Greece in crisis- A Greek view (one of many)

It is now almost a year that the Greek society experiences the economical crisis. For a citizen of the middle or the lower financial and social class, crisis means a wide spectrum of emotions, that come and go all the time: surprise, shame, embarrassment, desperation, insecurity, agony for the future, anger, hope... Conversations, political analyses, personal “solutions” and yet...nothing to do. Other people used to decide for us, other people still decide for us. The article of two German pupils under the title “ Greece in crisis- A German view”, editing by the dear colleague Annett Jentsch, published in “Kaleidoscope” on 24.4.2010, at first impressed me with the simplicity and the clearness of the opinions that were expressed. The complete and reasonable explanation of the Greek crisis seemed to be undeniable: Greece was always the “ problem child”, that yet managed with tricks to make it into the Euro-family and continued to borrow huge amounts of money from other EU- states, who had no idea about the truth situation. And suddenly, when Greece had overdone it, the economical crisis blew up... Everything was so simple in the article - ashaming for Greeks, O.K., but simple, clear, conviencing. And yet something about all these generalizations was still bothering me. Some questions started to emerge into my mind:
  For whose benefit was this situation all these years, that Greeks were living in a capitalistic and consumer Paradise without deserving it ? That Greeks were getting high interest bank loans, in order to buy expensive cars (as Mercedes, Audi, WV Passat e.c.t.), domestic appliances (Siemens, Bosh, Miele...), import clothes and shoes (Gucci, Armani, Lacoste, Adidas, Puma...) or to travel abroad to other European capitals?
  What rate of Greek working people and from which financial classes evade taxation and by whose help? I know very well (because I am one of them) that an important percentage of Greek working people (mostly public servants, pensioners, salaried workers) pay legally their taxes.
  Why, during the last 5 years before Greek elections (September 2009), higher E.U. officials were giving support to the former government, even a few days before elections? That was yet the decisive period in which Greek external debt “was flying” from 4% up to 12 %. European Union does have a control machinery, in order to make cash audits and avoid such situations. Why didn’t this control machinery work properly ? Because of imperfections or because of particularly interests, that do not have nationality ?
  Why, since the new government took over, willing to bring everything in light, has started a war of negative statements, especially from German government, that led spreads even and even higher ? Did that have anything to do with the political orientation of the new government or with the interests of the export countries ? (When the price of Euro drops, the exports increase.) The “solution” of dividing the Euro-zone into two parts shows exactly the war of different financial interests into E.U..
  What was the significance of the Greek- German negotiations about the German submarines on the formulation of the German attitude towards Greek crisis? If our EU-partners really want to help us to turn the corner, why don’t they help us to reduce army-expenses instead of pressing Greece to keep them so high ?
  Did other countries lend money to Greece without having any interest or on very beneficial terms for them actually ? And under the pretext of this “ help” certain measures are dictated, measures that hit the rights of working people and are very useful to big companies. [Greece has until now one of the lower rates of part-time employement, which means that employement is well protected and this must be changed (origin Eurostat http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tps00159&plugin=0)
  Do we finally live in a fairytale with the good faith, innocent, decieved E.U.guys on the one side (high E.U.officials, bankers, companies, corporations among them) and the bad guys, the deceivers, the rotten Greeks on the other side ? Could any explanation based on generalizations and stereotypes be right and useful to anybody ? I have the feeling that reality is perhaps more complicated and shaped by hidden, secret factors. I hope too – together with the German pupils- that there will be a happy end after all, thanks to hard work and patience of working Greek people. [Greeks are the most hard-working Europeans. They work 42,5 hours per week, when the European average is 37,6 hours per week (origin Eurostat http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=lfsa_ewhun2&lang=en). And I hope that we will have European working people on our side during this effort.

Grigoriadou Anastasia (Sissi)