Sunday, July 26, 2015

I just wanted to clarify a few things that keep cropping up in some of the commentators’ posts:
The Greek PM explained everything in a TV interview in Greece a couple of days ago: Grexit was never his intention, the referendum aimed at raising awareness of the fact that Europe has a hard nucleus (Germany) and everything else is controlled from there. He hopes for a more balanced Europe in the future (where more lefty parties join in, eg the Spanish Podemos), he said that the negotiations were extremely tough and twice both him and Merkel (if I remember correctly) nearly left the room because they couldn't agree and were called back in the room by Trusk (??? Sorry, not sure if the surname is correct…), that he never had a plan B and that he never had offers from Russia or China for help.  In the end, he tried to get the best deal for his country (managed to negotiate around 14 out of 20 reforms) and although the measures are extremely tough, he will do his best to implement them.  Regarding Greece leaving the Euro, he looked at a document given there with all the financial consequences and he said that they would be disastrous. The country is not prepared.
This is what I understood anyway.  Until very recently the northern Europeans were completely unaware of Greek culture & society which allowed Greeks to constantly go on about how they invented, democracy, philosophy etc. Now we know that that was 2000 years ago and that what we are dealing with now is more like (in fact very much like) Macedonia, Albania and Bulgaria. Corruption, clientelism and tribalism are rife. This Balkan form of organisation works to an extent but it can't provide the standard of living that Greeks have come to expect after 30 years of "money for nothing". That is why they only have two options: stay in the euro (and change dramatically over the next few years in order to find a societal, economic and political organisation that can sustain high standards of living) or leave (in which case they can do whatever they like but most likely will suffer a drop in living standards which will bring them in line with their immediate neighbours).
It is correct though, that the current mess is also, to a large extent down to the constant cash injections Greece has received from ignorant westerners. First because they wanted to revive ancient Greeks, then because they wanted to mess with the Ottomans, then to keep the communists out and finally (the chain of justifications comes full circle) because Greece (or rather the symbolism that it represents) is an integral part of our European identity.

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