Patterns
 

Alexa Tsokos and Alexios Mavrides knew from the moment their eyes met that they were meant for each other. And so it was that they courted, married and began their lives together. Alexios worked for Olympia Airlines and Alexa was a travel agency and between them made a respectable living, enough so that they were confident to start a family. Soon they were a family of four, with young Alexi and his sister Kalliste.

Life in Athens was prefect until the financial collapse. Alexios’ job was first to go, followed six months later by Alexa’s.  Until that point, they had never considered themselves as part of Greece’s lower class. Nor did they feel that way as their savings slowly depleted. Then reality hit them as it had millions of their fellow citizens.

It was bad enough that they had to listen to the news reports of their nation’s diminishing role in the European community, a basket case of illicit dealings and fraudulent financial reporting. But to actually be victims was beyond their imagination. Soon enough the fear of never working again at thirty seven and thirty two respectively, of losing their home and not knowing how they would feed their children drove them to despair. Never once had they thought that an outside international institution had aided and abetted the nation’s collapse.

They never saw the documentary Inside Job or knew of the Senate hearings in Washington D.C. that investigations into the financial pariahs that had caused the financial collapse in the United States. To them, the Greek crisis was just that, Greek.

Similar couples in Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain experienced the same emotions as their jobs disappeared and it seemed to them that their countries/ leaders were at fault. And rightfully so. But it never occurred to any of them that a handful of people from a number of global players could wreak such havoc on the world. And when they finally connect the dots, they’ll realize that the solution to their pain will require an integrated global revolution.

That millions of unemployed Americans have as counterparts millions of unemployed Europeans goes beyond coincidence. And the similarities of the responses of each nation’s leaders, all calling for tough austerity measures while giving tax breaks to the rich in all cases, smacks of collusion on a grand scale.

It is time for the leaders of the respective ‘occupy’ movements in every affected country must come together to find the answers to how these collapses occurred, to share their respective stories to find the perpetrators of the behind-the-scenes actions that led to the European/American collapse, and to agree on the common actions necessary to retake the ground ceded to the criminal elements which stole it, presumable all legally. 

It might help to begin with the actions of Goldman Sachs, many of whose former players are now in leadership of the ministries of commerce in various European and US governments. It might help to know that Goldman Sachs had quietly asked for, and was granted, permission to speculate in commodities, a practice denied financial services for the risk it posed to markets, It may not seem like buying options on oil or corn or wheat could be a big deal but  the results of their actions resulted in commodity prices going through the roof while people of all nations experienced the prices of food and oil breaking people’s budgets. Wheat, for example, went from an historic trading range of $4-$6 per unit went to over $30, causing food riots in over thirty countries, all so a few could increase the digital symbols (money) in their accounts.

It might begin with a more thorough analysis of the actions of Goldman Sachs’ involvement in shrouding the actions of Greek politicians as they reported their financial information to the European Union.

Goldman Sachs is only the tip of the iceberg. As one follows the respective paper trails, including leaked documents and e-mails, the collusion of members of congress and ministries across the globe will come to the forefront, and will result in demand globally for a cleansing of political systems worldwide.