There is not much one can add to this story. Even as an isolated case, it would be bad enough but, according to the Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection, suicides increased by 22.5 per cent to 622 in 2010. And, over the previous two years, suicides have increased 40 percent as the worsening crisis drives ordinary Greeks to despair.

No one person is responsible, of course. But in the EU system of governance, no one at all is ever responsible. No one will take the blame, no one will be punished. The politicians will continue bickering, the eurocrats will continue to draw their salaries and pensions – and people die.

View full article here

DM published the sanitised version of the suicide note. According to the Athens News the full note read:

"The Tsolakoglou government has annihilated all traces for my survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid for 35 years with no help from the state. And since my advanced age does not allow me a way of dynamically reacting (although if a fellow Greek were to grab a Kalashnikov, I would be right behind him), I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don’t find myself fishing through garbage cans for my sustenance. I believe that young people with no future, will one day take up arms and hang the traitors of this country at Syntagma square, just like the Italians did to Mussolini in 1945"

The newspaper helpfully notes that the Georgios Tsolakoglou was the first collaborationist prime minister during Germany's occupation of Greece during the Second World War.

On the same page is the news that last night a small bomb exploded ouside the office of former PM Costas SImitis. Simitis was the PM who brought Greece into the eurozone, and is "credited" with massively fudging the macroeconomic data. We shouldn't read too much into this event, though. A similar bomb exploded outside his offices 2 years ago.

I honestly believe that the European Union are committing crimes against humanity in Greece

Crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum,

"are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings."

Thanks M ... posted on the blog.

Simitis is usually attacked by leftists as a "conservative". There have been firebombs placed outside his office, shootings outside his home. Most politicians these days (except leftists) get small firebombs placed outside their offices. Not that it makes any difference whatsoever. The soap opera of Greek politics continues unabated, with bickering over liberalising taxi licences and tanker driver permits. This isn't the band playing on the Titanic, they are way past that stage. 99.99% of Greek politicians have simply given up trying to deal with the economic crisis. And 100% of the people have given up hope.

What next? Revolution, or descent into irreversible apathy?

political anarchy, like Argentina about 10 years ago, with multiple parties trying to govern and all failing. Continous political rioting (like Thailand) and surge in criminality (like Mexico). Mass exodus of the professional class.
And eventually, a realisation that no measures can save Greece, so a complete debt writeoff alongside exit from the Euro.

The note read: "The Tsolakoglou government has annihilated all traces for my survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid for 35 years with no help from the state. "

It unfortunately reads like a man only now realising that social welfare is a massive Ponzi scheme. How can it be that the state has so upended traditional family life that a man in his twilight years is ashamed that his children might be supporting him? That is how families used to work.

All so the likes of the Kinnochio, pere et famile, Mandelscum, Brittan and Patten can live the life of O'Reilly.

Wait for the real big hit.

It will start with a further oil price hike which was kicked off a few hours ago when one of China's biggest insurers claimed it would no longer cover Iranian oil transports.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/economy/bu ... 1204050065

This means the entire Iranian oil output is taken off the international markets soon.

There is no quick replacement for such a volume with a massive price explosion.

We're screwed over from here to Tokyo and back.

Suicides in Ireland too!

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 23554.html

John ... added! Thanks.

Not only are there increasing rates of suicide in Ireland but an eminent psychiatrist has come up
with a possible cure - ADD LITHIUM TO THE WATER SUPPLY.
The crisis won't be any better but everybody will be H-A-P-P-Y.
With a bit of luck they could combine it with something to cure all those poor climate change deniers
at the same time.

Spain not Greece is the real test for the EU
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-0 ... union.html

But that we already knew.

Just like the UN already knew what the crises was going to do to EU citizens
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/p ... e94837.pdf

But remember. climate disruption remains the biggest threat.
No matter how many people jump a high rise, put a rope round their neck, set fire to themselves or put themselves a bullet in their head.