Clashes blight austerity protest

Thousands of Greeks walked off the job on Wednesday to protest the government’s ongoing austerity drive, in the first general strike since June, and joined protest rallies which were small by Greek standards but were marred by isolated outbreaks of violence. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_30744_05/10/2011_409538

Greece to miss deficit target, imposes more cuts on workers

The Greek cabinet met Sunday and conceded that it would miss the deficit target set by the IMF and European authorities for the current year. According to the finance ministry, the deficit will exceed the target of €17.1 billion, and would reach €18.69 billion ($25 billion)—about 8.5 percent of gross domestic product. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/gree-o03.shtml

Orwell's elephant

By Nikos Konstandaras
«In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people -– the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me,” George Orwell wrote in his essay “Shooting an Elephant” in 1936. At the time, the young Eric Blair (before he took the penname Orwell) was a police officer serving a colonial apparatus that he did not believe in.  http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite3_3_03/10/2011_409171

Greek Crisis Comes 24 Centuries After First Default

History’s first sovereign default came in the 4th century BC, committed by 10 Greek municipalities. There was one creditor: the temple of Delos, Apollo’s mythical birthplace. Twenty-four centuries later, Greece is at the edge of the biggest sovereign default and policy makers are worried about global shock waves of an insolvency by a government with 353 billion euros ($483 billion) of debt -- five times the size of Argentina’s $95 billion default in 2001. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-22/greece-on-edge-of-biggest-insolvency-24-centuries-after-first-city-default.html