Intérêt Europe

The dilemma and the solution

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:45:00 -0700

Der Untergang

Mon, 30 May 2011 14:17:00 -0700

For all those who are playing the intellectual game, here is a warning. I am going to use stereotypes and I will generalise. Stereotypes are called just that for a reason and generalisation on basis of individual viewpoint sometimes may provide a sound basis for an argument.

I am a Finn. Despite having lived almost half of my life abroad, I know how a Finn thinks. A Finn thinks of the Greek crisis this way:

Greece is in deep trouble. Greeks don’t seem to care. They just fight between themselves and cannot agree on anything. Nothing much seems to have changed. Why should I give my money to guarantee loans to such a people? They will default and I will never get any of the money back. Let them reap what they sow.

A Dutchman will think pretty much the same way. A Swede thinks like this. A German would have thought that in times of distress, people unite – they don’t start petty electoral fights.

Let me put this simply. Any sensible person realises by now that Greece’s leading classes are failing. They are in fact failing completely. That leads us to only one conclusion: Der Untergang will follow unless something happens immediately. It is as Mrs Damanaki put it. Either we decide to fight, or we distance ourselves from Europe. It is ultimately Greece’s own choice, let’s not kid ourselves.

Until the end of the last week, I have been promoting the idea that Greece can come out of this crisis reinforced, changed and more powerful than it was before. I sincerely thought that Greek politicians would finally see the light. I don’t anymore.

Boys and girls, men and women, politicians and voters, this is it. You – we all – had enough of excuses of the past to give us some extra months of goodwill by the lenders. Seeing the disarray, populism, misinformation and stubbornness, I am not sure how we are going to pick up this fight.

In the past 18 months, no Government controlled company has been sold. No public services have been shut down or outsourced to private sector to provide. All we managed to do was to pick up the low-hanging fruit and raise taxes and cut salaries horizontally. No structural changes were made. Nothing genuinely different, fast and cheap apart from tobacco tax increase was even tried. And taking some not-so-bizarre ideas further, none has discussed long-term lease of islands or vast areas of land for development. Why not? Why would we sell the land, if we could rent it out?

Measures that the Government takes for liberalising or opening the markets are either not fully implemented or they are late. In addition, many of them are half-measures which protect some, create opportunities for others and close the doors for those who seem somehow foreign to the establishment. Even Greek companies have problems in investing in Greece. Foreign money is needed, but why would someone come here right now?

I could go on with the list, but it is futile. Everyone in Greece knows that Greece has failed. The trouble is that everyone outside starts to understand it too. And their patience is running out quickly. If I didn’t live in Greece, I would suggest that everyone stopped lending and let Greece fall. But we are doing just fine, aren’t we?

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