The critical question here is if the world needs a new currency, the virtual part is just a side-note.

It’s true that the current monetary system has reached a critical point. The so called “markets” have the ability to attack and destroy whole countries(see the examples of Greece, Portugal, Italy, etc.) and the wealth of the whole world has accumulated to the bank accounts of a few people. Even countries like the United States of America suffer from debt problems! It’s a bit ironic, the most technologically advanced country to be on the verge of destruction. Obviously, something is wrong. The world can’t go on that way. Don’t get me wrong, I am not talking about an utopic communistic society here. I am trying to say that we have run out of dollars!

So, what should we do to reverse this situation?

My suggestion is the creation of a new worlwide -virtual or not- currency. With the term worldwide I mean that this currency will be usable in every part of the world, diminishing this way the inequalities of this world. Since both a rich american and a poor indian(no racism intended, just an example) will be able to buy the same good for the same price that means it’s all up to the skills of a person to “make money”. A new currency won’t solve the debt problems of the whole world but it will be the basis for the development of a new economical system. Yes, there will be a very difficult transitional stage but in the end the world will be changed to something better.

The world is changing but the economy remains stagnant. A “two shifts” world has no future!

The truth is that it is a very good social network. It’s well designed and the circles feature is very functional and useful. One of the main drawbacks of Facebook for me was the lack of a way to organize your friends in different groups and share different things with different groups. I mean, on my facebook account I have friends and colleagues and it is obvious that something that would be interesting for my colleagues would be boring for my friends and vice-versa.

The hangout feature is also very interesting and something new to the social media world. I don’t remember any other service offering group chat. The hangout combined with the circles feature is going to be more useful when more people-and especially friends- join Google+. I bet that you all have plenty of contacts on G+ but you know most of them from other social networks(e.g. twitter). It is a bit awkward to start a video call with a person that you have never met before in real life.

The “Sparks” seem to be interesting, but I haven’t had the chance to use it.

So Google+ is the perfect social network?

Hell no, there are many bugs out there but the most important one for me is the lack of noise control. When you login on your facebook account the first thing you want to do is to check your feed and read your friend’s updates.

Well, this is something you CANNOT do easily on Google+. Your feed is usually dominated by “noisy” people who post like 10 updates per day and get a dozen of comments. This problem is amplified if you are following web celebs like Robert Scoble. Scoble posts a lot,really a lot, updates daily and he gets like 200 comments in every post. The Google algorithm is programmed so that popular posts get atop of your feed without taking into consideration the social factor. I want to see the posts of my friends and Scoble, but noisy people dominate my feed.

So, yes Google+ is something pretty cool and I don’t think that it is going to die like Google Wave or Buzz but there are many things that can be done to improve the service. First of all there needs to be developed a messaging system which will allow users to interact. A Gmail integration would be something very interesting but I am of the opinion that Gmail should be seperate from G+. In my Gmail account I have my business contacts and message and I don’t want to bring all of this stuff on my personal G+ page.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Greek history back then Andreas Papandreou, the father of the current PM, was elected as PM. Papandreou tried to give funds to the rural areas of Greece that were suffering from poverty. In order to do this he took major loans without questioning himself if the country can afford the loans and eventually pay them back. His successors continued this policy and gradually a big debt was accumulated. Greece is now paying off loans that were taken 20 and 30 years ago. Imagine what will happen in 30 years when Greece will have to pay back the current loans, which worth more than 120 billion Euros, excluding interests. There is no way for Greece to survive this crisis if they do not move on to a debt restructuring.

Furthermore Papandreou truly established the client relationships between politicians and the public that his own son, George Papandreou, tries to stop. He took on his side and supported unionist and by this way he managed to have control over a large part of the society. Consequently, the Greek people “embraced” this method and started voting senators based on the ability of the senator to hire them as public sector workers. This resulted in a huge public sector which is one of the most important problems that Greece is facing now.

Image from Flickr

So what is all about this movement? It’s a movement, which is not supported by any political party, it was organized on social networking sites like Facebook and invites people to gather in the central cities of Athens. The salary cuts, heavy taxation and lack of justice are only a few of the root causes of the movement.

You probably hear daily on the news about big riots taking place in Greece. There is a big difference between those riots and this movement. Those riots are usually triggered by political-and extra-political organizations that simply want to cause chaos in Greece in order to increase their popularity among the Greek public and present themselves as the “savers” of Greece. However, those strikes and riots do not have the approval and support of the majority of the Greek society. It’s just a few thousands people shutting down the entire public sector and causing chaos.

On the other hand, the “Indignants” is a party-free” and peaceful movement, which has the support of the majority of the society. It’s something new and fresh for the Greek standards. For the first time in my life I witnessed families, elders and small kids attending a peaceful march, talking to each and talking to the cops.

Some say that we are witnessing the creation of a “new Greece”, a new society. This is partially true, because Greeks got rid of for the first time in history from the parties but there are two very important elements missing here. Leadership and goals
This movement has no central leadership and no goals. It’s “faceless” there is none behind it to support and inspire people. In the case of Tunisia there was Mohsen Bouterfif. He wasn’t the leader of the revolution, but he was the guy who ignited the spark, the beginning of everything.

The lack of goals in my humble opinion is probably the biggest flaw of this movement. It’s like just a few people wandering around and chatting with no destination. No matter how many people gather on Syntagma Square this will have no effect on the Government’s policy, unless they set specific goals like decreasing taxation.

When those two “gaps” are filled then the “indignants” movement could play a major role in Greece and even push for major reforms. Greece needs major reforms, especially the public sector and all it takes is the will and consensus of the majority of the society.