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Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
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Greek government-debt crisis
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The Greek government-debt crisis is the sovereign debt crisis faced by Greece in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–08. The government enacted 12 rounds of tax increases, spending cuts, and reforms from 2010 to 2016, at that time, debt levels had reached €323bn or some €30,000 per capita. The 2001 introduction of the euro reduced trade costs among Eurozone countries, labour costs increased more in peripheral countries such as Greece relative to core countries such as Germany, eroding Greeces competitive edge. As a result, Greeces current account deficit rose significantly, a trade deficit means that a country is consuming more than it produces, which requires borrowing/direct investment from other countries. Both the Greek trade deficit and budget deficit rose from below 5% of GDP in 1999 to peak around 15% of GDP in the 2008–2009 periods, one driver of the investment inflow was Greeces membership in the EU and the Eurozone. As the Great Recession spread to Europe, the amount funds lent from the European core countries to the countries such as Greece began to decline. A country facing a “sudden stop” in private investment and a debt load typically allows its currency to depreciate to encourage investment. This was not possible while Greece remained on the Euro, instead, to become more competitive, Greek wages fell nearly 20% from mid-2010 to 2014, a form of deflation. This significantly reduced income and GDP, resulting in a recession, decline in tax receipts. Unemployment reached nearly 25%, from below 10% in 2003, significant government spending cuts helped the Greek government return to a primary budget surplus by 2014. In January 2010, the Greek Ministry of Finance published Stability, the report listed five main causes, poor GDP growth, government debt and deficits, budget compliance and data compatibility. Causes found by others included excess government spending, current account deficits, after 2008, GDP growth was lower than the Greek national statistical agency had anticipated. The global financial crisis had a large negative impact on GDP growth rates in Greece. Two of the countrys largest earners, tourism and shipping were badly affected by the downturn, the Ministry intended to implement real expenditure cuts that would allow expenditures to grow 3. 8% from 2009 to 2013, well below expected inflation at 6. 9%. Overall revenues were expected to grow 31. 5% from 2009 to 2013, secured by new, higher taxes, the deficit needed to decline to a level compatible with a declining debt-to-GDP ratio. The debt increased in 2009 due to the higher than expected government deficit, in addition to structural reforms, permanent and temporary austerity measures were needed. After 1993, the debt-to-GDP ratio remained above 94%, the crisis caused the debt level to exceed the maximum sustainable level. Budget compliance was acknowledged to need improvement, for 2009 it was found to be a lot worse than normal, due to economic control being more lax in a year with political elections
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WIND Hellas
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WIND Hellas, formerly STET Hellas, is an integrated telecommunications provider with headquarters in Athens, Greece. WIND is the 3rd largest mobile operator in Greece with more than 4.4 million active subscribers, STET Hellas originated in 1992 with the establishment of TELESTET, a subsidiary of the Italian company STET, now Telecom Italia. On September 30,1992 the Greek Ministry of Transport and Communications issued a license to STET to create a mobile telephony services network. The company invested the sum of 30 billion drachmas to create the network and this constituted one of the biggest investments in Greece since the end of the Second World War. Commercial operation started on June 29,1993 when the first call from a mobile phone took place in the country, in 1998 TELESTET was the first Greek mobile telephony company to be listed in international stock markets, the NASDAQ in New York City and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. From 23 September 1999 TELESTET operated Iridium, the first mobile-telephony dedicated satellite in Greece, in June 2001, TELESTET was the first telecommunications company in Greece and one of the first in the world to obtain ISO9001,2000 Quality Management certification. In June 2001 the operators GPRS service went live, in July 2001 it was awarded the licence to offer a UMTS service for a concession fee of €146.7 million. The UMTS service went live on January 27,2004, on April 4,2005 TIM agreed to sell its 80. 87% equity stake in TIM Hellas to funds advised by Apax Partners and Texas Pacific Group. The transaction was for €1,114.1 million which valued TIM Hellas at €1,600 million or €16.43 per share, the transaction was completed following approval by state authorities in July 2005. On January 31,2006 WIND Hellas acquired Q-Telecom, Greece’s 4th mobile operator, for €350 million, the brand name changed to WIND on June 5,2007, in line with Italian telecom operator WIND Telecomunicazioni SpA. In December 2009, Nassos Zarkalis, previously head of Hellas On-Line, on October 18,2010 the principal shareholders in WIND Hellas took over the company and injected 420 million Euros to reduce debt and fund long-term development plans. The economic recession in Greece caused WIND Hellas severe financial difficulties, sawiris sold the assets of the holding company to a group of creditors, the SSN Ad Hoc Committee. The group of senior bondholders established a new holding company took full control of WIND Hellas in December 2010. In 2011 Vodafone opened talks with the owners of WIND Hellas regarding merging the two operations in Greece, to better challenge market leader Cosmote. In February 2012 Vodafone pulled out of the talks, WIND Hellas issue customers with telephone numbers that begin with either 693 or 690 followed by a seven digit subscriber number. As WIND also own Q-Telecom, they can issue 699 numbers, wind Mobile WIND Telecommunications in Greece STET – Società Finanziaria Telefonica WIND Hellas Website
4.
Thanasis Veggos
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Thanasis Veggos was a Greek actor and director born in Neo Faliro, Piraeus. He performed in around 130 films, predominantly comedies in the 1950s, 1960s and he is considered one of the best Greek comedy actors of all time. His famous comedic catchphrase was Καλέ µου άνθρωπε, Veggos was the only son of a power station employee who had fought with the Greek Resistance in World War II. On Makronisos he met film director Nikos Koundouros who was exiled there. Veggos first appearance in a film was in Windfall in Athens, produced by Mihalis Kakogiannis, Nikos Koundouros gave him a role in Magiki polis in 1955. His first major role was in Psila ta heria Hitler,1962. for his acting in What did you do in the war, Thanasi. The public of Thessaloniki °apotheosized° him and the movie won three awards at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and he often played everyman characters struggling to get by, but he has also played anti-heroes, he has acted in pure dramas, and on stage in the comedies of Aristophanes. His characters were often self-named Thanasis and he often worked with directors Panos Glykofridis and Giorgos Lazaridis. In 1995, Theo Angelopoulos cast Veggos and American actor Harvey Keitel in Ulysses Gaze, in 1997, in the role of Dikaiopoli he appeared in a live performance at the ancient Epidaurus theatre. In 2000, he survived a car accident involving a collision with a train and he later participated in advertisements promoting road safety. A documentary of his life, whose title translates as A Man for All Seasons, was made in 2004, in 2008, Veggos was appointed Commander of the Order of the Phoenix by the President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias. On 3 May 2011, he died at 7,10 a. m and he had been hospitalized at the Red Cross hospital, in Athens, since 18 December 2010. He is survived by his wife Asimina and two sons and he will always be remembered in the more than 120 films and more recent documentaries that he starred in. The phrase τρέχει σαν το Βέγγο has been adopted into common usage in the Greek language since nobody has run more or faster than Veggos in his many slapstick comedies, trelos Veggos, He is one crazy. Crazy Veggos O Papatrehas, The babbler Voitheia, mas valane boba, Attention. gr Thanasis Veggos at the Internet Movie Database
