs with car road tax. Despite owing a Greek vehicle over a year I have not received a road tax payment document. I ask you over a year to plan to send these out.........It means of course I have to go to the vehicle registration office in the city, queue for hours to be able to pay for next years tax disc. Failure to pay by January means a fine and that means paying DOUBLE. If I had received a reminder I could just pop into the local bank / post office.

Now I don't want to pay taxes / bills either, but its a fact of life and perhaps government officials actually earned their wages by carrying out there jobs efficiency Greece would have more coffers in the bank.

New PM for Greece

I am uncertain on just how I feel in respect of the appointment of Lucas Papademos as interim Prime Minister for Greece.  With all my respect for Antonis Samaras gone owing to the way I believe he put his own political party and career before that of the Greek nation, is it right Greece should have what I see as a Prime Minister appointed that has not been democratically elected by the people.

Perhaps if Samaras had been more supportive of a coalition government, as requested by George Papandreou appointed representatives from both parties could have picked the best brains to work together and lead Greece out of this financial crisis without trying to win points off each other.  Did Samaras play to the point of brinkmanship, hoping the President would ask him to form a government, and loose?  We will probably never know.  If this was the case again a governing party would be in power that was not democratically elected.

No matter what public opinion of George Papandreou's actions are his party was voted into power, and as leader of that party he became Prime Minister. In his actions he endevoured to tackle the corruption within Greece and face head on the massive public and company tax evasions that exist.  For this he suffered the wrath of the unions and indeed some members of the public alike.

Greece became the first casualty of the Eurozone economic crisis not because of George Papandreou, but because of the current financial climate throughout the EU and indeed much of the western world. It may be argued owing to the previous poor financial state of the Greek economy it was bound to falter first.  Unfortunately like vultures over a dying body, bankers circle over a faltering economy to "pick the bones".  The skeleton left behind will unfortunately haunt the Greek people for years to come..............

The seat of Civilisation?

Many people worldwide will have seen on TV the Greek stray dog heading the demonstrations in Athens.

In past blogs I have drawn attention to the sad lack of animal care throughout most of Greece despite the laws being similar to most of the EU.  What hope have we in getting people to change attitudes if the law enforcement officers give examples like this?

To expand my concerns over animal welfare in Greece, last week in a small fishing town called Gythio an animal care shelter was  broken into and 28 dogs poisoned.....why you might well ask?  The answer I had from one person was this was the actions Greeks will take, if they can not afford food for themselves why should they see animals fed?

The seat of civilisation is becoming uncivilised......

The chairs are empty

Is it any wonder the tables and chairs are empty in Greek tavernas from today? On top of all the current austerity measures introduced in Greece as from today (1st September 2011) the VAT on eating out increase from 13% to 23%. In the remote villages there is little to do and villagers enjoy a stroll to the local taverna for a coffee and chat with their mates. In this unhurried environment talk centres around the price of tomatoes and ones health. The coffee or "frappe" tends to last well over the hour as the taverna owner appears at great regularity with cold glasses of water......now I hope the Greek government has no plans to tax that!  It may be all we can soon afford, but will there be any tavernas left to serve it ?

Είναι να απορεί κανείς τα τραπέζια και οι καρέκλες είναι άδειες σεελληνικές ταβέρνες από σήμερα; Πάνω από όλα τα τρέχοντα μέτραλιτότητας που εισήγαγε στην Ελλάδα από σήμερα (1η Σεπτεμβρίου 2011) ο ΦΠΑ για φαγητό αύξηση από 13% σε 23%.Στα απομακρυσμένα χωριά είναι λίγο αυτό που κάνουμε και οι χωρικοί να απολαύσετε μια βόλτα στην τοπική ταβέρνα για ένα καφέ και να συνομιλήσετε με τους συντρόφους τους. Σε αυτό τοunhurried κέντρα μιλήσει περιβάλλον γύρω από την τιμή της τομάτας και αυτά της υγείας. Ο καφές ή "φραπέ" τείνει να διαρκέσειπάνω από την ώρα που ο ιδιοκτήτης ταβέρνας εμφανιστεί σε εξαιρετικές κανονικότητα με κρύα ποτήρια νερό ...... τώρα ελπίζω ότι η ελληνική κυβέρνηση δεν σχεδιάζει να προβεί στη φορολόγηση! Μπορεί να είναι ό, τι μπορούμε σύντομα να πληρώσουν, αλλά θα υπάρξουν ταβέρνες αριστερά για να τηνεξυπηρετήσει;

Can't be bothered !

Sometimes people just never fail to amaze me! Most of us are well aware of the current economic climate in Greece. Businesses are either closing or complaining about the down turn of trade and lack of disposable income in society owing to the austerity measures the government are having to introduce. 

So the actions of the owner / manager at a local car dealership in Kalamata just amazed me.

I decided I needed to replace one of my vehicles and opted to buy a new MPV. Off I went viewed such a vehicle in the sales room, sat and discussed prices and trade in deals and was prepared to "do the deal".  As I had never driven this make of vehicle I asked for a test drive.  Out of the question, there were no demonstrators available, but he would try and obtain one the following day. Yes I was happy with that, and left my address and phone numbers. The following day the dealer called and stated he was unable to obtain a test car; no problem I'm in no rush, call me when you get one.

THAT WAS THREE WEEKS AGO

I have heard nothing since! 

One has to ask the question, do they really want business?  Having spent my working life in retail sales I find it amazing that businesses will take this approach, no wonder Greece is in a mess.  Easily he could have phoned one of his last customers who purchased a car and offered a small incentive for them to bring the car in and let me drive it........or am I asking too much to test drive a car before spending thousands of euros ?????????

On a similar front a friend of mine wanted a rather large satellite dish, no problem I thought as I had bought one after being recommended by another associate of mine to a dealer in Messini around a year previously. 

When I made my purchase the dealer sent to Athens for the dish and I paid the courier charge.  So off I went to the same guy to arrange the purchase for my friend.  Yet again I stood back in amazement when the shop assistant, who phoned the owner told me that it could not be done and I should go to Practiker (the giant German DIY store) and get it there.......... 

Once Greeks were business leaders in world shipping, I now think the 
ship has sailed without them!

News reports & Greece

I have no doubt that if you were to visit Athens the main square in front of the Parliament would not currently be a place to visit. However I recall, some years back being in Australia when the T.V. news agencies were showing footage of riots in the UK and it could be imagined the country was about to enter total civil uprising!  The capital and some main cities in Greece are suffering demonstrations, mostly peaceful but unfortunately some have hard core trouble makers that turn such demonstrations into anarchy. These are the scenes that make TV news......

In the majority of Greek towns and villages the sun rises and sets as normal and day to day life goes on.  Of course money is tight and people are really feeling the pinch. Yet the Greek people are no strangers to hardship and villagers help one another. The topic in the kafeneio will have changed from the normal agricultural chat to that of the government and taxes, but there are few counties in the western world that will cope with what ever is ahead like Greece will.

If you have had holidays in Greece in the past and are a lover of this country now is the time to support it, book that holiday, enjoy the sun your money is more welcome now than ever!