Greece: From PIG to Guinea pig

There is a saying in Greek--which might have come from another language, I don’t know--that the best defense is going on the offense, in other words: don’t fall back and wait for the enemy to take the first step and only then try to repel the attack. The Greek way is to attack first, grab the bull by the horns, and either drop him to his knees or jump over him--as they did in the ancient Cretan bull fighting--and let him run in the opposite direction, snuffling with rage. In these modern times the bull has come to Greece in the form of the out-of-state control, supra-national financial institutions that have imposed on the country an asphyxiating set of rules and regulations with the sole aim to guarantee that they will get their money back that was lent at usurious rates. The less explicit goal is to ensure that Greece doesn’t default because such a prospect would trigger a chain reaction with Portugal, Spain, and even England following suit, and with consequences to the world financial order that will be both unpredictable and unprecedented.

Small Greece is being used as a guinea pig (up to a few months ago she was just …a pig: a member of the contemptuously-named group of countries whose initials form the acronym PIGS - Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) for the array of therapies being applied that even if they prove successful, most likely will kill the patient--or the pig, in this case! That is what has driven the people hopeless, as I had the chance to witness firsthand during my recent three week vacation there: even if “they behave” and follow the rules religiously (with all the misery they entail, because they brought on series of salary and pension cuts) doom most likely won’t be allayed, because the economy will collapse under the weight of the therapy. While this measures onslaught is being applied, new packages of measures are in the offing, even harsher, leaving no illusion that things will go better. Instead it’s certain that the situation will get only worse. At the same time, much needed state investment in order for the economy to move forward is non-existent (last year, however, just before the crisis started full course, the previous government could secure more that 25 billion € for the banks – just like here, by the way) while the banks are still unwilling to make loans easier for businesses to start or expand. Whatever remains from the middle class business sector is relentlessly taxed and attacked and as a result a huge--for such a small country--number of shops, small scale manufacturing or other free enterprises are shuttering one after the other.

People in Greece have been through major crises before: in the last 60 years only they went through world wars, a foreign occupation, a civil war, a military dictatorship and a national tragedy (Cyprus). And yet, according to those who went through all that, it’s the first time that Greeks are so dispirited, so hopeless, unwilling to seriously believe that there is a better future for them individually or collectively. All they know is that more suffering is in the offing and there is no leadership or some other kind of guidance that could convince them that, through hard work and sacrifice, something better will come. It’s as if they reached the end of a path that instead of the Promised Land brought them to the beginning of another dessert.

In the meantime, Greeks are not alone in this, even within their country. About two million immigrants, legal and illegal, face even worse challenges and nobody knows how they will react as even the little they could make becomes scarce. Hundreds of thousands have nowhere else to go: their countries, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, don’t want them back as Greece found out when it attempted to repatriate some of them. Turkey, unable herself to cope with the influx of those illegal immigrants, facilitates their entry into Greece, taking advantage of the impossible-to-guard Aegean Sea. All the while, Greece keeps requesting EU aid, but to no avail. It would take a government with unusual nerve and guts to play a radical card and perhaps grant all illegal immigrants Greek citizenship overnight and buy them an one-way airline ticket to a European country of their choice (helping at the same time the Greek airline companies), but you can’t hope for something like that! Had such a government been in place, no so much precious time would have been wasted from last October until last February, the country could have found less expensive money in the free market (China and Russia indeed made offers. In fact tiny Moldova got loans with half the interest rate Greece was paying at about the same time), and even the agreement with the IMF and the other European financial institutions could have been struck in different terms (as did Turkey in the ‘90s).

All these missed opportunities have exasperated Greeks even further and made them cynical, distrustful and ultimately unwilling to move forward just when the opposite is sine qua non if the country is to escape certain death. Let us hope that the ignition to the much needed renaissance will not come in the form of another national tragedy (shock therapy), after a prolonged dark ages period into which the country has just entered. Since the political party system has failed in its entirety, hope can only come from entities and individuals who having stayed out of the “party” have long realized that there is another path to life and success. From them real guidance, inspiration, faith and hope can emanate and spark a wider movement which in turn will make our brethren there to react in a positive manner and put their wit into action. Throughout modern Greek history great deeds were achieved despite governments or other official forms of leadership and the Herculian task of getting out of this mess is no exception.

DEMETRIOS RHOMPOTIS