A message to friends in the Western world, especially EU.

A message to my friends in the Western world, especially EU.

As I write this, it is a black day for my country, as there are innocent victims in the Athens protests.

If you are trying to understand, or rationalize why your country considers loaning your tax money to Greece, or trying to understand why Greeks are protesting, read this. Global news channels report that “Greeks are protesting against spending cuts, “austerity measures”, ”income reduction”, or “not loosing retirement at 65”. This may be true for some, but not all. If you blame the average Greek citizen for living too rich and creating a huge debt, let me tell you: few do, but how are the rest to blame? You think we are angry because we will lose our luxury cars or pensions? Most Greeks have none of these, and the problem is not that simple, so read on.

I am a Greek citizen, living in Greece. It has been a great shock to suddenly learn that this nation is in such deep debt. Doing the calculations, each Greek owes about 20K Euros, a debt most Greeks knew nothing of. But is that all? And more importantly, when and how was this hidden huge debt created? The shock is tremendous. Suddenly, learning these news, my society feels it has been shot and left to die; it is now at the “anger” stage of “Death and Dying”, a Death of our Country, which may be about to be broken up in pieces and sold for cheap.

Suddenly my friends seriously wonder if they will be able to survive. They feel trapped with no future. Should they migrate, for their children to have a decent life? Because they sense that even if this loan is given to Greece, nothing will change. I agree with them, and am against this loan. Don’t give more money to my country. Apparently, Greece has enough loans as it is. I am against borrowing money in my personal life, using credit cards or bank loans. I work, pay lots of taxes, and contribute to my economy. And so do many of my friends. So, who put our economy in this much of disarray? I am afraid, it is the same people you are about to give money to.

The people with whom your governments supposedly negotiate “my salvation” from bankruptcy are the same, who borrowed and misused the money, on my behalf and without informing me.

You may blame Greeks for lying and providing incorrect economic figures to the EU, but those who lied to you also constantly lied to the Greek people. Promising Greeks again and again of their “catharsis”, punishment to those involved in scandals, assuring Greeks that they have a strong, growing economy. Lies! And you are about to give them more money.

You see, I suspect this debt was created by two of the largest profit organizations in Greece: the Greek political parties.

I suspect that for years and years, parties kept borrowing money to buy power; to buy votes by creating a huge public sector, that feeds their power and money pyramids, controlling everything, so they can provide favors to their friends, finance their favorite contractors and other so-called private organizations created by their peers to milk public assets, or allows them to steal money; put it in their pockets directly, or indirectly, through countless scandals which never get punished even if exposed. In Greece it is even illegal to penalize illegal activity of party members in the congress. You, my friends, should learn to read Greek, you would laugh and cry reading the Greek newspapers; Scandals are on the monthly agenda. See these two links, to get a small taste of “PASOK”’s (current governing Party),and “NEW DEMOCRACY”’s achievements. These are the two parties governing Greece for the past 30 years. But neither are the other smaller parties innocent.

Besides controlling the economy, parties try to control every aspect of life. They don’t always succeed, but try. Political connections may be invoked in an attempt to control who will get hired, get a contract, get decent care when hospitalized, right down to who will pay a parking ticket, or pass a university exam! Soviet Union was lucky to have a single Party controlling everything. We have many! And you are about to give money to their hands? Money I will have to repay in the future?

This is not an excuse, but some of the money borrowed have already returned to you, the larger economies. As for the money you will lend us now, much of it is needed to pay you back for services, products, or loans from your companies and organizations. We are about to borrow from you and the IMF to pay you back, but then we will still need to pay back this new huge loan. You see, our politicians, probably making first sure they got their under-the-table share of the deal, also spend huge amounts of money in contracts with your companies for things like: overpaid construction deals, organizing Athens 2004 Olympics (a huge party for contractors, like in the well-known case of Siemens), expensive defense equipment - seems we have enough weapons to invade Turkey, China, and FYROM (the new country you now tend to call "Macedonia", something incomprehensible to the average Greek and a reminder of how efficient our well-payed politicians are). Sure, somehow Greek politicians often get rich after a couple of years in the parliament, but no sweat! They and their friends are protected. After all, for years and years, it is only scandals and corruption we hear of, no one notices anymore. And any leftover money pollutes and destroys both our public and private sector. Why struggle to be competitive and productive when you can be friends to a political party and be instantly rich? All these years, borrowed money kept pouring in, eventually returning back to its source (your economies), as goodies were bought from your companies. But again, this is not an excuse.

How can I be sure that our debt was never created to fulfill public needs, you may ask. Well, if it did, with all this money I should enjoy:

• Health services?
  
• Justice (legal or social)?
  
• Public education?
• Police, Fire Department, etc?
  
• Transportation and infrastractures?
  
• Social security? Retirement fund?

We pay taxes exactly for all those things, but they are in a state of mayhem, systems and services that are surely not worth the money Greek tax payers give. And still, Greeks are in deep debt. How is that possible?

At the same time:

• Greek governments are unwilling to punish tax-fraud, monopoly practices, scandals, public properly misuse, corruption, illegal employment of Greeks or immigrants, pollution, etc, especially if it is done by their friends.
• Greek governments never act to protect our new currency (euro) which is constantly and effectively being depreciated by uncontrollable and constant price rises. In the first year after the introduction of Euro, prices went up by 360%, and never stopped rising since.
• Greek governments never care why Greeks suddenly live in a country with one of Europe’s highest cost of living. Why Greece has some of the most expensive grocery stores in Europe, while wages are lower than average (and keep getting lower). How some Greeks will have to work, have children, and survive, on 560 Euros per month (if they are lucky). They raise VAT for the second time in a year. How can all this, help Greek production be cost-effective and competitive?
  
• Greek governments are unwilling to protect people who honestly work, create, serve, or produce in Greece.

CNN analysis says the problem started in November 2009 when reports of the economic situation in Greece were exposed. Let me remind you, there were violent protests before.There were no money cuts then, so what were they protesting against?

The parties borrowed this money to service themselves. And they are doing it again. Without answering to our questions, nor attempting to change, nor punishing those who steal or misuse public property. The enemy is inside the country, and it is our political parties. We will try to pay back our debts but first we need to know how exactly it was created, so it does not happen again.

Many of us, being outside political parties and systems, want answers and will be angry until we get them. Maybe then we can move on to “acceptance” stage, get back to work and hopefully rebuild our economy, society, and lives.

http://kenovouleftes.blogspot.com/