to think that Greece needs humanitarian aid, not bail-outs?

[AKMD]

Hospitals are begging charities for essential drugs.
HCPs are starting to see cases of malnourished babies.
People are cutting down trees to heat their homes.
Hundreds of thousands of people cannot afford to feed themselves adequately.

Isn't this starting to look a bit more like a humanitarian crisis than an economic wobble? I can't help thinking that if Greece swallowed its pride and left the Euro rather than let everyone else prop them up then it would be an awful lot easier for ordinary people to get the help they need. Shouldn't we be sending out MSF and food stations?

They are getting humanitarian aid from several of the big charities

I was thinking the same myself AKMD . I read lately about newborns going without tests, lack of medicines etc, and wondered why they hadn't called in Medicine San Frontiers? It's awful to hear the personal stories.

They need both - short term humanitarian aid but for the longer term, some sort of bail out package or some sort of financial assistance to sort out their economy. I don't think it is an either/or situation.

i have sent some aid already.

They are getting help from charities but nothing like what they need by the sounds of it. On the last report I heard it sounded like hospitals were contacting charities that would normally make donations to poor countries in the third world and asking for their supplies :(

Greece needs their rich people to start giving to charity, and pay more taxes instead of hiding http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/greek-election-blog-2012/2012/jun/13/greeces-super-rich-low-profiles themselves and
their wealth and stop evading tax

Greece needs their rich people to start giving to charity, and pay more taxes instead of hiding themselves and
their wealth and stop evading tax

I sent things direct. Kids toothbrushs, shampoo, toothpaste etc.

I agree (with rather limited knowledge!) that their economy needs restructuring but everything is taking so, so long. They are in the Euro and so can't be allowed to 'fail' no matter whether they take action or not, whereas if they were outside the Euro they would have to restructure and could spend the international aid money on doing that rather than meeting Euro rules.

How did you do that Silly?

I agree - in the long term it needs to become a country with a better work ethic and one that doesn't have tax avoidance as a way of life

Greece is not a third world country. Granted it's not a G7 one but it's not Somalia. They signed a finance deal that went wrong, a bit like buying a million pound house when you earn £10k pa. Now Germany wants its money. As posted above, they have a thriving black economy so that needs addressing

as a country we can's send financial aid though surely, as this country is broke.
(that is a question not a statement)

Around 40% of Greece's economy is effectively black market, so not taxed and essentially illegal.

Sort that out, have people start to pay tax and it should help.

But yes - a lot of people are suffering needlessly and it should be addressed

I will have to get the address again. I will pm you when I get it. It was a childrens charity.

This is why the Euro is such a stupid idea. I did A-level economics nearly 10 years ago and even then the whole class could see that it was complete nonsense for countries to have different economic and fiscal policies but a single currency with no power to set their own interest rates.

Anyway... No, it isn't Somalia. I also think it is deeply immoral for hundred of billions of Euros to be chucked at irresponsible corporate institutions while the famine early warning system is ignored time and again, leading to mass starvation when a few million could have prevented it. It really smacks of racism.

We need to export anti-tax avoidance specialists.

A quick charity fix now won't sort the deeprooted problems of the country's problems in taxing its nation properly to support a welfare system and long term government aims.

I agree with your opening post but "cutting down trees to heat their homes " in JUNE in GREECE, really ?

Considerng holidaying in Greece this year to support their economy too.

The Greek people are different to the Greek corporate system. As has been reported many times, the bail-out money is going to support the banking system to try to shore up the topple effect across Europe, particularly France.

So to think the Greek people have in any way deserved this crisis and should be castigated for tax avoidance is a bit disingenuous.

OP YANBU.

Cutting down trees was earlier in the year :)

The Greeks need to pay taxes like the rest of us do. They have brought this on themselves with a thriving black economy.

They have to accept this if they accept a bail out or it's pouring money down a pit.

heartsandj - tax avoidance on everything from income to property is absolutely a way of life in Athens and always has been.

Absolutely agree thebody but they want to accept the bail-out and keep everything as it was and because they are in the sacred cow project aka the Euro, they might well get their way. If they weren't in the Euro then they would have no safety net and no more excuses.

I'm sure the majority of the Greek people are honest and hardworking. Blaming individuals for a countries policies is a bit heartless. For instance, when I had DS I was suddenly entitled to tax credits, so I claimed them. Why shouldn't I have done so? Now the rules have changed and I'm not longer entitled to them, so I suppose you could blame me for the economic woes of this country because I was greedy and claimed what I didn't need.

...in Greece rather - not just Athens, clearly.

More worrying is that people who know their economy is broken who are unemployed and for the last year have seen a government in turmoil without no guarantee that they would be bailed out yet again see no problem bringing a baby into the world with no thought of how they will care for it's needs.

Ah well sums up their mentality does it not that someone else will have to take care of their life.

Oh and the Greek Orthodox church still has it's 700 billion euros which is more than 5 times the bailout bill so the church could always help with the babies since they are the forced birther anti contraception crowd.

If they paid their taxes like the rest of us they would not be in this shit. What they need is a group of strong minded policticians who will have the guts to stand up to the Greeks and their penchant for allowing the middle classes etc to fiddle the system. Then the ones who do pay their taxes would not be so pissed off that they feel they have to indulge in a bit of black marketeering.

Example - Boarding buses in Greece, noted that the tourists pay but rarely get a ticket and the locals don't appear to pay at all.