Facebook Twitter

EDITORIAL

Where did this come from?

Seemingly, out of nowhere -- but of course it came out of somewhere, primarily Papandreou’s realization that he is literally home (politically) alone as well as his well-known fixation with “democratic models” he keeps attributing to his living in Scandinavia when he and his family were pushed out of Greece by the military dictatorship. These “democratic models” of course exist only in his imagination as Greece lies light years away, culturally, socially, and politically, from Sweden and her immediate neighbors. The last referendum in Greece was held in 1974, when the Greeks rejected constitutional monarchy in favor of the presidential republic form of government. Referenda, therefore, constitute largely uncharted territory for Greece, an idea that always attracted Papandreou’s attention given its “non-Greek” content and as an opportunity to break new ground and take the (generally backward) Greeks one step further on the road to Papandreou’s ideal vision of gadget democracy, a connected tomorrow, and a multicultural paradise where Greece’s “outdated” traditions and practices have been duly deposited into the dustbin of history.

On October 28, angry anti-austerity protesters across Greece interrupted parades meant to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War of 1940-41 and forced government officials to flee the official stands.

In Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, thousands of protesters scuttled the traditional military parade and booed and heckled the president of the Hellenic Republic, Karolos Papoulias, and his entourage. The president was particularly miffed when he heard some in the mass of people calling him “traitor,” presumably because of his cozy relationship with the ruling “socialists” of the Pasok party -- which Papoulias faithfully served as foreign minister in the 1980s.

Remember the days of Germany declaring that a Greek “hard” default was out of the question? Well, think again. As Germany and France remain locked in a reportedly acrimonious exchange over how much damage they must deal on naughty EU members with bloated debts -- and how best to protect French and German banks -- Germany has, rather suddenly, changed gears and “privately” seeks to sink the Greeks as quickly as possible. The “haircut,” Frau Merkel now says, should be around 60 pc, while the IMF’s ubiquitous Madame Lagarde suggests a writedown of perhaps 80 pc is necessary so that the whole catastrophe takes a more even keel, the Greek press reports.


The slow, agonizing death by economic strangulation of Greece in the hands of the “troika” (IMF, EU, ECB) appears to be only the opening macabre chapter of a process of dissolution that could eventually affect the political stability and longevity of the European “union” itself.

It is by now starkly obvious that EU member states hardly agree on anything that has do with “common” policies. The tougher the knot, the more complicated and intractable the pan-European wrangling over potential solutions becomes.

The “union” of course was never meant to be a union, at least under the rules and regulations that developed over the years since the first appearance of the European Communities.

(OR PREPARING FOR THE FINAL SOLUTION)

For the past twenty months, Greece has been subjected to a methodical economic genocide courtesy of the Papandreou regime, the servile carrier of orders from the thoroughly reviled “troika” comprising the IMF, the EU, and the ECB.

In these twenty months, the Greek people have been subjected to a dizzying onslaught of “reform” demanded by creditors that has demolished every social and labor protection built over decades of struggle and suffering.

On top of that, Greeks, collectively and individually, have been ridiculed, humiliated, and accused of being the scum of the earth who, with their profligate ways, have succeeded to undermine the European “union’s” own economic stability and, even, threaten the world with a catastrophic crisis.

Greece was moved to death row the minute the Papandreou regime came to power in 2009 -- but she didn’t know it then.

Now she knows it all too well.

Every day that passes, the regime, hated and despised as the most disastrous government of the postwar years, turns the austerity screws once more to add to the agony and desperation of a society that is unraveling faster and faster under the incessant blows of the IMF and the European “union.”

We’re again in the middle of replaying the Greece-Troika tiff tape. The “troikans” are here but they’re again angry because they can’t complete their audit -- Papandreou et alia, the “troikans” say, aren’t surrendering the required fiscal data. The regime, on its part, claims that striking government workers, fearful of losing their jobs, have seized the statistical data center and thus no information can be made available.
Page 89 of 117
We use cookies

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.

Ok Decline