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How Will The Greek Citizens Ever Recover

By:
Barry Norman
Updated: Jan 1, 2011, 00:00 UTC

I rarely get to write first hand, or express my thoughts or opinions, especially without data and figures to support what I am saying, but now and then,

How Will The Greek Citizens Ever Recover

I rarely get to write first hand, or express my thoughts or opinions, especially without data and figures to support what I am saying, but now and then, it becomes necessary.

For months we have been, not just me, we… everyone from the tourist on the streets, to the businessman on the trolley, to the housewife in the market, everyone, has been talking about Greece. Some people are knowledgeable, some people are just opinionated and some people talk without understanding or knowledge.

I cannot imagine going through the torment of the Greek population, most of the citizens of Greece hardly benefited from the economic boom times and loose credit that floated around the world during the late 1990’s and the 2000’s. Most Greeks, went to work, came home, had supper, perhaps watched some television and went to bed to go to work the very next day. Just like the rest of us. Sure life was a little cheerier, jobs were easier to find, perhaps a new car was out front, maybe a vacation, very few got rich off the flying high times, and surely not the Greek citizens that are suffering because of the government’s mistakes. The rich businessman who moved from wealthy to rich and not the super rich who just made more money, they are not suffering or going without.

Most of the common Greek people will never recover from the poverty, the losses and the unemployment that is being forced on them through these austerity measures. Hourly wages cut, benefits cuts, jobs cut, cutbacks in medical care and schools.

How will a family ever recover from a year or two of unemployment? How will a man or woman ever recover from the emotional and psychological hardships they are put through? Most of these people have just gone to work each day, paid their bills, saved a few dollars or euros and make a comfortable life for themselves and now due to some austerity programs they will lose, suffer and collapse under the weight of the Greek political system.

How do these measures affect the citizens of Greece who benefited all those years of carefree government spending? How will the population of Greece ever get out of this disaster?

I for one have no idea. I grew up with a father, who lost his business and our home because of some business mistakes. I watched him lose his self confidence, I watched him lose his manhood and I wanted him wither and die a sad man. This is what many Greeks have to look forward to.

The EU, the ECB, and the IMF, are glad to bail them out while punishing those who do not need to be punished, where is the justice?

Why can’t they help Greece, not bail Greece out, find a way for Greece to flourish and grow, this will never happen under the whip of the Germans and the French.

Sometimes when you keep trying to make a deal work, and you force it and push it and manipulate, you change the rules and the policies to make it work, perhaps it would be best if it just didn’t happen, and maybe it was never meant to happen.

Our lawmakers and politicians have become dealmakers and sound like slippery salesman, corrupting the system, to hide facts, finding new words and new policies, new ways to deceive themselves or perhaps to deceive future generations. A default is not a default, a loss is not a loss and voluntary is not voluntary. It reminds of the old military joke where the sergeants’ asks for volunteers to step forward so everyone steps back leaving the slow guys and the new guys up front.

Perhaps, the EU and the ECB and the IMF, need to go back to the drawing board, need to find the high ideals that the EU was forms around and stop this course of deceit and subterfuge. Try honesty and transparency, strive to be better not more manipulative, strive for compassion and understanding, and strive for equality between classes. Let Greece default, let them rebuild, let them start fresh. I know in the USA the idea behind bankruptcy was to let a business or person, who was too far in debt to recover to have a way out to start fresh. Greece needs a fresh start, not a lifetime payment plan. Make the rich is Greece take a haircut.

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