" The measure of man is what he does with power," said Plato. Perhaps the Greeks are following what their great philosopher said in ancient times, at the conjuncture of their financial crisis in the country. Facing a rather strong battle with the European economy right now, Greece which has plunged into serious debt issues since the end of 2009 is dueling an internal battle with its own civilians as well. Having witnessed a 120% public debt in 2010, major political decisions, bail-out loans from IMF and other Euro-zone countries, austerity cuts have been shaping the financial structure of Greece. The heavy borrowings from external sources have led the Hellenic government demand more taxes, cut off jobs, increase prices on products.
This inflation accompanied by fears of going bankrupt and losing the Euro, has incited hundreds of citizens to come out on streets and demand just living standards. Massive riots that took place in May-June 2011, with protesters chanting anti-austerity slogans,asking for better employment systems, consumed its capital Athens and its major political landmarks. Seems like the fragrance of the Arab Spring reached this South-eastern Europe country as well. It looks like, demanding better living rights is a misdeed and the people are themselves responsible for it. Greece has been a developed country, losing the drachma and accepting the Euro as its currency in 2001, it has been functioning as a major EU country, but with the politicians giving wrong debt-deficit figures to the monetary institutions and pushing the people to unemployment, just paints a foul picture with strokes of individual gains as the sole motto. And now, when people stand against such discrepancies, it's termed unlawful. Whatever happened to Greece and it's history of philosophers and their truth binding texts. As Socrates said-" Every action has its pleasure and price." The government is probably reaping the price of its misleading acts, but how much more public defiance and power cuts is it going to take to get Greece back on track. That's one question that challenges the might of this nation's people and their faith to get it in the right time.
What I think is that they suffer from the disconnect between their dire local economic conditions and the monetary policymakers in Frankfurt with other things on their minds...When they entered the Euro zone there GDP growth was way higher than the Germany and the pictures seem rosy for them, but as u mentioned every action has its pleasure and price..So,I reckon they are paying the price now.
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ReplyDeleteEntering Euro zone and giving up their drachma was to become a global citizen but this is not the only reason for their economic woes. The mistakes of their govt of not paying attention to their financial issues at the right time only worsened the situation.
Yes. It was very much government's fault, not to pay attention to issues which proved fatal later.
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