My take on the Greek crisis and the current developments

— Since writing this article a lot has changed. My opinions now do not agree with what I had written a year ago. For what it’s worth to the reader; hope is dead, nothing will ever get better for the people, power attracts the corrupted and corrupts the rest. I suggest living by your values till the end, otherwise accept defeat -as the depressingly large majority does- and play a fixed (against you) game. —

I have been trying to stay informed on global politics and economics since I came of voting age, and with the latest developments concerning the Greek crisis I have decided to put my thoughts (most of them anyways) on the internet. I will try to do so in english. So, regardless of your ideologies and opinions, dear reader who stumbled upon this post, please do bear with me, not because I want to be heard, but because I will try my best to stick to the truth – as always. This is going to be long, it’s going to take a while for you to read it and you are kindly requested to pause wherever there is a link and resume after exploring the said link.

Final disclaimer: The following contains personal beliefs and assumptions and data from selected sources. I am not an economist, a professional writer or a professional of any kind, so take everything with a grain of salt.

Leave a comment if you feel strongly about something I mentioned -or didn’t- after you have finished the whole thing.

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 The Debt

Here(click) you shall find a lot of helpful charts. They will assist you in understanding the evolution of the Greek debt. I urge you to explore the sidebar on the right. I shall assume that some people are too bored to do that and I do not want to lose readers, only 3 sentences in, so here are the ones I find most interesting.

Vertical axis values are EUR millions. It is obvious that the debt didn’t appear magically one Monday morning of 2008.  The big jump down in 2012 is the ‘debt cut’ that was “achieved” during Samaras’ (first) win in the elections of June 2012. That government (New Democracy) had the assistance of PASOK and DHMAR, with the latter being a part up until mid-June 2013.

ND is a right wing party and has been accused of many things the last 4-5 years, including: supporting the neo-nazi party Golden Dawn and use of extreme police brutality (remember the shooting of an unarmed 15 year old student?). One should also not forget the various “scandals” that are unveiled every now and then: Siemens funding, grabbing of government money and just about every illegal activity of any kind you could think of – someone has done it. The party consists heavily of “famous” political names such as Mpakogianni, Karamanlis, Mitsotakis, who, using their family name and the fact that after the Junta their ancestors became famous in the political scene, decided to dedicate their whole lives to politics. In a similar fashion, PASOK has similar people and attitude (one thing that easily comes to mind are the many jobs in the public sector that got assigned to their voters – rousfetia/ρουσφέτια).

So, we are talking about a lot of people who have done little else in the past few years than trying to get a round in the “seat”. I do not need to remind you of every single scandal. Plus, the “political tumbles” (kolotoumpes/κωλοτούμπες) are so many that I could not find a single source that contains all of them . Samaras himself left ND back in 1993, saying “I will not go back to ND even if they want me to lead”, after disagreeing with Mitsotakis.

Personally, I believe that the cut in 2012 was an “affordable” loss and a gift to Samaras, so he could have a good start, in contrast with the previous PM Papandreou who was shouting “There are money” (Lefta yparxoun/Λεφτά υπάρχουν) all the way to the elections of 2009 and was forced to sign the first deal a little while later.

 

 

The Greek debt is unsustainable and not viable. I have been hearing this phrase a lot lately. We all have. The debt was hardly ever viable. The continuous lending saw to that. The vulgar spending of the various governments of PASOK and ND (one or the other has been in power continuously since 1974) saw to that. I remember back in 2004, when I was 12, and seeing all the new buildings for the Olympics and thinking “How do we pay for all of this?”. I remember back in 2005 when everyone was so ecstatic about winning the Eurovision, thinking “So, we have to host that next year, right?”. In 2006 everyone was full of national pride for the basketball team, same as in 2004 with the soccer team. No one stopped even for a moment to think “this is not going to last”, because no one here likes that way of thinking – planning for the future & preparing for the worst outcomes. They just focus on making their lives better in the present and, well, we can hope for the best, right? WRONG!…

 

The Greek People

Every single person I’ve met during my adult life and fulfills the criteria of being smart, wise, helpful, hard working and selfless has had the same thing to say about the Greek people – they are a bunch of selfish, egocentric, power grabbing people with no will to work to get what they want, and would rather find a temporary solution to a problem if that means more relaxation for them now. The attitude “let those who will be in my place by the time that problem comes around to deal with it” sums it up pretty accurately.

Five years in a Greek university has taught me the same thing. I’ve witnessed political students luring freshmen with the promise of women, fame, jobs (ha!) and friendship (HA!). To clarify the term “political students” I just made up and is probably false: every big political party supports a similarly big student party which has representation in every university. Their main actions are fighting with each other (verbally and physically), accusing teachers of the opposing parties of anything they could think of (a lot of teachers are heavily political too) and shutting down the university whenever they feel strongly about something (they’ve even managed a 6-month shut down, maybe more). Also, they make sure to host elections every year – ruining uni property and print a shitload of posters and other useless propaganda that gets handed out or posted on every wall.

Yes, instead of having a quiet place to study and pass the student life, or a place of entrepreneurship and philosophical discussion, we have the loud, dirty, idiotic political students parties. I consider them #1 root of all evil within the Greek universities.

Edit: I’d also wanted to add a small note about all the cheating in exams and exercises and the sweet talking to professors, which are a big part of 80% of Greek students. This is completely disappointing, illogical and bound to be fruitless for them in the long run.

On the outside world, the same attitudes are still at large. Most people go about their days with no regard to anyone or anything apart from themselves. Those who are clever enough to see that make sure to either avoid them, or they just flee the country to study and work elsewhere. People refuse to accept their wrongs, they rarely had to. They are used to blaming someone else for their problems, to appear helpless, but at the same time ready to grab anything they can. That mix of stupidity and cunning (koutoponiria/κουτοπονηριά) is more common of a trait than one would be willing to admit.

That’s why the same people have managed to stay in power for over 40 years.

That’s why the same people have been free to build up power and influence.

They have managed to control just about every major media channel, be it tv or radio.

And they have been using this power to further strengthen their position, by strategically brainwashing the masses.

Everyone accepts that, now. But if you would ask someone over 40 or 50 years old about all that 10 years ago then their reaction would be along these lines(click).

The brainwashing and the rousfetia were still at large, even 3 years ago.

 

The latest developments

Closing to the final chapter of this post I feel like I’ve had much more to write about the matters discussed previously. However, I will allow myself to assume that you, the readers, are not new to the Greek society.

Since Saturday I have been surprised time after time, by the overwhelming stupidity that gets posted on the internet, mainly on friends’ and friends’ of friends facebook profiles. So, let’s examine that for a moment.

I’ve read the following in random order:

• “The referendum is illegal”

  The referendum has been passed from the parliament. It has been accepted by EU. Stop believing the propaganda.

• “If we vote NO, the Turks will prepare an immediate attack on Greek islands and/or land”

  The current situation in Turkey is not very favourable to Erdogan and his party that has been ruling for a long time, and the leader of HDP has said that they would be willing to offer a 1.6billion no-interest loan to Greece. (source)

  I could understand why ultra nationalists would believe that (however ANEL and most of Golden Dawn is voting ‘NO’), but when it comes from people my age I can’t but feel at loss for words.

• “If we vote NO, Greece will be kicked out of the Eurozone and the European Union”

  It is clearly stated in EZ and EU laws and rules that a member cannot be kicked out, and can only leave on its own choice. (source)

  In other words, unless ‘they’ want to raise hell all across Europe, they are not going to change the laws for something like this. Plus I’m pretty sure that a decision like that must come from all parliaments.

• “If we vote NO, Tsipras (or Varoufakis) will lead the country out of the Eurozone and the European Union”

  Both (Tsipras & Varoufakis) have repeatedly stated that the referendum is not a choice for or against EU/the EURO. The referendum is a chance for them to gain more strength in discussions by having a democratic and clear command of the people (they hope for a ‘NO’ vote).

  Now, it could be possible that they are lying. Maybe the do have a secret agenda, as the tv stations keep repeating. But I laugh at you if just now you’ve started thinking that politicians lie. After all this time, the moment someone different steps up you suddenly remember that politicians lie. Well, fuck you. You have lost the right to publicly share stuff like that and you will have to work hard to get it back, since you have been voting for liars your whole life, ignoring those who spoke against them.

• “If we vote YES, the situation will get better”

  Here’s the thing. The situation is not going to get better. The deal that will be signed will be as brutal as the last. Tourism (a big part of the GDP) will suffer. The only victors would be the Troika members. I will not post a source for the proposed deal and counter-deal. You should find them on your own and read them carefully.

• “Voting NO will mean nothing to them”

  Maybe. But since Merkel and other German and EZ top-heads seem very distressed about the referendum and have gone as far as to directly state that Greece should vote for another government, then something is not going as they expected and they are getting pressure too. From political opponents and international organizations.

• “A lot of smart/famous people are voting YES. Why shouldn’t I?”

  Just because every other actor and singer remembered that the yellow press still gives half a shit about them, doesn’t mean that they have a valid political opinion. Plus, most of them have much to gain from supporting their favourite politicians with whom they share a glass of wine on their stage, or a vacation in Mykonos. As Sir Terry Pratchett put it into one of his novels (not word to word): “Famous people are famous for being famous”. Stop idolizing empty people and find something productive to do with your miserable life, other than watching YouTube videos of them.

• “A lot of smart/famous people are voting NO. Why shouldn’t I?”

  The same logic could and will be applied here. Of course, you are free to listen to them, but please spend half an hour to search what have they studied and achieved in their lifetime.

• “Tsipras is a communist, a disgrace to the nation and he should be executed!”

  Fuck you, you fascist piece of shit. Consider leaving the country asap. Karamanlis didn’t try to make a better deal. Papandreou probably accepted the first one he got. Samaras did jackshit. At least Tsipras is willing to fight for the people.

• “My family is voting NO”

  Your parents and grandparents have been probably voting for PASOK/ND the last 40+ years. They have a share of the blame for today’s situation. That share is bigger than that of Tsipras’ or Varoufakis’. Wake up, accept your responsibilities, form your opinion and learn to stand by it.

 

All in all, what I want you to keep from all of this is this one, tiny, little thing. The thing that you didn’t hear at school because you were too busy doing whatever the fuck you were doing instead of studying: You should always actively try to make yourself informed, objective and clear minded. Do not be afraid to listen to the opposing side and be ready to change your opinions when they are proven false. If you can do this much then you are off to a great start in being an acceptable human being with a valid political (or any other) opinion.

 

Finally,

a few lines about the mass hysteria. There have always been lines of people at ATMs waiting to receive pension. There have always been people panicking to withdraw their money “just in case”. Even lots of ‘NO’ supporters are guilty of that. There have always been easily manipulated people. Easily manipulated masses. And there always will be.

To various people I say this:

Yes, this government was strange from the start (SYRIZA and ANEL?!). Yes, SYRIZA has lots of ex-PASOK members and yes, they are guilty of rousfetia. But, having studied our modern history, did you really believe it would be that easy to completely eradicate that? And with who gave you the right to suddenly speak against it, when you were completely silent before? You have work to do, before you earn that right.

Also, answer this: Did they instruct police brutality? Did they borrow more money, increasing the debt? Did they spend money on useless projects? Did they steal government money?

For the love of whatever God you may or may not worship – turn off your fraking tv, stop buying newspapers that are biased, stop listening to radio stations that are biased and search for news sources on the internet. Read articles on the same topic from different websites. Form your own opinions and don’t just adopt and repeat something you read or heard.

Wake the fuck up, because, honestly, the root of the problem is you and your kind.

 

PS: This is how I feel at the moment. My opinions may change but I stand by the above, nonetheless, where there are facts and not personal beliefs.

PS2: I didn’t proofread the above a lot, so ignore any minor grammar and syntax mistakes. Or report them. I will probably fix them when I find the time.