Peter's Viewpoint

Athens Greece, the skies above are a sickly orange red color, the winds are steadily increasing due to the expanding fire that rages out of control for two days now bringing with them an increasing terror to people who have not lost their homes as yet.

Why has this happened?  The sad truth is that the modern Greek politicians place the value of their party above that of the people of Greece.

For years now with each and every change of the Greek government, the politicians failed not only to establish new works toward the progress of society but they also failed to update the existing infrastructure and framework of a country that has been criticized internationally for it’s procrastination.

I won’t single out any one political party because for me they are all at fault for the latest inability to restrict and stop the wildfires when they should have.  This failure has cost the people of Attiki, the area that encompasses Athens and suburbs, their homes and belongings.

Greece’s leaders have abandoned the country for years now in pursuit of personal financial rewards that are even more evident now with the case of Siemens personnel testifying that they have paid bribes to the three major parties of New Democracy (currently in power), Pasok, and the KKE (the communist party).

Poor management decisions effectively avoiding the inevitable are the main reason for many of the failures.  Avoidance is a method to hopefully guarantee that the politicians will not loose the votes of their constituents.  In the case of fires in Greece, many of these have to do with land ownership issues ranging from individuals to city areas to the Greek Orthodox Church claiming ownership of land and the failure of government to establish and effect a decision.  Other issues are “forgotten” until external forces put them into the international view such as that of the issue of Macedonia.

The current branding of the Greek Nation is that of corruption producing depravation and abusing a wealth of inheritance achieved by the Ancient Greeks.
If Greek politicians fail to do otherwise, the payment of future generations will be measured other than in Euros.

The Greek people must put aside their party fixation and force the creation of a new party that will be for the country, the people, and a progressive patriotic outlook not only to create a positive psychology but to actually earn prosperity.

Please don't make me think!

Isn't it amazing to see the above bolded title used as if it is something to brag about.  The fact is that if this title read "Please don't make me wonder!" then I could understand what people are really trying to say.

The "Please don't make me think!" logo if you want to call it that is something that ignorant people might use as it is for those that either have the money for someone else to think for them or that they are just brain dead.

Consider the possibility that you are a consultant for a project and that you must provide a client with a written Statement of Work, hmmm, what's that you say, well simply put it is a written document that details all of the work that you will or have performed with respect the project.  So what is the point of this, well it is to understand that you might have to create something that you have never done before and you then ask yourself "well I don't know what a Statement of Work is or how much to write, so with respect to the logo above, nor will you ever.  If we have a guideline then we can understand what the logo "Please don't make me wonder!" is all about because with a guideline we know just what to expect or provide.

The truth is that technology is not a replacement for thinking.

No matter what advances there are in technology, we must always continue to use the grey matter embedded in our skulls otherwise we might as well just stop living.

Everything that we see and do in life today must have a thought process to analyze it.

The USA is currently frantic over the issue of health care but can it be easily solved?  The answer is no and that is because in order to solve this issue and others people must be educated on the subject.  I will go a step further and also say that the education MUST include working with the entire system.  Health care is an extremely complicated maze comprising people, doctors, nurses, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and regulating bodies just to name a few.

Therefore without properly understanding how all of these parameters are tied together, no one can solve the health care issue without a full understanding.

Case in point is that education must be a priority!

So how about it, let's change that logo to read "Please don't make me wonder!"

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... Dir: wait... wait...

Although Greece preaches the “Change to Green” their actions display their anti-green behaviors.

Different attitudes under different conditions are the common everyday situation exampled by the cleanliness of Athens during the 2004 Olympics to the return to bad habits weeks after the Olympics ended.  

So what does a country like Greece to help improve the continuing air pollution problem and economic crisis that it has?

The politicians of Greece decided to sell automobiles; yes new cars at discounted prices claiming that this will help the Greek economy while at the same time reduce air pollution.  Bullshit!  The sale of automobiles in Greece offers no solution to the economics of the country because there is no auto industry in Greece.

Secondly, by reducing the prices of automobiles, Greece increases the number of cars on the already crowded narrow roadways creating more traffic and increasing air pollution even by cars with new anti-pollution technology.

Other factors of consideration are:

• New automobile technology using battery powered cars is already in use.
• See electric-cars
• Trucks have never been recycled but then to do so would put a burden on the companies that own them not to mention the political consequences.

Electricity is another problem in Greece the politicians could have solved through the use of solar cells on the roof tops of homes and office buildings.  Instead they give discounts for new cars while procrastinating and averting the government owned power company process of creating a solution that not only would provide free or low-cost electricity to the citizens of Greece but could probably produce profits through the sale of electricity sold to neighboring countries.

Instead of positive results, Greece’s politicians are now faced with every increasing pollution problems in addition to the economic crisis.

The ancient Greeks that encompassed harmony with nature in their simplistic but effective designs and historical heritage would roll over in their graves if they knew how badly modern Greeks are destroying their reputation.

Churches accumulate vast sums of assets and money from people and organizations around the world.  In many countries they are accountable to disclose their funding and the assets owned.  A growing situation is occurring that churches are neglecting their privilege of being a charitable organization due to the fact that they are receiving funds for special projects while at the same time being paid as public employees in some countries because the church is recognized as a church of the state especially in Europe.

When should a church loose its status as tax exempt?
Case in point, a nun after many years meets a man and falls in love.  She therefore respectfully resigns from the church and begins to lead the life that many woman have with a spouse.  What happens though when the ex-nun becomes sick or reaches the age of retirement?  She is left out in the cold by the organization that she originally pledged her life to and the same organization.  The laws governing the privileges of Church and State are not even known anymore by people as with many other laws but if a common employer hired an employee, the government would legally force the employer to pay the employee’s social benefits.  So why is the church allowed to simply cast out there humble servants with shedding a tear?

Another recent issue regarding Church and State is that fact that some churches have accumulated numerous properties and are demanding high rental incomes that are non-taxable to them while at the same time the priests are paid salaries and receive donations from individuals that may or may not be accounted for.

While in a third case, some churches are receiving funding for the restoration and maintenance of church properties classified as historical sites but the churches are charging entrance fees to their “museums”.

First of all, it is not simply the housing industry that is postulated.  Bank loans affect business startups and expanding businesses, and that directly affects whether or not people find jobs, and even affects how and what we buy that also affects national and world markets.

Simple as it may sound, credit cards and bank loans were pushed upon us to increase our own self-wealth but then the markets drop from under us because banks are playing cards and using fixed decks abusing the financial markets until everything collapses.  Then all of a sudden, banks hold back on loans and people are forced to repay at higher loan rates instead of being able to deal their own loans using smaller interest rates that was offered by other banks.

Voila (as zee French say), people start to attain bank loans but the banks stopped approving them.  The people most affected by this are those who were given bank loans even though they should not have been approved due to the fact that they were over extending their means to repay.

A logical solution
What we have not seen up to now is a solution that would simply aggregate the debt and set repayment over a set number of years.  Banks would still collect their interest and the depositor’s money, people would have been able to pay smaller payments to meet their debts, and a lesson would have been learned by all that would probably have a lesser impact globally than what we are seeing today.

Drugs hey hold on now.  We have the HIV virus, now we have the H1N1 and variations like a mathematical formula H1Nx.  We now have cures that are temporary but are being used on us and children anyway even though we don’t know what effects they may have but they (the drug companies) might know.  So what is going on here?
Today I read in the Financial Times that “Drug companies need to find new customers as figures suggest global sales will rise just 2.5-3.5 per cent this year…”.

If we do a little thinking, are we being setup for another scam?
Drug companies having been making billions over the years selling drugs at inflated prices because the insurance companies are supposedly paying the bill.  Now all of a sudden drug companies “need to find new customers”!!!  It looks like a scam, smells like one, then it must be one!  People pay the bill, not insurance companies!

It’s looks like it’s time to put management on a tighter leash; of course it’s not simply the fault of management.  How so, well let’s look at the ever aggravating circle of salaries that is causing havoc all around.
We start with advertising agencies around the world charging enormous sums for TV advertising, and then we see sports players being paid tremendous salaries because they know that one minute of advertising is making a gazillion while they play, so therefore they should be entitled to a percentage of that.  Then we see doctors watching from the grand stands who have studied a major number of years to finally practice stuffed with bank loans.
The doctors of course should be compensated higher than a sports person simply because they save lives rather than throwing or kicking a ball around.
So we finally come to management at some point.  Management is responsible for companies worth billions along with hundreds of thousands of employees; so why not receive compensation that goes beyond the imagination of the everyday average person not to mention the sports players.

Do you see the circle?  The fact that I mention advertising agencies in the beginning does not mean that they are solely responsible; society itself is for not preventing this by not participating and therefore giving business the feedback that it needed to keep salaries and compensation at a slower scale of increase.

Are you asking yourself, where is this taking us?  Assuming the scenario above, this will lead society back to the days of fiefdom, the system that has two classes of people, those with money and power, and those who will work the lands.  Think about what was necessary and how long it took to achieve the freedoms that we have today?