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Orestis Panagiotou/EPA
Tourists visit the archaeological site immediately beneath the south side of the Athens Acropolis where a 42-year-old bank employee reportedly committed suicide Thursday.
ATHENS - A Greek bank worker plunged to his death from the Acropolis on Thursday, in what police said could be the latest in a growing number of suicides caused by economic suffering in the debt-ridden nation.
The man was in his 40s and worked at Greece's troubled state-owned agricultural lender, ATEbank. He took a break shortly after starting work in the morning but never returned, police said.
"Guards and tourists saw him at the spot before the jump," a police official said on condition of anonymity.
"Others heard a loud scream and saw him lying on the ground. It could be suicide, but there's no note." The official said the man did not appear to have any financial problems.
A report on Greek news site Ta Nea [link in Greek] said police were still trying to determine whether the death was an accident or suicide.
The incident happened at around 9 a.m., as tourists began arriving at Greece's most famous attraction, a 150-metre high, flat-topped rock which is the location of the 5th century BC Parthenon temple.
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The growing rate of suicide in Greece has come to symbolize the human toll of the country's unabated debt crisis, as repeated bouts of austerity drive Greeks to despair.
The country's government, which took office after a June 17 election, says the suffering has become intolerable and it will ask the European Union at a two-day summit starting on Thursday to ease the punishing terms imposed in exchange for an international bailout.
Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is under huge public pressure to ease the burden of the IMF-EU bailout as he faces an opposition committed to tearing it up, which made strong gains in the election.
'Martyr for Greece': Retiree's suicide sparks violent protests
Unable to attend the summit because of eye surgery at the weekend, Samaras sent a letter to EU leaders asking for a "different approach", a government spokesman said on Wednesday.
He is unlikely to win much leeway, with euro zone paymaster Germany fiercely opposed to any let-up in the austerity.
The suicide rate in Greece has shot up through five years of recession and two years of steep cuts to wages, pensions and jobs in exchange for two multi-billion-euro bailouts since 2010.
Critics say the austerity has helped condemn the lifeless Greek economy to ever deeper recession, shuttering businesses and driving unemployment to almost 23 percent.
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USA bankers should be all over the sidewalks of Wall St. if they had any honor.
followed by most if not all of Congress, the Senate and Executive Branch.
"Others heard a loud scream and saw him lying on the ground. It could be suicide, but there's no note." The official said the man did not appear to have any financial problems."
How can you tell if a person had any financial problems while they are splattered all over the pavement... was one of his hands on his wallet?
I think the wildly inaccurate assumption here must be that if he worked at a bank, he had no financial problems GovHater.
I'd rather they admit they screwed up and use their skills to ethical use, which is where we eventually will have to be. There is redeem.
I don't know whether our bankers have the integrity or shame to become overwhelmed like this, but I have wondered many times whether "average Joe" statistics are being kept, and kept from us. Honestly, the endless anecdotes of unexpected/unwarranted job loss (during/following illness, just before retirement, etc) while fighting foreclosure or eviction (because the landlord is foreclosed on) and wrapping up bankruptcy after really having lost everything (including hope) just keep coming. I think now I've hear everything: entire families living in parked cars, no health insurance, no benefits left, etc. It's truly horrifying; yet we hear nothing about the affects in our media . . .
Couldn't agree more! Because if they told us the truth we'd see real transparency in gov't and it's called { We The People } get the Hell out of OUR HOUSE!!!!
What did he find out that morning? jump or push. hmmmmmm
Well, this banker at least solved the problem of what to do with the poor and unemployed. Coming soon to the USA via the Romney plan.
don't worry obama will be re-elected and will keep this country straight on its course to the end,republicans and democrats are out of control and have been for years, to think that any of them can stop what is coming (i.e. the same mess thats in europe )is to trust them to much, we as a country are going down .the belief that govenment is the answer to all problems is the real problem
Obama has taken tehh wheel of the car careening to the cliff and put the pedal to the metal! Get out of the way Greece, Obama and the Dems are coming through!
Both sides are right. Bush ran the car into a ditch, and Obama has been sitting in it and spinning the wheels.
I guess you think the Greek economic woes are Bush;s fault too. Your mind set is appalling. Some one just died.
The troubles in the floundering European economies have direct ties to the US economic collapse that happened in 2007. The same sketchy lending practices used in the US were used overseas, and the US economic collapse accelerated the timeline for these European economies collapsing.
It's all part of Bush sr.'s 'New World Order" (see speech he made when he won the election) . Those are his words, not mine
Well, that's one less socialist.
Well, it seems you just added one more idiot.
Mymomdidnotraiseafool - that cracked me up!
Yeah, right. Because we all know there are already too many socialist bankers in the world.
A socialist banker is as common as a effeminate male chauvinist
At least their bankers have some shame about themselves for what they have done.
? the guy was a peon.
Since they "heard a scream", I would give him the benefit of a doubt. Accidental over suicide.
Too many holes in the hull! Aye...she's goin' down fast Captain! Abandon ship! Abandon ship!
Although it is true that economic despair has caused an increase in suicides, that doesn't mean that every suicide is due to the economy. Nor does it mean that this was even a suicide. It may have been, but hopefully the Athens police has a few euros left to conduct an adequate investigation.
Given their Fire Brigade doesn't have the money to fight this Summer's forest fire season and the health service is halting cancer drugs to children because they can't afford them, I wouldn't hold my breath.
AAAAAARRRRrrgggghhhh!!!..........
Banks of GAZA? Its all GREEK TO ME!
Why, oh why, will Wall Street not follow suit. Along with the heads of all the health insurance companies. Rat Bastards all of them.
How can this be related to the Greek economy? This man had a job. It probably had nothing to do with it, he probably was troubled about something completely unrelated or was suffering from serious clinical depression.
Poor journalism.
Was that actually on the itinerary or the tourists just get a bonus?
I’m sure not many of you noticed that this man was an AGRICULTURAL banker. Ag lending is vastly different from commercial lending. This story is strangely reminiscent of the ag industry in US in the 1980s. Anyone who has been involved in US Ag for a significant amount of time knows what I’m talking about.
This is a very troubling time for the workers in Greece. With their unemployment rate almost identical to that of the United States when the Great Depression hit in 1929, ours being just over 24 %. For those who are still alifve to remember, no doubt they will empathize with the Greeks overseas struggling to make ends meet. So difficult were those Depression times that one can still find in such people's homes, jars filled with bits of string, buttons, and other strange assortments due to the habit instilled to never throw anything away because everything had to be saved and reused. It is difficult to envision not being able to have food in the house, not being able to pay for utilities like electricity or water, gas for the car, medical bills or drugs, nor even to buy the clothes one needs for work so one had to make their own and keep repairing the same clothing multiple times. Husbands can easily reach a breaking point becoming distraught when they must look at their children faces each night, knowing there is no food for dinner. In the United States during the Depression many men abandoned their families, while others also committed suicide like in Greece. Unless a person has been homeless or on the brink of losing everything, it can be nearly impossible to understand just how incredibly difficult this situation can be. The intimate stories can easily be lost when just reading the larger headlines about the country in general. How simple to forget, it is the little folks who make up a country and carries the burdens in reality. I pray this man's loved ones will find peace during this awful time after the loss of this man's life.
.
Why on earth would the new PM Samaras miss one of the most important summits for Greece because of eye surgery scheduled for this weekend? The summit is/was scheduled for this Thursday and Friday, so unless he needs the surgery because it's life threatening, he is not representing his country faithfully at all! He should of rescheduled it. It's not as if the summit date was a big surprise.
No wonder suicides are on the rise in this very troubled country if their government chooses their own well being over the very people they've sworn to serve. I would have a huge amount of respect for him if he sacrificed one eye for Greece.
It wasn't an accident, it wasn't suicide. It was a homicide, he was pushed over the edge by Greece's austerity measures
A lot of people misconstrue the difference of Greece to the U.S., the U.S. problem was greed from our bankers and selling houses to people who could not afford them, Greece on the other hand is, unions and a socialistic government whose people grew used to entitlements unfortunately there's no more rich people to take from in Greece, watch out America!
Didn't Greece along with a lot of other countries buy a lot of these repackaged loans (later to be found to be valueless and toxic) sold to them by many of those financial institutitons on WS that failed?
The USA economy was not the only economy that took a beating, the world economy was greatly affected too, even as the rich became richer and the people in the middle joined the ranks of the working poor and the working poor simply became poorer. At least in the US economic measures were put in place to stop the country sliding off the edge of the cliff. Unfortunately some Republican govenors decided not to avail themselves of the monies, or use the monies to balance their state budget instead of doing projects that would provide jobs for their citizens.
Some folks say these companies lost money etc. Well money is never 'lost'. Money may be taken out of circulation by the govt due to being torn, fraying worn out etc and often a similar amount of notes are put back into the system. So where do you think all that 'lost' money went?
All those trillions of dollars that were in pension funds, IRAs, 401ks, stock values etc all over the world, where did that money/value go or disappear to? Since money is never actually lost and if money is no longer available and was not done by the governments, what happened to it, where did it go, who has it now?
Perhaps the question should be... who benefitted greatly from the economic crash? And how is it that the top 1% in the USA now have more wealth than the combined wealth of all the other 60% of the people in the masses in this country, and that that gross financial disparity seem to be the same thing around the world? Could that explains it .....Hmmm
Does anyone really think that some poor people buying homes that they supposedly could not afford brought on the crash? Really? It would probably take all of the people who brought homes to live in, buying homes they could not afford for such a thing to happen imo. Plus weren't many of these homes that were purchased have mortages where the homeowners had to pay mortgage insurance premiums too? So if the mortgage insurance companies made payment to these mortgage companies, what happened to that money? And if AIG which was the largest insurance company and was bailed out by the federal govt using tax payers monies, was AIG nationalized? How about Freddie and Fannie?
Also if Fannie and Freddie, who were the largest insurers/holders of home loans and they were also bailed out, and why is it so difficult for homeowners- who have been paying their mortgages but need to get a lower interest rate /refi their mortgge to be able to prevent forclosure, are finding it difficult to get this done? Why?
Odd isn't it how many homes are forclosed upon and being sold for pennies on the dollar to developers/flippers who then fix up the homes and rent it out to even the former homeowners..... All that equity gone.....to these other people, especially when a home that has been owned for 10-15 plus years is forclosed upon because the homeowners may have lost their job, health issues etc and may not have taken any of the equity out of the home or the monies owed was way lower than the actual value of the home?
No wonder there are those shilling, and yabbering on about the President's birthcert, death panels, leaving debt to greatgrandchildren and still trying to fool folks that trickle down economics really worked when it was already shown not to create any jobs, trying to get folks caught up in that sort of thing instead of questioning other more important issues.....
The same spiel blaming the housing crash on the poor and the economic crash on public employees and unions are and was being used by the folks in Europe too, only there the blame is being placed on the public workers, the pensioners as in their pension benefits as being too generous, workers benefits package being too generous, not working enough hours, having socialized healthcare, and having a public safetynet etc blah blah blah which is supposedly bancrupting the govt/country and should be done away with blah blah because these people are lazy and don't want to work etc.. LOL Must be the same company providing the talking points on both side of the Atlantic..... LOL
Wonder what is going to happen when the other European Union countries economies - whose leaders are busy ascribing to the T'repconservadino fiscal policies-, continue to falter under these austerity measures, back into another deeper depression? What then? Germany may end up having a lot more citizens than they had before as folks move there legally or illegally to find food and shelter... LOL Can't even immigrate to Canada either..... aren't they having a bit of a slowdown now too?
Austerity seems only to be making matters worse in the present economic climate whether here or there or anywhere as the people in the lower socio-economic group and in the middle see their standard of living further erode, hunger, homelessness etc including violence increasing from the look of things. If the suicide ( an ultimate act of violence against one's self resulting in one's death) rate etc continue to increase, what then?
All this and climate changes too? Wonder what is going to happen next?.... A eureka moment I hope....
Peace.... etc etc etc.....
"poor ba$tard. tomorrow might have been a brighter day"--Time Cop