My rant for today has been brewing inside me for days, even weeks. I've touched on this issue in another post, with the Icelandic vote on March 6th being my touchstone for this rant as well (again, hurrah for Iceland for saying NO to the financial and political terrorists!).
In short, it's all about Greece.
It's well-known that Greece is in a huge 'debt crisis'. Meaning that it owes billions of Euros by the end of May, money that it simply does not have. As quoted from James Jubak in the Huffington Post: "Greece needs to refinance about $27 billion in debt that matures in May, according to calculations by Bloomberg. Already investors are demanding a 3.48 percentage point premium over the benchmark German bonds before they'll buy Greek 10-year debt. That premium is four times the average premium of the last five years."
Which means Greece is in deep trouble. Hence the recent attempts by the Greek parliament to introduce austerity measures (read: slash public spending on civil servant salaries and other social benefit-related slashing). These measures have been met with mass strikes and protests in Athens and other Greek cities and towns.
The people of the Hellenic Republic are not pleased. It has been well recorded in various news media that the Greek people feel victimised and angry as a result. And why shouldn't they be bloody upset and bloody angry?
Consider the following:
1. Why did this Greek crisis occur so suddenly? Because it was a carefully orchestrated assassination of the Greek economy, and in particular Greek treasury bonds, by the financial and economic speculators (read: terrorists) from Wall Street and across Europe, especially that poster child for speculative terrorism on the world economy, JP Morgan. Greece was targeted, simple as that. Iceland, anyone?
2. Why must the Greek government be so ridiculed by other countries for its large public spending bill? As if countries like Germany, France and the UK don't have huge public spending bills themselves. Isn't the UK currently sitting with the biggest ratio of public (sovereign) debt to GDP in all of the EU? And why should the Greek people should be accused, as if they were petulant little brats, of wanting nothing more than decent health care, education for all and their pensions paid out after all their years of work and service? How totally unreasonable of the Greeks to expect the very same of their government that the French, the Germans and the other hypocrites in Europe expect of their governments.
3. Why shouldn't Germany and the rest of the Eurozone bail out Greece? Why not? What is the purpose of having a monetary zone like the Eurozone, one which was supposed to be for the benefit of all Europeans, and which was to unite all of Europe, when stronger partners are not willing to assist a partner in trouble? With friends like this, who the bloody hell needs enemies?
4. And, speaking of Herr Deutschland, Germany is the richest EU country with the biggest national surplus, largely thanks to the power of the Euro over the past decade. Why must Greece be made to pay for the fact that Germany is holding elections later this year, and that German voters may hold helping out Greece against that Grosse Deutsche Hausfrau, aka Angela Merkel? Why must Greece pay for the fact that Germany's reunification cost so much money? You Germans went all mushy and wanted to unify, that's your bloody problem. Now you're a member of a monetary zone that has been of most benefit to your economy, and you think you have the right to be damn stingy to help out a fellow European country in need?
5. And, by the way, Germany, don't you think it's time that you gave Greece back all those billions of dollars of gold bullion that your Nazi ancestors plundered from Greece during World War 2? I think that's overdue, you ungrateful and patronising prigs.
6. And if I see one more television footage of some pasty-faced, ugly German in some grey German city crinkling up their little Teutonic nose at the suggestion of helping out Greece, I'll scream! Or I'll get on a bloody flight (not on Lufthansa, by the way), land in Germany and just start slapping faces left and right! But let the German economy be in as much trouble as that of Greece, and that German begging bowl would be casting a huge shadow over all of Europe, no questions about it. You hypocrites.
7. I need to say it here: this Greek crisis has really brought out the ever-simmering contempt which many Northern Europeans have for their Southern European neighbours. It's there - always just below that very thin patina of northern European 'respect' for their fellow Europeans to the south. One can literally sense it when northern Europeans, smug and patronizing to the hilt, are asked their opinions on TV news and shows about the crisis. It's palpable.
Comments are made about the 'Club Med country' crisis, thereby reducing Greece, Spain and Portugal to nothing more than what many northern Europeans believe them to be - that is, nothing more than holiday destinations where the weather is better and the locals a darn sight cuter and more fun.
I wonder how Ireland feels, being that it's in the same crappy sovereign debt position, yet hardly a sunny Club Med destination...?
Endless commentaries are made about the 'recklessness' of how these countries have governed their finances, always with that undertone that southerners are somehow less 'restrained', less 'responsible'. Even the acronym 'PIGS' (which stands for Portugal Ireland Greece Spain) says it all. Italy is now out of that spotlight, even if only for now. The main subtext is simple: the southerners just can't get it right, even if one of those countries (Ireland) is not a so-called 'Club Med economy'.
As if the likes of the UK have done any better. It makes me bristle with anger, given my southern European ancestry.
Which is why I so appreciated this cartoon from the UK's Independent newspaper lampooning the musical 'Grease'. Says it all.
And the poor Greeks are now at the mercy of their northern partners. I pity them for that. Greece and citizens of Greece deserved better than to be held responsible for the devious and destructive machinations of the global financial system that saw fit to wreak havoc on their economy.
Do you get my point?
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