What a mess Greece is in.

tagged: bahalo, Greece, IKA,pensions, queues, stopped

Please keep taking your holidays in Greece, it is the most beautiful place, is full of beautiful people, and those people need your help.

Thousands of troubled Greek seniors form long queues after pension stop

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society

Thousands of pensioners at the verge of brain-stroke and heart-attack formed long queues outside the offices of Greece’s biggest insurance fund IKA on Friday morning. The troubled seniors had rushed to the local branches of IKA because their pension had been stopped. Just like that. The seniors must have been in shock on Thursday when they went to bank to pick up their pension money for June – and to see that there was no money on their account.

08:07 a.m. waiting in Chios

For one simple reason: they did not receive their pension for June, when they went to the bank the previous day.

Greek media report of several reasons as to why the pensions were not paid out: missing insurance and tax numbers but also money shortage.

A total of 96,333 pensions were stopped: 54,193 main pensions and 42,140 supplementary due to missing or wrong  tax- or general insurance registration number.

Another reason is that IKA missed 21 million euro for June pension payments due to calculation mistake. Poverty allowence (EKAS) was to paid out retrospective.

Many pensioners have reportedly received also less pension after new criteria for the poverty allowance were set in April.

IKA had announced that pensioners whose pension had been stopped, would contact directly the local branches of the insurance fund. There, they could correct the wrong data and receive their pension.

  waiting, waiting  and still  waiting...

Worth mentioning: ΙKA pensioners had to participate in pension census already twice in the last two years. Why the insurance fund did not informed the persons involved that data was missing or it was wrong on their submitted census-papers is something that only the Greek state can know.

When will state disorganization and bureaucracy stop troubling the citizens? Good question … with no answer on the horizon.

Beautiful Crete

Thinking Greek!

I think I aught to try and fit some Greek into my weekly schedule, so to start me off I am reading out loud a poem I wrote in Greek. I am missing my lessons with the lovely Manolis, but I am glad to report that I have not totally forgotten how to speak Greek. I have my text book here in England, so it is just a matter of making time to study. Now let's see, maybe in between, cello practice and singing practice, or how about half an hour a day before blogging, no, wait a minute, I've got it, I'll shop on line and the time I save I will devote to Greek. There is always a solution. Anyway, here is today's effort, just to get me started.



Meanwhile, in Vrahassi, David tells me that he popped down to Yanni's for a bite to eat the other night. All is quiet in the village (nothing new there then) and the sun is shining.

The Animal Protection trans Europe van broke down in Italy, and there is a delay in sending Phoebe to the Isle of Man. David says he hopes it wasn't him that did that, because Phoebe is such good company. I'm sure it wasn't, and I am very sorry to hear of the breakdown. We are so happy to see that Percy and Maisie are so well settled and looking so happy.

And on the arty front, I think this exhibition will be worth taking a look at. I presume the apostrophe 's' in the main body of the report is a mistake in translation, get by it and look at the beauty of Nelly's work.

Out-of-town showcase of Nelly's photographs hits the spot

By Sandra Voulgari

A new exhibition of photographs by Nelly's, organized by the Benaki Museum's Photographic Archive and the Fotograficus art company, seems to have found the perfect loctation in the Long Room, a venue in Pikermi, east of Athens, that resembles a 16th-century monastery and is set amid lush greenery.

Photographs of nude dancers in the Parthenon – which had shocked the public at their first unveiling – muscular athletes resembling ancient Greek statues, details of sculptures and daily scenes from the historical Athenian neighborhood of Plaka are Nelly's signature works.

The Pikermi exhibition, which has been put together by Ioanna Vasdeki and Jeff Vanderpool, comprises some 60 works by the photographer, who is also known by her real name, Elli Souyioultzoglou-Seraidari, making for a comprehensive approach to the body of her work.

Nelly's (1899-1998) came from a wealthy Greek family in Asia Minor and studied photography in Dresden in 1921 beside acclaimed German photographers Hugo Erfurth and Franz Fiedler.

She moved to Athens in 1924 following her family's expulsion from Turkey and focused her lens on themes that she saw as being purely Greek. Her portraits of people from all walks of life, and especially of high society, have provided us with valuable information concerning Greek society in the inter-war years, but her most famous pieces are those of ancient monuments elevated to symbols of magnificence and her bold shots of dancers on the Parthenon, odes to the female body and the embodiment of the classical ideals of beauty and fitness.

In the Greek countryside, Nelly's saw bucolic beauty all around and emphasized the harmonious coexistence of man with nature, while in the United States, where she spent 25 years of her life, she experimented with color and advertising photography.

The exhibition on Nelly's runs through June 23 at the Long Room (Adamopoulou Street, 19th kilometer of Marathon Avenue heading from Athens, left at the Drafi turning). For information, call 211.184.1997. Opening hours are Saturday and Sunday from noon to 8 p.m.

Talk some more soon,

Love Jane x

Jane on the Move

Hi everyone, here I am, in the pink, heading back to England and my work. The journey, via EasyJet, was great, on time, and within a few hours from this picture being taken I was snug in my little flat. Of course it was a sad parting, but then, partings usually are.
Did I tell you that I received a cheque from Amazon,  for the sales of my book, how wonderful is that? So with new enthusiasm I am pushing forward with my writing.
My next mission is to find a music teacher, and continue with my cello studies. And in between all that I am developing a business in Network Marketing. It is an ideal job for someone like me who doesn't want the restrictions of going out to work. If I can make money from home I'm happy. I have chosen to follow David with a company called Empower Network, it is full of lively people, and I like that. It is not for everyone, but it suits me, and I am not ready to settle into old age. Life is far too exciting for that. If you feel the same way, take a look at my Empower Network blog, and find out what it's all about.

Tomorrow I shall visit my choir mistress for a spot of singing, Friday it is lunch with my daughter, Joanne, Saturday is, well, the weekend, and anything can happen then - I have a hankering to go and see the new Star Trek movie. Sunday is church and family, remind me to tell you how I became involved with the church in Beckenham, it's another story!

So, while David works away in the Cretan sunshine, I am working away in the Kent sunshine. My window is wide open, the birds are singing, there is a faint chatter of children's voices from a school playground somewhere behind the trees, and all is well in the world of Jane.

And here is a little follow up to what happened in Crete a few year's ago. That poor man in a coma for all those years. A little prayer for him, I think, and the people who are caring for him.

Bye for now, Jane x

Stiff Sentences In Cretan Police Ambush

By Andy Dabilis on April 30, 2013 In Crime, News

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Six years after police were ambushed in a rural area of Crete during a drug raid, a five-judge Piraeus court handed down sentences of between 25 and six years to 16 men found guilty of involvement in the attack in Zoniana, a rural area in Rethymno. One of the officers was seriously wounded.

The court gave two men, one of whom is an Albanian national and remains at large, the maximum sentence of 25 years for the attempted murder – among other charges – of 33-year-old special officer Stathis Lazaridis, who remains in a coma five-and-a-half years after gunmen in the lawless village opened fire on 49 police officers conducting a raid in search of illegal narcotics, for which the area is notorious.

Another two officers were injured in the gun battle. The court also handed sentences of 10 years to another three men and five-and-a-half years to another 10. The 16th defendant saw his sentence reduced to four years.

Zoniana

Jane's Book - Tears from the Sun - A Cretan Journey - YouTube

Jane's Book - Tears from the Sun - A Cretan Journey - YouTube

HAPPY EASTER FROM CRETE

Happy Easter to all, I'm sorry I was not there to share this special time with my friends, but I had a fabulous weekend looking after my grandson, Jack. Tomorrow I will be back to work, and looking forward to exciting times ahead. Talk again soon. Love Jane x

Jane in London

Hello everyone,

Well, I'm back from sunny Crete, to sunny London. Spring, it seems, has sprung everywhere. The blossom is out, and I've returned with that wonderful, enthusiastic feeling that always comes along after the long, cold nights of winter.

And what, you may be asking, is she up to now? So, here it is, my new enterprise. Laugh if you like. Have a little jeer, but those of you in the know might find, like I have, this wonderful opportunity to make some money. Anyway, this is what I am up to. Oh, and playing my cello, and singing, and writing my second novel, and keeping company with my grandson, and... and... and... life is so wonderful.

Crete has given me the energy, now it's time to trade it in for a bit of action. And you know what? Hey presto! ENERGY + ACTION = MONEY

If you want to know more click on this link:  Jane's First Blog for Empower Network

And if you could do with a bit of extra cash, pay $25 dollars and start blogging, it's as easy as that. The company give full training, and there is lots of backup. It really is wonderful to be part of a successful team.
David and I are going to the seminar in Denver, in July. This time last year we didn't have a dollar between us. Sometimes you have to think outside the box.

Have a lovely weekend, whatever you are up to.
Love Jane x