It is perhaps worthwhile thinking about how it became possible for the German banks to peddle loans for Greeks to buy their exports. A multiplicity of factors enter into any dynamic and the current economically driven social crisis involves some unique elements.
Greece was crippled by WWII and the civil war fuelled by Britain and the US. The instability this double devastation provoked led to the military coup that further kept the country out of the modern mainstream. When electoral democracy was re-established in 1974, the socialist party PASOK under Papandreou began the process of building a social welfare client state — or so goes the plausible analysis I received today from Lena’s neurologist sister and law.
PASOK style socialism meant everyone had a right to a job. Given the small economy and underdeveloped industrial sector, the government fulfilled its mandate by taking over underperforming and uncompetitive companies to provide work for the people. This had the effect of turning the nation into clients of the state. Apparently, this went further where the party’s failed parliamentary candidates received patronage positions as heads of these addled industries. A promise of a public sector job effectively led to captive, read bought, votes.
Socialism here meant that government existed to secure a salary and allow folks to consume. Through this expectation and habit, the flow of money brought by EU membership meant Greeks could carry on consuming, this time at a proper EU level. [e.g. A German car in many homes.] Sadly, at no point did social ownership of the means of production mean efficient, sustainable production. Further, with the system entrenched, it was near impossible for anyone with a good idea to get traction and support for it.
For his part, Foti doesn’t dispute this way of characterizing the state PASOK created, but sees this as a truncated analysis ripped from the history of Greece as a protectorate client state since its independence in 1821. History would, indeed, indicate that Foti is correct.
The first ruler of “free” Greece was Otto, a Bavarian prince. He was a caretaker put in place by the three great powers. From his Wikipedia page we get this:
Britain and the Rothschild bank, who were underwriting the Greek loans, insisted on financial stringency from [Otto’s prime minister] Armansperg. The Greeks were soon more heavily taxed than under Turkish rule;[2] as the people saw it, they had exchanged a hated Ottoman tyranny,[speculation?] which they understood, for government by a foreign bureaucracy, the “Bavarocracy” (Βαυαροκρατία), which they despised.
Plus ca change…….. Incredible continuity with the present where the consequence of imperial policies has meant that opportunism has been the on-going reality of everyday life. PASOK’s particular contribution was to privde the expectation that government was an active provider as opposed to an agent from who you hid or plundered.
In reading Jesse’s comments to the previous post, it seems like I gave the wrong impression of things. If I understand him correctly, it appears to him that Greeks are less prone to a sense of entitlement that folks in North America. The remarks and third and fourth round of photos should indicate otherwise. Entitlement is everywhere. The problem is that the pie is so small that everyone feels the right or necessity to plunder wherever and whatever they can. Consequently, the place is a wildcat hodge-pudge of individually staged catastrophes, using resources large and small. The odd lights shine on the occasional outstanding design successes and crumbling neo-classical structures. The line between patina and rot is crossed all too many times.
Are there any solutions?
There is so much to say here and it is overwhelmingly bleak, I’m afraid.
The first thing to say is that, since modern times, Greece is no more, no less than a strategic outpost for great powers. As pointed out, this has been the case since so-called independence, a quarter of the way thru the 19th century. The abysmal and loathsome elevation of Nazi collaborators to government by the British and Americans at the end of WWII essentially ruptured any possibility of a functioning modern state. The German and French banks have assured the same destiny for 50 years into the future.
Part of my tour, in the time prior to Lena arriving, was an evening in Pireus, the port city attached to Athens. Here one is thrust into a landscape of multiple cranes and construction, with all forms of new buildings and fancy shops. As part of the legacy of the current bankruptcy, a large chunk of the port was sold to the Chinese with the aim of solidifying it as the regional shipping hub. This is not local wealth. In the meanwhile, Athens, and the rest of the country not sold to foreigners [ie. airports, utilities, resources, Islands and resort areas to Germans and others] languish.
Folks say 2 positive things about Syriza. One, unlike all previous regimes, they have not been tainted by opportunistic scandal. Two, unlike Italy, Hungary, and yes, France too, the Greek response to immigrants has been rather generous. It appears that, contrary to these countries, the UK and the US as well, the protest vote went left and not right. Yet, the centre-right traditional party, Nea Democrati, are currently leading in the polls. Moreover, in the face of Syriza’s overall fecklessness, if the general population shows any will for organization, it is at the level of individual opportunism in relation to the state, including abandoning it [i.e. Migration], while simultaneously managing a remarkable general civility to each other. This is so as taxes keep going up and incomes, including pensions, go down.
I call the situation economic Bosnia. Foti doesn’t disagree. It’s how a so-called European community is prepared to take care of its members. This from so-called liberal democratic regimes [neo or otherwise]. What is to be expected from the authoritarian ones, including Trump’s low-rent despotism? In regards to the rest of us, I see Greece as the canary in the coal mine.