ΚΑΛΩΣ ΗΛΘΑΤΕ! Kalos ilthate! Welcome!
Welcome to the Global Greek World - a world of Greek-Somethings which stretches from Auckland to Zanzibar, from Aruba to Zimbabwe.
Wherever you are in the world, this is YOUR world!
A quick look at who's behind the Big Three Ratings Agencies
The three rating agencies have done it again...
The same agencies who gave AAA ratings to the sub-prime mortgages and weren't 'able' to foresee the Lehman crash of 2008 and its disastrous consequences for the world economy...
Those same ratings agencies that downgraded most of the poor PIIGS and especially Greece...
In Greece's case, the downward spiral sparked by the downgrading of her sovereign debt and the lack of fast and decisive action to nip it in the bud by the leadership of both Greece and the EU has led to an unparalleled credit crisis in Europe with explosive consequences....
Well, these very same, theoretically independent agencies, who instead of being sidelined because strictly speaking they lost their credibility back then, these agencies have now put several of Europe's AAA countries on watch, and now we'll all have to sit back and watch the fireworks, hoping we won't be burned en masse by the flying debris...
Have they gone too far? We will soon know...
Update 5 February 2013: The USA has announced it will be suing one of these agencies, Standard and Poors, or S & P as itis known, over the Sub-Prime Mortgage Rates... Justice? Hopefully!
Monday March 7, 2011 and it is Kathari Deftera for Greece and all the Orthodox Christians around the world today. Instead of waking up with nothing more complicated than the thought of where we would go to fly our traditional hartaeto or paper kite for Koulouma this year, we woke up to the news of Moody's latest downgrade of Greece's credit rating by 3 points. What an appropriate start for the Great Lent - Megali Sarakosti - increased austerity, economic doom and gloom and the threat of an impending fiscal default - what more could we possibly want?
Well, in true Scarlet O'Hara style, we decided that nothing was going to change our plans for today, because we wouldn't be able to do anything anyway, we'd let the elected government deal with that (and they did- see below) and continued to follow our time-honoured traditions and celebrate Koulouma as usual, with all members of the household doing their bit for the sarakostiano trapezi...
Freshly cut salad
Fresh beetroot bulbs on their bed of foliage decorated with spring onions
Taramosalata and lagana (see end of post for the recipe)
Octopus with red Florina peppers
Kalamari and Atlantic prawns
A great bottle of Nemea Red...2005 vintage
Husband's artistic food styling - Beetroot
Prawns, Kalamari, Skordalia, beetroot,
Octopus with red peppers, pilafi , lagana, taramosalata
Almond scordalia
Everybody had a little bit of everything -
prawns, kalamari, gigantes, beetroot,
taramosalata, octopus with pilafi and fresh salad
and for Desert - Makedoniko aka Macedonian Halva
After a great lunch, we decided to brave the elements - it is freezing cold in Athens with snow predicted overnight - and went out to try to fly our kite.
We didn't have much luck...it decided to stay grounded...
others were more fortunate so we did manage to get a photo
of at least one kite flying up high...
Nevermind, as Scarlett said Tomorrow is another day...
Kali Sarakosti!
PS The government did react to the Moodys' downgrade... against all expectations, considering it was a public holiday in Greece,( who says public servants in Greece don't work?) they came out with the appropriate announcement. An announcement which concludes with the following statement...
'Ultimately, Moody’s downgrading of Greece’s debt reveals more about the misaligned incentives and the lack of accountability of credit rating agencies than the genuine state or prospects of the Greek economy. Having completely missed the build-up of risk that led to the global financial crisis in 2008, the rating agencies are now competing with each other to be the first to identify risks that will lead to the next crisis. At a time when the global economy is fragile and market sentiment is sensitive, unbalanced and unjustified rating decisions such as Moody’s today can initiate damaging self-fulfilling prophecies and certainly strengthen the arguments for tighter regulation of the rating agencies themselves.
Moody’s decision in no way affects the financing of the Hellenic Republic as it continues to draw funds from the Greek support mechanism. Moreover, Greece, in collaboration with the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, has taken all necessary measures to maintain the stability and liquidity of the Greek banking system.' Read the whole announcement
Oh yes, and now, as promised, the recipe for our taramosalata - yes, what you are seeing is indeed the recipe for our taramosalata today... thanks to good old Hellman's - believe me,it tastes great!!! :)
Hellman's Taramosalata - part of it's range of Greek products Γεύση της Μαμάς!
Oh and by the way, because Hellman's is making all these dishes made by Mum, Greek mums and grannies are now making Sushi...
