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December 9, 2008: "Rebellion is deeply embedded in the Greek psyche. The students and school children who are now laying siege to police stations and trying to bring down the government are undergoing a rite of passage. They may be the iPod generation, but they are the inheritors of a tradition that goes back centuries, when nuns would rather hurl themselves to death from mountain convents than submit to the ravages of Greece's Turkish Ottoman invaders." Malcolm Brabant of the BBC
Southern Europe, east of Albania, west of Turkey, south of Macedonia and Bulgaria. 13,676 kilometers of coastline. Capital: Athens.
Joined NATO in 1952. In 1974 overcame seven years of military dictatorship, abolished its monarchy and created a parliamentary republic. In 1981 joined the European Community -- which, in 1992, became the European Union.
CIA Factbook: "Greece has a capitalist economy with the public sector accounting for about 40% of GDP."
Estimated per capita GDP:
2008 $32,000
2007 $31,200
2006 $30,100
GDP annual growth rate:
2008: 2.8%
2007: 4%
2006: 4.2%
unemployment rate for 2008: 8%
Twenty percent of its labor force is in agriculture, compared to for France 4.1 percent for France and 2.8 percent for Germany.
Government maintains social security programs for citizens, pensions for retired people, and free health services.
As of 2004 Greece was receiving aid from other European countries equal to a little more than 3 percent of its GDP.
Deaths 10.42. Births 9.54, down from 9.72 in 2005.
The estimate for July 2008 is 10.72 million. Growth rate: 0.146 percent per year. Density for 2005: 81.6 persons per square kilometer.
More arriving than leaving, a net gain of 2.33 persons per 1,000 population.
Infant mortality estimated for 2008: 5.25, down from 5.53 in 2005 (deaths before the age of one year per 1,000 live births).
Average life expectancy at birth estimated for 2008: 79.52.
Living with HIV/AIDS, ages 15 to 49: 0.2 percent (2001)
As of 2004, Greece spent $965 per person per year on health care, compared to $166 for Latvia and $2,288 for France. The Greek National Health Care Service provided free care to all Greeks at state hospitals. Private clinics were available that charged a fee for care.
The top ten percent in household income in 1993, did 25.3 percent of spending for consumers goods. For the lowest ten percent of households this was 3 percent. This is about the same distribution as France and a little more equal than the United States, which in 1997 was 30.5 percent for the upper ten percent and 1.8 percent .for the lowest ten percent.
Income taxes are progressive and moderate. Those individuals earning less than 8,400 Euros per year, pay 5 percent. The lower middle, earning from 8,401 to 13,400 Euros, pay 15 percent. Those earning from 13,401 to 23,400 Euros, pay 30 percent. Individuals earning above 23,400 Euros pays 40 percent. On September 1, 2004, one Euro buys 1.2 dollars.
Greece experiences some air and water pollution.
About 98 percent of Greeks are officially Greek Orthodox Christians.
The Greeks are getting along. Assaults reported per 1,000 population ares 0.31 persons. The UK is 7.5 per thousand and Canada 7.25 per thousand - reported. Greeks in prison are 0.82 per thousand population, compared to 0.85 for France and 7.1 per thousand for the United States.
For the year 2002, 131.25 used the internet for every 1,000 persons. Iceland leads in this catagory, at 783 per thousand, with Sweden second at 570 per thousand.
Congratulations to Fani Halkia for winning the women's 400-meter hurdles at the Athens Olympics, for working-out rather than sitting in front of the computer or a television set. She has the spirit of accomplishment similar to the great Greek singer, Maria Callas, the passion of the great Greek actress of a previous generation, Melina Mercouri, and also the spirit of Zorba. Fired up for the games, she did more than competition from outside Greece expected of her. When asked by a U.S. newsman about being a hero for the Greeks, she looked at him as through he were absurd. She was not interested in being a hero. She was running for Greece. "I wanted to show the world that the Greeks are high up there," she said. "The Greeks are born to be winners."
According to a BBC article, death rates on Greek roads are five
times higher than in Britain.
OTHER
SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
Copyright © 2008 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.