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Showing posts from December, 2013

Help for All

I am happy to confirm that our Municipality tries to help everyone who lives in the area. I was sickened to see pictures on Greek television yesterday of "Golden Dawn" handing out food parcels to the needy and checking their ID cards to make sure they were Greek. Anyone else in need was turned away. Here in our council area all the "social services" are for all residents, "Agia Sofia", "Help in the Home", "Helping Hands", the Churches and the council department dealing with those in need of help.  It seems too that certain of the TV channels were also sympathetic to the idea of only Greeks receiving help. Yes, there have to be some kind of checks as to who receives help as it is not infinite and there are always those who try to take advantage, but after seeing children fainting from hunger in some schools and dying from cold in Northern Greece ( A 6 year old) and from being overcome with fumes when the only heating in the house was a ...

Elections next year? OGA this year!

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Yes!  Local elections will take place next May on the 18th and 25th (Currently any candidate can take part in the first round. If the leading candidate does not have a clear majority then a second round takes place between the two leading candidates). This will co-inside with European Elections in which we can also vote ( if you ticked the box when you registered to vote) more on that later. many of you have been asking who is standing, will it be the same system etc.  At the moment it is not clear who will be standing, other than that it will be a compete change from last time. The current mayor has announced that he will not be standing again and I have heard of about 9 people currently planning to stand. naturally not all of these hopes will come to fruition and several will find they do  not have enough support and will combine forces will others. Much negotiating is now going on and things will clarify soon. When the time comes I will give you as much information a...

Time to Blog!

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Well one of the advantages of having some extra time is the chance to update the blog regularly again. So let's start: Today I called in the Town Hall in Vrysses firstly to see if the government had announced whether they are changing the voting system for the next local elections and secondly to pick up two parcels that had been left there for me. We are still waiting for the definitive answer on the elections, but I picked up the parcels. I also took the opportunity to check up on a few facts re the registration of voters. I discovered the town hall in festive mood with a tree in the entrance. I then carried on to Georgioupolis to see how the renovations of the village square are going on. this is funded by ESPA ( EEC development money) and also from the "Periferia" Apparently it is going to be named "Papadogiannis Plateia" after Miltiadis Papadogiannis, the first mayor of Georgioupolis who, with his brother, laid out roads, drained the marshes ...