ATHENS // The mood is sombre at Syntagma Square, the home of the Greek parliament, and the place where a group of professional musicians are performing an ode to the 30,000 public-sector workers who will lose their jobs in the coming weeks.
"It's one thing to die for Greece and another to have Greece make you die. That is what she is singing," translates Thanasi Kourkoulas as he explains why he is protesting against the government.
"We want to say we are against austerity measures and that we normal Greeks are not responsible for the debt in this crisis," he says.
Mr Kourkoulas, who is 41, is one of thousands protesting that day and night, including artists, dancers, students, government workers and the taxi drivers - of which most of the country's 40,000 are on strike for 48 hours. Protesters watch the singer crooning the morbid song, called Eleni, from the balconies at the economy ministry, where they have staged a symbolic sit-in and prevented EU and IMF officials from meeting the Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos. A
high school computer science teacher, Mr Kourkoulas estimates he will earn 30 per cent less this year given income tax increases, wage decreases and one-off taxes on his home.
Despite this dreary outlook, he chain smokes as the musicians play and smiles a wide grin as if he has nothing to lose.
"Governments of recent years were taxing the normal people, not the rich, not the businesses and not the banks," Mr Kourkoulas says. "They should cut military spending, tax the rich and the banks more and also tax the church which is the biggest owner of property in Greece."
He saw his monthly salary cut three months ago from €1,200 (Dh5,967) to €950 and he has also been asked to pay a one-off tax of €200 and a tax of €500 for owning an apartment for which he is still paying a mortgage.
His mobile phone was cut off this week because he has not paid the last two bills and he has outstanding electricity bills of three months.
"They used to say we public servants are lazy in Greece, but we do not think this is the case," says Mr Kourkoulas. "There is an issue with the bureaucracy and there's an issue with corruption, but this is not our fault."
On the outskirts of the crowd, entrepreneurs trying to make a quick euro have set up barbecues selling kebabs, while wheeler-dealers move among demonstrators selling laser pens and horns.
Hector Cosmas is a self-employed violinist with a wife and two children, who earned €8,000 last year and is protesting in the square because he has been asked to pay a one-off tax of €500.
"I earn barely enough to live on, so I'm not paying this tax," he says.
Mr Cosmas is one of hundreds of artists, musicians and dancers who are angry at being asked to pay extra taxes when they barely exceed the threshold for income tax of €5,000.
A wave of new measures were introduced in recent weeks as George Papandreou, the prime minister, awaited the arrival of the so-called troika of IMF and EU figures who are set to decide if Greece is sufficiently tightening its belt to warrant another round of bailout funding.
These new measures are now hurting low-income earners.
"We're not here to be bohemian," says Christella Demetriou, 40, a music composer from Athens. "We only have enough money to just live now, we cannot afford to save money."
She says artists are now being asked to pay an 11 per cent tax on services and what they sell, on top of income tax, and if they sell through a gallery, it is 23 per cent.
"The people who ripped off the public purse have left the country and we are being asked to pay," Ms Demetriou says.
Allegations of corruption and of politicians squandering the nation's wealth are widespread among the protesters.Anestis Parousidis, 28, a student photographer, says protests have been continuing for months in Athens, but that the city is now reaching "boiling point".
"We do not want to pay anything because we did not take the money," he says. "The government steal the money, all the politicians have money in other countries."
Sitting in his office away from the fervour of Syntagma Square, Elias Spirtounias, the executive director of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce plays down the gravity of the situation in Athens, but concedes that corruption is a fact of life.
"We have had corruption for many, many years in this country," he says. "But you have to take into account we have a very large public system with many employees, so it's very easy to be corrupt."
He says the government has to come up with a credible strategy about where to take Greece- similar, he adds, to Abu Dhabi's Economic Vision 2030.
"Politicians have to explain to their people why we want a united Europe or each one takes its own path."
But back in Syntagma Square, the demonstrators have their own idea and their path is clear: "We will continue striking until this government resigns and the IMF leave us alone," Mr Kourkoulas says.
rjones@thenational.ae
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
THE BIO
Mr Al Qassimi is 37 and lives in Dubai
He is a keen drummer and loves gardening
His favourite way to unwind is spending time with his two children and cooking
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
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Infobox
Western Region Asia Cup Qualifier, Al Amerat, Oman
The two finalists advance to the next stage of qualifying, in Malaysia in August
Results
UAE beat Iran by 10 wickets
Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia by eight wickets
Oman beat Bahrain by nine wickets
Qatar beat Maldives by 106 runs
Monday fixtures
UAE v Kuwait, Iran v Saudi Arabia, Oman v Qatar, Maldives v Bahrain
Result
Qualifier: Islamabad United beat Karachi Kings by eight wickets
Fixtures
Tuesday, Lahore: Eliminator 1 - Peshawar Zalmi v Quetta Gladiators
Wednesday, Lahore: Eliminator 2 – Karachi Kings v Winner of Eliminator 1
Sunday, Karachi: Final – Islamabad United v Winner of Eliminator 2
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Pearls on a Branch: Oral Tales
Najlaa Khoury, Archipelago Books
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Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
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6. Secret Ambition
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Everton 1 Stoke City 0
Everton (Rooney 45 1')
Man of the Match Phil Jagielka (Everton)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
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