Greece announces new taxes. How will it be received?

In an effort to compensate for an economic slowdown, Greece announced a 10 percent tax of capital gains and dividends that will take effect January 1, 2009.  Greece is trying to meet its 1.6 percent public deficit this year.

Included in the measure will be higher taxes on the self employed and vehicle license plates.

Inflation is at a 10 year high and many Greeks have not able to pay their debts due to the rising interest rates.

Please Read And Voice Your Opinion To This Clown!

Beijing trumps Athens … and then some

By Martin Rogers, Yahoo! Sports Aug 24, 11:29 am EDT

BEIJING – It is the biggest buzz word in Olympic circles, and the promise of it can dramatically sway the bidding process for future Games.

Legacy.

These days, any hopeful city with Olympic aspirations must not only show its ability to provide venues and infrastructure of the highest standard, but also prove there will be a lasting positive effect on the local community.

The 2004 Olympics in Athens showed how to get it embarrassingly and disgracefully wrong. Over the past 16 days, Beijing has shown the world how to get it magnificently right.

Four years since the Athens Games, a Greek tragedy is taking place. Incredibly, many of the 22 Olympic venues now lie abandoned, as a sad and litter-strewn reminder of sport’s greatest festival.

Gypsy camps have sprung up in the shadow of stadiums where the world’s finest athletes once battled for gold. Graffiti is scrawled over the outer walls of many sites, and it has been reported in Greece that upward of $1 billion has been spent simply to maintain these ugly wrecks.

That is Athens’ legacy.

Sixteen days of glory, but at what price? The Olympics are now almost a dirty word in Athens, most regularly used by politicians who use the issue of decay as a powerful campaigning point.

There was an element of tokenism in awarding the Olympics to Athens in the first place, a symbolic gesture intended as a nod to Ancient Olympia.

The Games will never return there. They will not be allowed to, if for no other reason than that the level of public outrage at the grotesque waste of money on oversized venues with no future is extreme.

Beijing is not going to let that happen. For a start, the Chinese capital has several huge advantages over Athens.

“The reason why some countries have been challenged with economic downturns after hosting an Olympics is that hosting cities are often very small,” said Chen Jian, executive president of the Beijing Economy Research Association. “Their investments in infrastructure construction were excessive. Fluctuations arose in the economic growth when no new hotspot for investment occurred after the Olympics.”

Beijing is a city that deeply loves its sports, even more so now given the host nation’s extraordinary success over the past fortnight.

The Bird’s Nest will be used for major international events, concerts and domestic soccer matches.

The Water Cube aquatic center was built to a sensible size, and will mainly be used for international diving competitions and exhibitions. Diving’s popularity in China should ensure that it is often filled to near capacity.

The luminescent light show on the glowing exterior of the stadium will be turned off soon after the Games, but will be put back on whenever there is a major event taking place in Beijing.

Other sites such as Workers’ Stadium and Workers’ Gymnasium were already in place. The Olympic Park Tennis Center has been tabbed to host an ATP event next year.

Whereas the list of Athens’ failures goes on, so too does the depth of Beijing’s successes.

The Games have sparked economic growth, and experts predict a continued surge in tourism as many fans who traveled to the Olympics are expected to return for a second look.

Here, there is a legacy of pride, and a spectacular standard of responsible spending for future hosts to uphold.

Whether you agree with China’s foreign policies or political ideals, no one can deny this has been a truly superb Olympic Games.

Congratulations, Beijing.

Martin Rogers is a soccer writer for Yahoo! Sports. Send Martin a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

To go to his original article, click HERE 

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Greek Humor of the Day

A man dies and goes to hell. There he finds that there is a different hell for each country.

He goes to the German hell and asks, 'What do they do here?' He is told: 'First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.

The man does not like the sound of that at all, so he moves on.

He checks out the American hell, as well as the Russian hell & many more. He discovers that they are all more or less the same as the German hell.

Then he comes to the Greek hell and finds that there is a long line of people from all nationalities waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, 'What do they do here?' He is told, 'First they put you in an electric chair for an hour, and then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour.

Then the Greek devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.' But that is exactly the same as all the other hells. Why are there so many people waiting to get in?'

He is told, 'Because the maintenance crew is always on strike, there is no electricity so the electric chair doesn't work, Albanians have stolen all the nails from the bed, and the devil is a former Government employee, so he comes in, signs the register and then goes to have his kafethaki and eat koulourakia all day...

Greek beaches are amongst the cleanest in the world

If you like going to the beach, Greece is the place to be. With 430 of their beaches awarded with the “Blue Flag”, Greece sits in 2^nd place out of 40 countries in “Blue Flag” criteria.

The “Blue Flag” program is an international symbol of quality and perhaps the best-known environmental symbol in the world. Established in 1987, it awards Blue Flags to beaches and marinas complying with its strict regulations. It is not enough for the sea to be clean; there are 29 criteria related to beach cleanliness, swimmer and visitor safety, environmental information, site information and environmental protection of the beach.

In 2005, Greece received 383 “Blue Flags’ and in 2006, Greece received 428.

Spain came in 1^st place this year with 455 “Blue Flags” awarded.

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