Over the past nine months some half drunk reporters really had a great time deriding the Greeks on the occasion of the callamity that befel Greece.
It is a worn out practice to blame the (rather ficticious) happy go lucky attitude of the Greeks for the crisis. Well, it is a fact that the Greeks were living beyond their mean, but who in the western world did not in the past decade. Both in Greece and everywhere in the western world the banks were literally prodding people to borrow. You know that!
Then there is this babbling about the unreliability of the Greek statistics. Anyone who has spent some time working with statistics knows very well that fooling a knowledgeable user of the particular statistics has always been almost impossible And the users of these statistics everywhere in Europe are really knowledgeable users. Adulteration of statistical data can be done only with the consent of the interested user. And here Greece has not been alone in adulterating the figures. Italy, France and even Germany have occasionally resorted to the sport. In the case of Germany in the late 90's they followed the practice of "lease back" agreements for hospitals and other public properties in order to hide part of their ballooning debt. So the surprise expressed by German officials and others that they were not aware that the Greek deficits were so high is, to say the least, a hypocrisy. The European Commission, the Members of the European Union and the European Central Bank knew exactly the quality of the statistics.
As to the contribution to the "public purse" by the Greeks, tax evasion is a fact in every country under the present system of barbaric capitalism. Here in Greece, however, I admit you, it was facilitated by the PASOK and ND governments that relaxed the collecting machanisms far beyond the internationally accepted limits of this practice on the basis of the "election cycle". The big fish never paid taxes and government officials (ministers etc) had their cut for facilitating matters.
With the risk of being falacious because of brevity, here are some points about the true nature of the problem that Greece faces.
Then there is this babbling about the unreliability of the Greek statistics. Anyone who has spent some time working with statistics knows very well that fooling a knowledgeable user of the particular statistics has always been almost impossible And the users of these statistics everywhere in Europe are really knowledgeable users. Adulteration of statistical data can be done only with the consent of the interested user. And here Greece has not been alone in adulterating the figures. Italy, France and even Germany have occasionally resorted to the sport. In the case of Germany in the late 90's they followed the practice of "lease back" agreements for hospitals and other public properties in order to hide part of their ballooning debt. So the surprise expressed by German officials and others that they were not aware that the Greek deficits were so high is, to say the least, a hypocrisy. The European Commission, the Members of the European Union and the European Central Bank knew exactly the quality of the statistics.
As to the contribution to the "public purse" by the Greeks, tax evasion is a fact in every country under the present system of barbaric capitalism. Here in Greece, however, I admit you, it was facilitated by the PASOK and ND governments that relaxed the collecting machanisms far beyond the internationally accepted limits of this practice on the basis of the "election cycle". The big fish never paid taxes and government officials (ministers etc) had their cut for facilitating matters.
With the risk of being falacious because of brevity, here are some points about the true nature of the problem that Greece faces.
1st-To begin with, in a union such as the Eurogroup the member that benefits the most from this unification is the member which is more developed and more efficient. And of course, Germany, according to the statistical data, has been the primay beneficiary of this Union.
2nd-Greece is unique in having a problem with one of its neighbours, which all the half drunk reporters purposely ommit, that obliges her to be continuously on a war alert. The problem is deviously exacerbated by underhanded machinations of the state/industrialists of the USA, Germany and France. As a member of the Board of Directors of Olympic Airways in the 90's I have personal experienve of how they blackmail the Greek government. As an example let me mention that Greece was forced to buy a security system worth over 2 bilion Euros for the Olympics of 2004 because the US and the UK threatened to withdraw their participation in the Games if Greece did not buy it. And that system was known to be non-functional and it never functioned before, during, or after the Games.Back to the defense expenditures. Over the past 15 years they amounted to about 3% to 6% of G.D.P. Besides being ineffective they are also irrelevant to the country's needs. You must have heard of the submarine that the Germans blackmailed us to pay for, which during repeated trials floated with a marked list on one side, which Merkel never accepted, as if it were an illusion of the Greeks. There are dozens of similar stories abou the F16, the Mirages and radars that cannot scan over expanses of sea water.
2nd-Greece is unique in having a problem with one of its neighbours, which all the half drunk reporters purposely ommit, that obliges her to be continuously on a war alert. The problem is deviously exacerbated by underhanded machinations of the state/industrialists of the USA, Germany and France. As a member of the Board of Directors of Olympic Airways in the 90's I have personal experienve of how they blackmail the Greek government. As an example let me mention that Greece was forced to buy a security system worth over 2 bilion Euros for the Olympics of 2004 because the US and the UK threatened to withdraw their participation in the Games if Greece did not buy it. And that system was known to be non-functional and it never functioned before, during, or after the Games.Back to the defense expenditures. Over the past 15 years they amounted to about 3% to 6% of G.D.P. Besides being ineffective they are also irrelevant to the country's needs. You must have heard of the submarine that the Germans blackmailed us to pay for, which during repeated trials floated with a marked list on one side, which Merkel never accepted, as if it were an illusion of the Greeks. There are dozens of similar stories abou the F16, the Mirages and radars that cannot scan over expanses of sea water.
3rd-Be it as it is, we are still at the start of a long process of streightening up, that will have very interesting turns. The central problem of this Country is that the two major political parties are totally corrupt. With the exception of Venizelos at the start of the 20th century, the leaders of the two major parties never had the bals to assert Greece as a state being equal among equals. So we are on the look out for a leader with bals! Kind of a hopeless task given that to be a politician these days you have to be a "castrado"!...
No comments:
Post a Comment