EU Officials Agree to Bailout Greece

On Friday night, May 7, EU officials signed off on the package to aid Greece. The pack totals to $957 dollars, with $560 billion in loans, $76 billion under an existing lending program and $321 billion coming from the IMF.

Because of the reluctance and disunity shown by Germany and France, the total amount is much higher than what was expected. The E.U. Officials hope that the package will show the E.U.'s commitment to staying united and helping out countries in the union.

NY TIMES ARTICLE

Dogs involved in Greek Protests

(Image taken from Newsweek)

Above is an interesting slide show made by Newsweek showing how the protests in Greece have a history of involving not only aggressive human citizens, but also aggressive dogs.

Several of the dogs seem actively involved in the protests. In a photo from a November 2008 protest a dog looks like its staging a sit-in as it lies in front of the barrier between protesters and the official residence of the prime minister. The photo from a January 2009 commemoration March a dog is standing up to an official who is waving tear gas. In a photo of the most recent protests in April 2010 over the extreme austerity measures, a dog is seen barking at Greece authorities.

This slide show shows a different side of the Greek riots. It seems that everyone gets caught up in the rebellion, humans and canines alike.

Germany signs Greece Bailout

Germany approved its share of the Greece bailout on Monday, May 3. They have agreed to accept Greek bonds as collateral for loans despite fear of downgrades.

The cabinet approved up to 22.4 euros in loans for up to 3 years. The IMF and E.U. countries' rescue plan totals 110 billion euro. The plan is still subject to parliamentary approval, but the bill is expected to pass in all the E.U. countries by the end of the week.

VIDEO: Greece announcing Financial Bailout

IMF Terms for the Bailout

Greece has come to an agreement with the International monetary Fund to take on a new austerity plan in order to obtain financial assistance. This new austerity measure is expected to yield 23 billion Euro in pension overhauls, wage cuts, the abolition of bonuses paid civil servants and tax raises.

The cut of bonuses is estimated to produce 1.4 billion Euro, while the tax is expected to raise from 21-23%. Greek labor Unions responded to previous Austerity measures with violent strikes in Athens. Prime Minister George Papandreou met with the heads of business and labor groups to gain support for the measures, but they still believe they are unfair. The unions are planning a 24 hour nationwide strike for Wednesday.

Though the conditions are harsh this is seen as Greece's only way out. A Greek official told the Wall Street Journal, "This is the way the IMF works--if you want the money, you go by their terms."

EU suffers from Greece's Debt

(Image to the left from NY TIMES)
The European governments are being criticized for how they handled the debt crisis in Greece. Germany's reluctance to support the bailout has led to four month delays that have caused Greece's debt to spiral out of control and some say beyond repair. There is a fear that by the time a bailout plan is in effect, Greece might never be capable of paying back its loans to the countries that helped them.

The debt problem has begun to threaten other indebted countries in the E.U. and managed to lower the value of the Euro significantly. Spain and Portugal are already suffering from the Euro's diminishing value. The exchange rate between the Euro and the U.S. dollar was 1.49-1 just five months ago, but has dropped to 1.22-1.

Greece, the Internet and Social Media

The best way to describe Greece's involvement with the internet and social media would be a steady growth. Though the country does not rank very high for total internet users(number 47 according to the CIA World Factbook with 4,253,000 users) their country does have a much smaller population compared to the higher ranking countries(Greece Pop.-11,237,094, USA Pop.-307,006,550). But still, in 2008 according to World Bank, World Development Indicators the percentage of internet users in Greece was only 43.1 percent. The graph above shows there was a stead growth in internet users from 1997-2008.

Greece's use of social media is limited because their presence on the internet is insignificant. In Sysomos' ranking of the top 17 countries on Twitter, Greece is not even mentioned. In 2008, Inside Facebook named Greece number 5 on the ranking of the Top 25 Fastest Growing countries on Facebook. This blog, which uses data taken from Facebook, has Greek ranked 26 in the Top 30 Countries with the most Facebook users in March 2010. This data shows a 100% growth from March 2009. With 2,611,420 Facebook users about half of Greece's internet users have a Facebook page.

(it was difficult to find credible sources for these statistics, I think it is because Greece's presence in social media is very limited.)

Volcano in Iceland Hurts Greece Economy

Iceland Volcano Eyjafjallajokull erupted March 20, 2010 leading to ash clounds covering most of Europe during the end of March and early April. Like several other EU countries, Greece's tourism sector has taken a blow. Though most domestic flights in Greece continue to depart, all international flights have been halted because of safety concerns; the ash can supposedly do serious damage to aircraft engines.

Hundreds of flights destined for Athens were cancelled leading hotels in the capital city to have a severe drop in bookings. The most recent estimates say that the tourism sector income rate is supposed to drop between 6 and 8 percent. Aegean Airlines, the largest Greek Airline, said the cancelled flights are costing 600,000 euros per day, while their rival Olympic Air has been losing 400,000 per day.

Kathimerini Article