Its a new week, so that means: a new destination, a new adventure, a new
source, a whole new story!
This week we are staying in Greece, a beautiful and ancient country with a lot
of secrets to discover. This week Ive chosen for a little movie instead of an
article. I think images say more than words, so in my opinion a movie was
necessary in a country with such a history.
Everybody
knows Greece is having a hard time, last year they had a lot of difficulties in
their economy, and this year its still not better. Last week the government
took some measures, such as downgrading the credit rating for another time to
get the Greek economy back on track. Investors fear that Greece will have
difficulties to repay his debts to the EU and IMF. Moodys even compares Greece
to countries such as Bolivia and Belarus. But Greece did definitely some effort;
they reformed their pension and tax system. Moodys says that these efforts
didnt have the necessary results. Greeces debts are still a 152, 6 % of the
GDP, and they dont expect it will decrease till next year. Its obvious that
Greece cant solve his problems alone; they need the EU and the IMF. But before
the EU invests more money, they want that Greece pass a test of solvent. Next
to that, the EU will also meet in Brussels to find solutions for the debt
crisis. By finding these solutions, they want to occur that the crisis doesnt
spread to countries such as Portugal and Spain.
A specialist gives his opinion and solutions for the crisis. He doesnt agree
with the opinion of Moodys. He believes that EU should set up a fund to help
Greece, but he thinks its manageable. Even Greece, Spain and Ireland together
are only 16% of the GDP, so Greece alone may not be a problem.
I agree
with the fact that the EU should help Greece. Im convinced that they cant do
it alone, their debts are just too high and I dont see a fast way for Greece
to try to repay them. I think the EU is obligated to help them. Greece is a
member of the EU, so they need our support and also our money. Its actually a
win win situation. When Belgium will ever have financial problems, the EU will
also help us. Were partners, so we should not only take the advantages of
that. But I also think Greece should spend the money wise. This money should
help Greece to repay their debts and to help reviving their economy. They may
not waste it to stupid things. There should be definitely some conditions. When
Greece doesnt obey them, I think the EU has the right to stop investing money
in the country.
But I think
we are all hoping that Greece can come up with a good solution. This country is
way too beautiful to be a crisis!
So that was
it for this week! Next week we are already in our new destination. But Ill
keep it a secret till then!
Im in Turkey now, more specific in the city that once was the capital city of the Ottomanian empire, namely Istanbul. Turkey and especially Istanbul is known for its historical background. Ancient buildings are still standing on the land of the Marmaran-region.
Enough said about the beauty of Istanbul. Now, Im going to tell you something about the economy of the city. Istanbul has been the center ofthe countrys economic life. The reason for that is because the city is surrounded by water, so a lot of international sea trade routespass the city. In other meanings, the city lives from the export and import. It has been estimated that the import and export of Istanbul are respectively 56%and 60.5% of Turkeys total import and export. The main products that are exported are raw materials and energy resources.
But it hasnt always been that great for Turkey. In the late nineties the Asian financial crisis affected the economy of Istanbul. The crisis caused that the export dropped tremendously, knowing that export is very important for Istanbul you can believe it was a real setback. Then Istanbul also had to deal with a major earthquake. This triggered one of the largest economic shocks in history for the city. Due to the earthquake the GDP ( Gross Domestic Product ) dropped two percent. Despite all these setbacks Istanbul is now again a city with a healthy economy.
We can conclude that Istanbul has known a lot of setbacks during the nineties , but luckily the economy of the city has been able to recover itself. Istanbul now has become a very known place around the world. The city became very modern, young people now also book trips to Istanbul to enjoy its night life. It is considered to be outstanding. So Im very lucky to be here now, I sure will put it to the test . I hope Illbe able to make you all jealous!
Before I forget! If there are people that already have been to Greece, could they please send me a personal message telling me the sites I really need to visit in Athens because I have never been there before and I really want to see all the beauty of the city!
Hope you enjoyed my blogpost! Ill speak to you all again when Im in Athens!
Some days
ago we found out everything about the delicious olives here in Greece,
but Olivier already told you all about this. And not only the olives are
delicious, also everything else we already tasted here! There are a lot of
small restaurants who have fish meals as their specialty, so especially the
fish dishes are unbelievably good!. This is off course not abnormal for a
country where a huge percentage of the economy is depended on fishing.
Today in
Crete, an island of Greece, we attended a local fisher on his ship to see how
the fishing in Greece works. This local fisher told us everything about fishing,
but also about some of the huge problems that they face every day. The main
problem is that there arent a lot of fish anymore in the sea, so the catches
are a lot smaller. This is due to overfishing, a problem lots of countries face.
The second
problem is something we never heard about, named fishing with dynamite. We
were so surprised and interested that it seemed like we were really
enthusiastic about it, but of course we werent! The fisherman was a little
confused by our reactions, because this kind of fishing is really cruel and
totally illegal! He thought that we were also dynamite fishers, although he
already knew that we were just tourists. After explaining him that we were just
tourists and never heard about this practice, he explained us everything.
Dynamite fishing or blast fishing is the practice of using dynamites to kill a
school of fishes. Its really dangerous and forbidden by the law of omerta(=
silence) here in Crete! Dynamite fishing is
mostly practiced by poor fishermen who dont have enough financial sources to
buy a boat, but also people who like adventure try this out.
After an
interesting and relaxing boat trip, the fisherman brought us back to Crete
where wed met him earlier today.
This week we have travelled from Turkey to Greece where we wanted to
learn more about the harvesting, production and the export of olives.
When we travelled
true Greece we have visited a local olive mill where the olives are washed to
remove the leaves, and are crushed to produce the liquid, which is extracted
from the olives.
The farmer
told us that there were two methods for the extraction of the olives. The first method is a traditional where
the pits are very important. In this method the pits are helping to channel the
oil when the paste is pressed. This process has duration for about half an
hour. After the pressing the paste is spread evenly over woven mats and go
under a second press, who separates the paste from the oil. There are just a few
more farmers here, who use this traditional method. This is because mainly
there are higher costs involved.
The second
and the most used method is the extraction based on a centrifuge. Here are the
olives crushed by several crushers who separate the flesh and oil.
Each year
Greece produces between the 300-and 400 thousand tonnes of oil and 75% of the
production is done by the second method.
They are
transporting their oil all over the world, but most particular to Italy who
buys three quarters of the total amount of the Greek olive oil transport.
I hope you
enjoyed reading this blog, and you have learned more about the Greek oil
industry. I am looking forward to post new updates of my trip, and give you interesting
facts.
