#pasok

Today it's the nameday of Andreas, so if your name is Andreas, Adrian, Adriano, Andrew, or any other version around the world, may you be well! 💙🎊🎉

Of course, we cannot forget THE Andreas, the most well-known "Andreas" in all Greek History, after our revolution hero Andreas Miaoulis (perhaps): Andreas Papandreou!

This week's newsletter from AthensLive is out: It’s not as bad as California, so it’s alright ND & PASOK soon to become 1 billion ‘Save the beaches’ movement is here to stay The debt of ND and PASOK cumulatively is circa 840 million euros and rising with no repercussions on the two parties. And that’s probably all you need to know about Greek politics and the finances of the state. 

Some 48,700 hectares were burned (Opens in a new window) during the 17-30 July wildfires in Greece, but the head of the Greek Climate Change Committee claims it is not too bad compared with the California 2021 wildfire. The Greek PM promised free vacation for tourists affected in Rhodes before taking care of the local communities. 

The good news is that a new movement reclaiming Greece’s beaches by denouncing illegal beach bars and sunbeds is spreading throughout the country and has already woken up the authorities, who have been turning a blind eye for decades. 

It cannot be recommended strongly enough to read and share this week's updates on the events and developments in Greece here: https://steadyhq.com/en/athenslivegr/posts/f1fd7e96-3dbe-4935-890a-966550fc0e9b

For anyone with a wish or need to follow and to gain an insight into recent events in Greece and to read and support independent and investigative journalism in English, the weekly newsletter from AthensLive should be a core element in the reading flow.

If you want the best overview of the events and developments in Greece right now, this is the place to go. Not the mainstream Greek news, but independent journalism with sharp analysis and links to interesting and important topics from a variety of sources.

Here we have Athens in PASOK merchandise. The idea came to me after a discussion with myself:

My brain: Hey, remember Hapo's Athens?

Me: Yes?

My brain: What's his theme color?

Me: Green.

My brain: And what else is green?

Me: PASOOOOOK!

For those of you wondering, PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) was an influencing social-democratic political party during the '80s and '90s.

Most adults who grew up during that time period remember it as a "Golden Age", where the country met positive development (not just the big cities, like Athens and Thessaloniki, but small villages as well) and "even homeless people had a home to stay" etc.

But all good things must come to an end. The reason behind this development was mainly because we were borrowing money from other European countries and after a time, we had to pay them back. The problem was that we wasted that money on entertainment mostly and not on profitable activities, like business, trade, industry etc. That's one of the many reasons why we met the financial crisis at the end of the first decade of 2000. Actually, the reasons are much more complicated, but I am not an expert to discuss them, so I recommend you to check them out yourselves.

There's also a term named after it, called Pasokification, which refers to the decline of centre-left social-democratic political parties in European and other Western countries during the 2010s, often accompanied by the rise of nationalist, left-wing and right-wing populist alternatives.

a few of the cats are hot so i hate it