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(Slogan found here, photo here.)
Imagine that in the worst year of our recent recession, the United States government decided to reduce its federal budget deficit by more than $800 billion dollars – cutting spending and raising taxes to meet this goal. Imagine that, as a result of these measures, the economy worsened and unemployment soared to more than 16 percent, and then the president pledged another $400 billion in spending cuts and tax increases this year. What do you think would be the public reaction? It would probably be similar to what we are seeing in Greece today, including mass demonstrations and riots, because that is what the Greek government has done.
The above numbers are simply adjusted for the relative size of the two economies.
But tell us what’s really important, oh sweet business section of mainstream newspaper, reassure us investors! Will the banks who made bad bets on Greece lose a penny of their long-shot gambles?!?
Germany, fearing that Greece would soon default, calmed market fears Friday by retreating from its stance that banks and other private lenders should share the pain of a second bailout for Greece.
Well, there we go then, and I notice markets rebounded What would have happened if they hadn’t, if that bubble had burst?
Weisbrot also notes the obvious, that it’s the death of sovereignty that is the critical problem for Greece. Its government can’t do what must be done, because it has surrendered economic sovereignty to an unaccountable EU, IMF, and European Central Bank:
Greece would not be going through this if it were not a member of a currency union. If it had leaders that were stupid enough to massively cut spending and raise taxes during a recession, those government officials would be replaced. And then a new government would do what the vast majority of governments in the world did during the world recession of 2009 – the opposite, i.e. deploy an economic stimulus, or what economists call counter-cyclical policies.
And if that required a renegotiation of the public debt, that is what the country would do.
And finally we have the hysterical ravings of the UK Guardian’s business class editor on the possibility the Greek parliament does the right thing. He lays 2/5 odds on the following happening:
On Monday the Greek parliament votes against George Papandreou’s new cabinet and its plans for further EU-inspired austerity. The decision triggers a refusal by the EU and the IMF to forward new funds to pay interest on Greek debts.
Credit ratings agencies say that Greek banks are in effect bust because they are the biggest lenders to the Athens government. French and German banks, which are the biggest foreign lenders, lose billions. Markets crash. US and Middle Eastern investors begin a fire sale of assets in Spain and Italy as well as in Portugal and Ireland.
Within hours Silvio Berlusconi is on the phone to Brussels begging for funds. Italian public sector workers join counterparts in Greece and Spain on the streets to protest at steep wage cuts. Riots topple [financier-owned] governments and usher in [real democracies] promising [economic growth]. The EU falls apart as each country decides to leave the euro and issue their own currency.
Okay, yeah, I modified the lunacy a bit to make it more real world. I think we got a plan!
76 Comments
Looks like scorpion capitalism is entering its final stages. Soon, they will start to eat each other as the bubbles start popping again.
Great points. Recommended.
Good Fairleft, Keep on, keeping on! We’ll get to Berlin!
What a funny post of somebody who call’s himself ‘fairleft’ about the report of a movement who wants ‘no politics’ -(by the way the strongest and very international youth movement in whole wide Europe right now) – so instead of changing your name into ‘fairnothing’ you use ‘first we take the banks and then Berlin’ to repeat some ecocomical news?
Are y’all afraid of the coming NO POLITICS and NO IDEOLOGY times?
You aren’t – Well – be afraid – very afraid that the revolutionaries of the future are as little interest in the ideology of the so called left as in the crap from the right!
Great post; recommended.
In the end wealth is fungible; what is now stored in numbered Swiss bank account was once the product of someones sweat. The markets are
facades without the worker bees. This is how we break the back of this global Mafia that will strangle generations to come; we pull out!
yeah I hope you join us -(braking their back) – but don’t forget: ‘NO politics’ leave all this lefty ‘worker bee lingo at home!
You have bought the mainstream media’s fantasy of what the movement consists of. The left character of the movement dominates in sheer numbers the ‘no politics’ part of the movement. On the other hand, I hope the sentiment continues to be ‘all are welcome’. Those no politics kids are putting their bodies on the line just like the ‘political’ kids are. A successful mass movement against the banks _requires_ a broad united front, as long as we’re all on the side of replacing banker rule with real democracy.
Who is ‘us’ and who elected you (there I go talking about democracy again) to speak for ‘us’?
Or, are you just ‘one of the cool kids’, which makes you more equal than the rest of us, mostly nerds and stubbly-faced schlups?
As an MMT advocate, I hate this title… to “take Berlin”. I do respect Fairleft’s contributions, but this framing as if WWII is still going on, isn’t my cup of tea, even as I know that a new economic & financial war is going on in Europe. Why not “take Amsterdam or Brussels”? No thank you!
Henk from The Netherlands
Politics is the art of persuading other people to do what you want them to do. There is no such thing as “no politics” in human affairs. Those who prate about “no politics” or either very young or very naive, like most anarchists.
That said, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Communists make a roaring comeback in Europe since the Socialist parties have sold out to the banks just like the Democrats did here in the USA. Maybe that would be a good thing. It would provide some balance.
You must not be aware that the title is a take on a Leonard Cohen song called “First We Take Manhattan”.
I don’t listen to the ‘mainstream media’ I was in Egypt – and I was in Athens and everybody is welcome who doesn’t try to impose some kind of ‘ideology’ on us!
that’s the joy – nobody elected me and I’m speaking just for a bunch of ‘kids’ who are for sure ‘cool’!
Who is Leonard Cohen? and how funny – and when I saw it in Athens I thought it was a reference to the ‘austerity’ loving Germans.
Okay – so everything is ‘politics’ – I’m okay with that if you don’t call it ‘politics’!
but this: ‘I hope the sentiment continues to be ‘all are welcome’ – I like and when I marched for sanity I would have liked it even more if some of my lefty ‘brothers’ -(the sisters were o.k) wouldn’t have been so picky and wouldn’t have told me: “Soo you’re one of the ‘cool’ kids – right”?
and the weird thing – the austerity loving Germans tried to ‘take on the banks’ – but there was no help…
Dear people, we’re not singing Cohen’s song in Europe, we’re suffering! And all this is as much about Germans, as it is about Americans, My question is ,- while I stopped singing-: Why are there so few US-banksters in jail? Why shouldn’t we take Washington!?
No – we should take this lower part of Manhattan which starts with a “W” – Washington is unimportant – just a bunch of helpless idiots!
Interpret ‘ideology’ any way you want, but only counter-revolutionaries are against the democracy. I believe in real democracy, in taking the democracy away from the finance guys and the bankers. That’s ideological by any normal dictionary definition, but you can pretend it’s not ideological and support that too? Or disagree, or say ‘democracy’ is lame or stupid or old-fashioned?
The ‘bunch of kids’ is a tiny minority now of the Greek protesters. And are you sure that bunch of kids wants you speaking for them when you don’t have their permission?
The European Central Bank, for all intents and purposes, is in Berlin. Anyway, this is not about sounding nice, or being impossible to misinterpret in some silly and ‘scary’ way, and being perfectly politcally correct, but about attracting attention.
That slogan grabbed me, and grips people. It’s a very serious heavy thing, taking on the power of the banks and the media and security they control.
HealthSustainomics: Don’t take pieceofcake as representative of U.S. ‘left democratic’ sentiment. Germans have a right to be angry too, and I don’t think any of them except the elite 1% love austerity. The central task is enlightenment and solidarity, including with the Germans. We all need to take back the trillions of dollars and euros ‘stolen’ by the wealthy, in particular by the banks, and take economic policy back to Keynesian, social-democratic common sense. Then we’ll rediscover there is no need at all for austerity. The world, factually, gets richer and more productive every year. There is no reason at all that all of our lives can’t reflect that.
Right, they are all sociopaths! Both in political Washinghton & in financial Wall Street. Want McFries with that ?
Come on Greece.
Follow Iceland’s example or go beyond it and take back the control of your control of your country from the parasite banksters and the rich.
I’m sorry but I don’t understand –
democracy
is fine with me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnCR8kSSmqw&feature=related
I not only speak for some Greek kids – I speak for Spanish – Italian and Germans too and some of them are hanging out right now in this appartement – and sometimes they speak for me – and the great thing – nobody needs nobodies ‘permission’ anymore -
(it’s kind of a ‘democracy thing’!)
and to call me ‘a representative of U.S.’left democratic sentiment is wonderful – you know I’m a German citizen -(and a American too – that’s true) – but you shouldn’t hold that against me – because my American half loves ‘conspicious consumption’ and the German half ‘austerity’ – and there is a lot of need for austerity because if my American friends would decide just for 10 percent more ‘austerity’ -(,eaning less consumption) – we could finish off the banks for good!
and perhaps you should check the ‘Sitz’ of the EBC?
The death of sovereignty didn’t come at the hands of the EU, IMF, or the ECB.
The death of sovereignty came at the hands of stateless banking enterprises. UBS, GS, Citi, etc.
Our global economy has superseded the nationstate paradigm and this friction is the result of our splintered social institutions wrestling with that change against the authority of antiquated and compromised political institutions.
but about the banks – I couldn’t agree more!!
Sounds very cool. You and all your same-age friends — not saying that sounds age-ist, but just sayin — may want to hold your noses and make common cause with, even hang out and talk with occasionally, like-minded real democrats of all ages and levels of coolness. Unless this is just a summer fling, school being out and all that.
No, our global economy hasn’t “superseded the nationstate paradigm.” That’s meaningless _and_ propaganda. We can have any kind of borders we want, permeable, solid, semi-permeable, or a mix of all of the above, and any kind of economies we want. Sovereignty of different levels and touching different matters can vary and be a mix as well. There are consequences, some unpleasant and some surprisingly nice and defying conventional business magazine / Tom Friedman ‘thinking’, for the choices we make, but all alternatives are possible.
You must be pretty young not to know who Leonard Cohen is. I suggest you do what “all the kids” are doing and use “teh google”. Knowing Leonard Cohen’s legacy could enrich you life.
Europe has been able to count on a member of Papandreou lineage to screw over Greece, through 3 generations now.
pieceofcake sounds like one of those Gene Sharp AEI trolls who try to co-op democracy movements.
Sure we do!
“On Tuesday 24 May, there was a rumour in the Greek media that the Spanish indignados protesting in Puerta del Sol had a slogan stating: ‘Keep it quiet, we might wake up the Greeks.’ The general feeling that something had to be done, which had been simmering for months, intensified. In the afternoon, a Facebook group named ‘Frustrated in Syntagma Square’, which called for a gathering the next day in the central square of Athens outside parliament, was gaining enormous publicity, and notching up more than a thousand new members every hour. Similar groups were set up for many other Greek cities. The unknown administrators were calling for a peaceful demonstration, without party banners, flags, slogans or even ideologies. Only Greek flags would be welcome and everyone would participate as an individual and not as a member of a wider group. These gatherings were successful, with some 20,000 people gathering in Syntagma Square and many others in central squares around Greece. These protests were continuing this week ahead of today’s general strike.
The first reaction to the protests by many observers was that this was just a ‘copy-and-paste’, internet-based trend from Spain, based only on clicking ‘Like’ on Facebook. The gathering in the first couple of days seemed apolitical and there was neither the demand nor the will to spread the ‘frustration’ in workplaces. Some striking workers who also had a demo on the first day were booed and declared unwelcome at Syntagma, as they were accused of demonstrating as union members and not as individuals.
This reaction signifies a trend where apolitical protest has been transformed into anti-political populism. The prevailing slogans described all politicians (including the left) as ‘thieves’ and ‘corrupt’, argued that the workers’ unions are equally to blame for the crisis by being controlled by political parties, and claimed that any ideology is unwelcome in Syntagma Square”.
and we try not to kiss any frogs!
Call it propaganda if you want, but the reality is that imaginary lines on a map don’t impede powerful institutions that bridge them.
Political institutions that are bound by those same lines have proven exceptionally incapable at policing them.
The evidence is in the contagion of financial crises.
but the conclusion y’all may enjoy (I’ll see it a bit differently but I can live with it):
“The left, initially caught by surprise by this spontaneous procedure, realised it could follow two paths. The first was to keep a safe distance. This was what the Greek Communist Party, and some hardcore anarchists, did. Their approach ensured that the streets would be left to those who believed that gathering and screaming curses against all politicians was all that could be done. This may be one of the reasons why the media and politicians, who have always been hostile to any form of radical protest, rushed to congratulate the ‘frustrated’ of Syntagma and advised them to keep the protest non-violent, apolitical and to stay away from parties and unions.
The rest of the left and the radical milieu decided that social upheavals cannot arrive pre-ordered and packaged in an ideal fashion and decided to intervene. The vehicle for this was the Peoples’ Free Assembly. Taking place every night in the lower part of Syntagma Square, this was a direct-democracy procedure – initially created, no doubt, by members of the libertarian/anarchist milieu – that gradually became the soul of the movement.
Respecting the ground rules, the radicals intervened without flags or banners and as individuals, but they still managed to change the dynamics of the process. The Peoples’ Free Assembly has called for specific political claims, declared that it stands in solidarity with all the workers’ struggles, has called for the building of free assemblies in all the neighbourhoods, called on the workers’ unions to stage a general strike with indefinite end, and has made clear that fascists and those who do not respect immigrants are persona non grata in Syntagma.
In addition, there has been a free exchange of ideas and political groups are allowed to distribute their leaflets. Even the apolitical part of the protest has become more willing to take direct action, for example by blocking the exits of the parliament building that trapped MPs inside as ‘hostages’ last Tuesday. It is true that the interrelation and communication of the Peoples’ Assembly with the apolitical part of Syntagma Square is still problematic and a process open to various possible outcomes. However, some important lessons have been learned.
The first is that when traditional forms of struggle become ineffective, new initiatives need to be taken to move things forward. When other protests proved unsuccessful, for example, the idea of gathering every day in a square was attempted. The number of protesters rose as the days passed, peaking at more than 300,000 last Sunday, but what is needed is a qualitative leap forward, which would require the politicisation of the movement. There are many more steps to be taken in this direction, and any outcome seems possible.
The most important conclusion is that the radical left must not be afraid of such spontaneous uprisings. Rather, the only way for such protests to succeed is by relating to, and politicising, people with no prior activist experience. The bulk of the movement is made up of young ‘precarious’ workers and for most of them it is the first time they have participated in collective action. This political intervention yielded results. So it was that two weeks ago, on 2 June, a few days after the booing of union workers marching in Syntagma, a demonstration of the radical students’ unions was actually welcomed in the square.
All this prompted the radical academic Costas Douzinas to claim that a new, pre-revolutionary multitude, ie. the new proletariat of workers, immaterial labourers, unemployed, students and immigrants, had appeared in Syntagma. That assessment is probably premature. As it stands in Syntagma, many of the protesters seem content to reaffirm their individual identities as ‘frustrated citizens’. There is still a lot to be done before this mass of individuals can be transformed into something resembling the multitude, a development that would open up the possibility for a truly radical change.
Nikos Sotirakopoulos is a PhD student in environmental sociology at the University of Kent”.
Wait – I can’t live with this phrase: “This may be one of the reasons why the media and politicians, who have always been hostile to any form of radical protest, rushed to congratulate the ‘frustrated’ of Syntagma and advised them to keep the protest non-violent, apolitical and to stay away from parties and unions”.
Nobody has to ‘advise’ us to keep protests ‘non violent’ we came to this conclusion all by ourselves!
You haven’t disproved anything I’ve said.
One personality trait common in those who are involved with Otpor! and Gene Sharp is that rather than issues, they are best at narcissistic personal promotion. e.g. Jason AppleBaum and Adrian Lamo, and Project Vigilant characters like this or this.
Exactly what kind of organization would you be with that would take you to both of those places?
I didn’t want to ‘disprove’ anything you said – I just posted some information -(if you missed it) – and about the ‘organization’ – let’s make it a riddle: arc-film.com
You’re ridiculous. I don’t begrudge the Greeks their firebombs one bit, and the last thing Egypt was, was non-violent. That is a western narrative to make sure that our people don’t get any ideas.
I’ll cite the Angry Arab:
And here you have them referred to as “scuffles”. Doesn’t that sound cuddly?
The people who run those powerful institutions can be imprisoned or executed by the governments in those countries whose people disagree with them.
I think Fairleft is right: knowingly or not, you are repeating Friedmanesque Globalization-is-here-to-stay propaganda. It’s not. If nothing else, we’ll eventually run low on oil and the whole house of cards and derivatives will come crashing down.
sorry – but now you lost me??
After I write that ‘nobody has to advise my friends and me to keep protests non violent’ you confess that you don’t ‘begrudge the Greeks their firebombs’ and you ad ‘the last thing Egypt was, was non violent’ – Well… yes??!
Oh – wait -(I’m getting a little slow now) – it’s the ‘ideas’ –
does it have something to do with ‘the ideas’ someone shouldn’t get -(or get?)
Now that would be ‘ridiculous!
If you were there, like you claim you would know that these protests are NOT non-violent.
or perhaps you didn’t read the article I posted – or you might have missed that one: “The unknown administrators were calling for a PEACEFUL demonstration, without party banners, flags, slogans or even ideologies.
And see in demonstrations there are often people who are very ‘peaceful’ and then there are demonstrators who are NOT so peaceful – and the ‘apolitical’ demonstrators the author was writing about had this preference for non violence -(as I do!)
now what can I say to that one – you are actually right – what you probably refere to as ‘the violence’ I missed in Kairo by two days -(not everybody times it as ‘well’ as Anderson Cooper) – and so I had a lot of days of celebration – and in Athens I just looked at the burned out Bank-buiding opposite of my Hotel and afterwards joined some very peaceful demonstrations…
I can’t be everywhere…
The person that wrote this apparently was not aware of the Greek actions that have been going on for quite a while now..
What a way to make them powerless, give up their union structure. This is an attempt at counter-revolution, IMHO.
They are now on a strike, who besides unions can even call for that?
I have faith in the Greeks more than the other PIGS countries. Their partisans fought off the Nazis without help from the Allies. As soon as they figure out who their enemies are, they’ll defy the ECB and the EU effectively and take their country back.
But I give you that – you probably know much more about all these ‘protest’ – if you watched Al Jaz!
(that’s what I sometimes thought in Egypt – If you there – you don’t know at all what’s going on!)
Any you think you can speak for these people? You aren’t even one of them.
Well right now I’m dating an so called ‘indignado’ and he is half Greek
and my cousins in Kairo let me always speak for them because they don’t want to get in trouble with their parents and then there is everybody in the appartement here and the only dude who is against me speaking for him is from Poggibonsi – and you know how Italians are – but I’m afraid I got bit… of the track… and they say I shouldn’t do this idiotic ‘blogging’ anymore and we should go down to the Roter Gug’hahn…
but I promise you – I won’t kiss a frog!
If nobody elected you, thats not democracy. That’s co-option.
Are you working with Gene Sharp? You didn’t answer the question.
“Exactly what kind of organization would you be with that would take you to both of those places?”
Thats easy. A professional protester.
““The unknown administrators were calling for a PEACEFUL demonstration, without party banners, flags, slogans or even ideologies.”
pieceofcake:
Allow me to repeat what you have said above; “unknown administrators”, called for a “Peaceful demonstration”, without:
party banners
flags
slogans
ideologies
So basically what you end up with is a group standing around making general conversation. A kind of “hollowed out” protest. Sounds like
you guys have been hijacked by Libertarians.
“Political institutions that are bound by those same lines have proven exceptionally incapable at policing them.”
First among political institution not bound by any lines, the UN, seems utterly now an imperial subordinate of the U.S. The EU, which supersedes the nation states of Europe, is leading the banker war on the rest of us. Anyway, we know exactly why our political and media institutions — provincial, state, national, international, regional, global — don’t work: they’re owned by the financial and corporate elite. Adding some other reason to that unecessarily confuses the matter, which isn’t helpful.
My guess is you’re that bored and stubbly-faced American guy in Scotland who can’t play at being ‘dyke in Syria’ anymore. Bored, and boring for us too.
the point is – it is actually pretty unimportant who I am – you quoted the ‘Slogan’ and you presented a very interesting article – which recognized that a lot of young protesters – now even in Greece are – let’s say – ‘not into ideology or politics’ anymore -(right or left) – and perhaps you could have found parallels to the American march for sanity – and Egypt and Spain and you could have ‘mused’: ‘why that is’ and I just used your post to ask: If the so called ‘left’ is afraid of a future where they could play a lesser and lesser role in ‘social change’ – And I guess – you and some others gave an answer – And to talk about me and some of my friends – we just try to live in a ‘ideology free zone’ it makes living together so much easier – and you’re right we ‘play’ a lot -(but never ‘bored’) – and today I’m not a ‘dyke in Syria’ – I will be a transvestite from Hungary!
and this is the funny thing – that some people -(Ideologen?) who judge -(or try to understand) a ‘non ideology movement’ always come up with this theories of being ‘hijacked’ by some ideology -
Isn’t it possible for you to think in terms of ‘Libertarians’ ore all these other ‘political’ labels which really don’t matter that much anymore -(at least to a younger group of people as the article ‘fairleft’ quoted did prove!)
I’m sure “pieceofcake” comes across much better in the Original Gibberish of Maciek Pinno, who has cross-posted fairleft’s article at her blog, with highly questionable permission on the part of fairleft to do so.
and – Hey – we are willing to ‘take’ the Banks together with you guys -(and here I speak for ALL the Hungarian Transvestites) – it’s not us who ‘discriminate’ -(to strong of a word but right now I couldn’t think of another one) – When I marched for sanity I was told by a lot of my ‘hardcore’ ‘political’ friends what a ‘useless’ movement I am following – and the ‘fun’ I had – that was the worst in their eyes – and I still love them – but they really seem to have aproblem with that ‘tude’ as much as you guys!
Oh yeah – I love: “Gibberish” and does that ‘Maciek Pinno’ mean I have a friend?
That’s an insult -(after googling ‘Maciek Pinno’)
Do you really think I’m THAT ‘organized’?
Fairleft, just FYI your work is copied to another blog.
Here is the screen capture, as I refuse to link to it. You’ll be able to tell the URL by enlarging the picture.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcdenver/5847411391/
This person has editorialized, and evidently does not have your permission for such a cross posting at this time, given this quote:
“I have chosen to use this quote by the author to give myself the confidence that re-posting his essay in full at … would not be contested by him/her”
I think stealing a whole post, including the graphic, without prior permission, is completely unethical, and an utter bullshit thing to do.
IMO, that person is a complete asshole for doing such.
Your posts are largely content-free, so about the only leg you have to stand on is your statement to us that you’re the real thing. There is no evidence one way or another on that; for me, at least the leg doesn’t existent. Not important anyway.
Here’s hoping you’ll recognize that you probably have a rough view of how you’d like the economic/political world to work. That’s all ideology is. You’ve said you like democracy, actully, so there! There’s your ideology for you. It’s a good one, a great one! At least I think so.
You might even want to learn more and risk developing your viewpoint on what you, a citizen of the world and/or a nation, would like things run. Political actors without any well-thought out beliefs are very likely will eventually to be victims or tools of established power.
This writing here and above has been copied from
spiked online
Ironic that this part, the only paragraph that she didn’t copy is this:
pieceofcake, you should probably thoroughly read what you lift– first, unless you’re trying to lead people around here astray, because it kind’a doesn’t agree much with this:
Of course no ideology might work out better for you, if you’re just going to watch a football game. And like I said earlier, this is how Otpor! helped oust Milosiveck and Serbia was captured by vulture capitalists. If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.
Now this is an insult – The content of my post is the ‘surprising’? or even ‘revolutionary’ fact that a huge part of the ‘young’ and ‘democratic’ movement rejects ‘ideology’ and ‘politics’ and the leg it stands on is a post YOU supplied yourself -(without reading it??!) – and then you – and another poster had the nerve to ask me if I’m allowed to ‘speak’ for this ‘content’??! Like the spokesperson for a organization whose point it is to have NO spokesperson and being NO organization!
Don’t you think that’s a bit’absurd’.
And excuse me about that other ‘leg’ (mine) and that I’m not willing to give you any ‘identification’ – because there are a lot of crazy people on the Intertubes and NOBODY is what he is supposed to be and pressured by YOU and the frogkisser I related already much too much information and I’m actually really a Transvestite from Budapest and I hope you believe me!
AND – shouldn’t you (finally) have learned from the fake lesbian’- that you have to concentrate on the ‘content’ of somebodies post and it is really foolish to discuss
You said you were German American above. Now you’re a Hungarian? Try to keep your personas straight.
…if he is ‘allowed’ to post what he post.
And I was really ‘tolerant’about your ‘content’ – I by purpose overlooked the fact that you completely misunderstood the slogan you presented yourself because you have no idea where European Central Banking is located. And I really didn’t want to open that can of worms that the real meaning of the slogan you so proudly presented is a bit… let’s say more ‘twisted’ because it is a reference to the current disagreement between Athens and Berlin who has to pay for what. And so my Greek friends are ‘sauer’ at ‘Berlin – and at ‘the Germans’ and sometimes even at me – and that’s why I try to live in a f… ‘ideology free zone’ and I understand that an American who ‘lives’ on FDL might not understand that… -(and no value judgement attached) – just ‘peace’ brother -(if you a brother) – And if this post doesn’t have enough ‘content’ for you I’m willing to write another one – from the viewpoint of an ‘Anthropologe’ who explains why members of different ‘tribes’ EVEN in the times of the Intertubes are having such are hard time communicating with each-other!
I can’t and if you don’t understand why YOU should kiss more frogs!
or – My god! – now you ‘Got’ me – You were joking – right?
And I gave you a really serious answer? (you got me ‘good’ – won’t happen again!)
You’re having lots of fun, and that’s important.