Greece

[Rossfan]

. All this has been paid for by borrowing money at cheap rates during Eurpoe's good times. Why should hard working engineers in Germany or Holland pay for this?

Why are they making German and Dutch Engineers pay for it all?

[Pangurban]

Lets explode the myth that the Greeks, Irish,Portugese or Italians are being bailed out. The only ones being bailed out or the financial institutions who invested unwisely and gambled with other people money. While the people have more and more austerity piled on them, massive frauds are still being perpetrated by the financial institutions to nett billions of profits. All this has nothing to do with the real economies that people live in.  The Markets have no ethics or morality, there sole purpose is to enrich themselves, no matter who gets hurt in the process. They are financial terrorists, and like terrorists everywhere they need to be disarmed and brought under control. If the Greek crisis destroys the present structure and creates an opportunity to rebuild a system more in keeping with the genuine needs of people, then the world will have been done a great service.
The current bleating about the proposed Greek referendum only serves to highlight how much our current rulers fear real democracy

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Lets explode the myth that the Greeks, Irish,Portugese or Italians are being bailed out. The only ones being bailed out or the financial institutions who invested unwisely and gambled with other people money. While the people have more and more austerity piled on them, massive frauds are still being perpetrated by the financial institutions to nett billions of profits. All this has nothing to do with the real economies that people live in.  The Markets have no ethics or morality, there sole purpose is to enrich themselves, no matter who gets hurt in the process. They are financial terrorists, and like terrorists everywhere they need to be disarmed and brought under control. If the Greek crisis destroys the present structure and creates an opportunity to rebuild a system more in keeping with the genuine needs of people, then the world will have been done a great service.
The current bleating about the proposed Greek referendum only serves to highlight how much our current rulers fear real democracy

You have it largely correct, but strike the Greeks from that list, they deserve no sympathy. I was talking to an Irish friend living in Greece just today who can confrim most of what Lecale2 said. He descibed the levels of entitlement in that country being beyond the realms of sanity. They fail to acknowledge any blame or culpabilty for what has happened to their country and share not a single bit of solidarity with any other E.U. country be that Germany & France or Ireland and Portugal (I wonder if they care about Cyprus - but thats my own interjection).

[Pangurban]

Were we Irish any better

[Declan]

So now Sarkozy trying to bolster his own election chances plays the ace in the hole and tells the Greeks to make the referendum about leaving the Euro. All a sideshow cos the whole debt thing is completely unsustainable and until that's addressed it's just tinkering with the edges without lancing the boil

[armaghniac]

Were we Irish any better

"Better" is a value judgement. But Ireland is in a different situation than Greece.
The Irish above all codded themselves, the Greeks cheated.

Greece perhaps has something in common with the 6 counties. After the military rule and social division, generous pensions and deals of all sorts were used to smooth things over.