Gavin Hewitt@BBC

The President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has declared: "I think all Europe has now the eyes on Athens." Europe's leaders are waiting, drumming their fingers impatiently.

Yet Athens is a city of false deadlines. They are made and discarded casually. Yet again today there is an expectation that the leaders of the coalition will agree to a raft of austerity measures and so pave the way for a second Greek bailout.

The text of an agreement was finalised last night. It sets out where the extra spending cuts - amounting to 3bn euros - will fall.


Protesters see the culture of austerity as of German design
Lurking in the wings are the accountants of the troika: the IMF, the EU and the ECB. These officials are consulted at every turn; they determine whether the cuts, which will affect the lives of ordinary Greeks, will satisfy the creditors.

It is a horse trade between those who will shortly be accountable to the people at election time and those who will never have to face the voters.

The outline of a deal is clear. The largest spending cut of 1.1bn euros will most likely be in health care.

There is undoubtedly waste in the system but I visited a hospital near Piraeus two days ago that had a shortage of syringes, dressings and basic drugs. A doctor told me his salary had already been cut by 35% in the past two years and he expected a further 20% cut.

Local government funding will be reduced. There will be a 20% cut in the minimum wage but annual bonus holiday payments in the private sector may escape.

If a deal is done today - and expect some last minute haggling - it will be described as historic. The leaders of France and Germany will praise the responsibility of Greece's politicians.

In reality, like bailout mark 1, it will buy time. The spectre of a messy default in March will have been removed. There will be a huge sigh of relief in Brussels.

It is wise, however, to be cautious. Any agreement will still have to be voted on in the Greek parliament. Secondly there is the question of whether the deal will go far enough.

The IMF has insisted that Greece's debt to GDP ratio must fall to 120% of GDP by 2020. With private investors taking losses of up to 70% on their investments, Greece's debt mountain should be reduced by 100bn euros. Then there are the spending cuts.

But there might still be a shortfall - perhaps by as much as 15bn euros. Eurozone governments may be asked to fill that gap and some countries will baulk at reaching into their pockets yet again.

If all that is done - what are the prospects for the real economy in Greece? It is expected to shrink by 3% this year. Businesses are closing by the day - 65,000 have gone. Unemployment is close to 19%.

I spoke to a gold dealer. In just one store between 25 and 30 people a day come in to sell their jewellery. There are now scores of such places.

It is just one barometer of a country hurting. Greece is in recession while further cuts are being insisted on. There is a distinct possibility that the Greek economy will continue its decline upsetting all calculations. It will continue on international life support whilst money flows out of the country and the best and brightest head for Australia and Canada.

Much of the political class in Greece argue that the country has no alternative.

Either the people accept this deal or they will face the chaos of bankruptcy. A majority of Greeks accept that argument reluctantly. The risk, however, is that this deal ushers in ten years of austerity that will break Greek society.

Yesterday - in torrential rain - there was a protest against the new spending cuts. On the steps of the parliament they burned a German flag. Certainly in Greece - and perhaps in Italy and Spain too - the culture of austerity is seen as of German design.

If the bailout only delivers more pain then the blame will fall on Germany - as the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has hinted.

This week has witnessed an extraordinary sight - a German chancellor openly taking sides in a French election. She justifies this on the grounds that we are all European.

The President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy has defended her. "We have gone through such a huge crisis," he argues, that "we are looking to each other in a different way than before".

"What we are currently going through is... the Europeanisation of national political life," he added.

It is an interesting observation from an official always worth listening to although the voters - as far as I know - have expressed no interest or support for "the Europeanisation of national political life".

It underlines what some regard as the most dangerous legacy of the eurozone crisis - the sidelining of democracy at both a national and a European level.

Does she still got it?

You fucking bet she does!!!!


Madonna for president for ever (even if the new song sucks bit)....

The rain

What do you feel when you listen to the falling rain tapping away on the window?

I feel relief.
I feel that everything will be clean and shiny after that.
I feel lucky that I have a warm house to cosy into and listen to the falling rain.

I feel like making a cup of coffee and reading magazines.

Good morning...

And remember, tomorrow is a new week and lousy January will be over for another year.

Grow up

The sole purpose of this post is to make me feel better. I always felt that writing is therapeutic, so now is the time to put this to the ultimate test.

I've always been a good girl, I hate confrontation, and very often in order to avoid it I even lie. If a friend invites me to dinner and I don't feel like going, I might lie in order not to say to the other person "I can't come, because I don't feel like it". Society seems to like this, it's calling these excuses "white lies" or something. But they are shit, mostly because they make people weak, stupid, avoiding confrontation at all cost. So when you actually have to confront something, you cannot because you are not able to, you have never done it.

I have a manipulative person in my life, who has managed to manipulate me into a role that I do not want to assume.

Initially, I could deal with this, because I can deal with everything seemingly, I just grin and bear it.

I now find myself into a situation where it is impossible for me to function, because the role that I am forced to play is not feasible anymore.

The only answer to my problem is to confront this person and explain that I cannot do this anymore. This is the only possible, logical and right thing to do. Yet, I am finding it hard. Why?

All my life, whenever I had to do something like this, I shied away from it, I took another road. I stayed silent and waited for the problem to disappear. Sometimes this worked, sometimes it didn't.

This time, this is definitely NOT going to work; the manipulation is too big.

So I have to speak up. Will I do this?

You fucking better believe I will. Because, maybe now, at the age of 33, it is (maybe; just maybe) the time to finally grow up.

Grow up.
Speak up for yourself.
No one else will.

My dog died

My dog Mourgos died.

He ate poison and died.

Who does this to animals? I don't care why people leave poison around, if it's for fucking foxes or whoever eats their chickens or whatever. You can't do this period. Fucking assholes. I hate them all.

We've lost so many animals like this. Suffering terrible deaths, poor dogs.

This is not a normal country, when nothing works and no one behaves like a civilized person.

Not so much...

it's the movie everyone is talking about: silent but powerful, it is winning awards (including Cannes, Golden globes etc) and is the biggest favourite for the Oscars.

I was very intrigued, and went and saw it on Sunday. Great movie, fun and moving, but nothing to get one's knickers in a twist about, I think. The story is a cliché, done amazingly in the far superior Sunset Boulevard, what remains is the novelty of watching a silent movie in the year 2012. Great acting and recreation of an era, great dog even but really, why the hype?

It's really all been said before... And of course art repeats itself all the time, but no need to do it in such a way...



I;m ready for my close-up Mr de Mille.
Immortal line, immortal movie.

The new year

The new year that came- 2012, leap year. Lucky? Who knows...

The red earth, with crops. Potatoes.

Does it make us feel safe? To have potatoes around.
At least we can eat that, one might think.

Greece is bleeding. People are sad, depressed, frustrated. Confused.

The fear is everywhere. Where is the optimism? Is there any left?

Who knows...

But it's the new year, this must count for something.