What You Need to Know About the Situation in Greece, by a Greek.
So as you probably already know, my country is holding a referendum on Sunday. We are required to vote Yes or No to the Troika’s (International Monetary Fund aka IMF, European Commission aka EC, European Central Bank aka ECB) new austerity measures. I will not go into why it’s best to vote Yes or No, but I am going to write down facts for all of you that are confused about the situation.
So if you don’t know wtf is going on, here’s 9 questions you might be embarrassed to ask (along with a musical break yay!) The list gives a good idea about how we’ve reached this point, but it doesn’t make much mention of where the money that was lent to Greece actually went. To the Greeks, right? More like LOL NO TO THE BANKS. Less than 10% of the bailout money was left to be used by the government for reforming its economy and safeguarding weaker members of society. European (mostly German, French and Greek) banks have been bailed out, while we, the Greek people, have been left with a public debt we cannot possibly burden. Well, one might ask, people have to pay their debts. Why shouldn’t Greece? Why can’t they sort it out themselves? Shouldn’t Syriza, their newly-elected government, have tried everything it could to stay in the Eurozone? And why should I care? Here’s why. It’s, also, high time to mention that the IMF has actually made profit out of our loans.
And ok, let’s say you don’t believe the articles I’ve linked here or the countless others you can find online about how anyone other than the banks and the corrupt elite didn’t see any money and you’re still lovin’ the “lazy Greeks” rhetoric. Would you believe Paolo Nogueira Batista, one of IMF’s directors? (And while we’re at it can we stop with the ~lazy~ bs, we are working the longest hours in Europe kthanx) Would you believe ex-IMF Managing Director Strauss-Kahn, who admits the Greek program was a mistake and urges his ex colleagues to back off? Maybe then economist Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner, who has called the measures obscene many a times on his blog and outright said that this hoopla might just be a way to get rid of the newly-elected, left-wing government (I’ll get to this in a sec)? One Nobel Prize winner is not enough, so how about a second, Mr. Joseph Stiglitz, that is left puzzled by the enforcement of measures that don’t make a lick of economic sense? (Btw you can find analysis by many more famous economists, I’m just writing down the heavy-hitters.) How about the latest freakin’ IMF REVIEW ITSELF that renders the debt unsustainable and claims that if we are to get back on track, there needs to be a debt haircut of at least 30%? IMF secret documents saying that EVEN if we do every single thing they ask, we’ll still not get out of this shithole? Their own admission that they’ve fucked up? No?
So wait a minute. If everyone agrees on the failure of the previous programs and the new proposition being a new, possibly even bigger failure, then why does the Troika insist on pressuring Greece for their harshest austerity measures yet? A country putting its foot down and actually winning an argument over the Troika could potentially create anti-euro movements and parties, as Italy fears. Not only is the left-wing party Podemos (very similar to our own government) gaining ground with Spanish voters who are having their election this autumn, but then other European governments that didn’t oppose their own IMF programs (albeit with lighter terms) will have to explain why they didn’t fight harder to their own people. Noone wants that, right? Moreover, left-wing members of the German parliament (and Germany is important because they’re basically running everything) have been pressuring Chancellor Merkel to loose the lease on Greece and admit that the reality is that they don’t want to deal with a radical left party. The Times also published an article about a German conservative official that wishes to remain unnamed (duh, lol) that basically said we won’t see a bail-out cent until Tsipras (our PM) and co. get the boot. To top it all off, the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz outright said that they need Tsipras to step down and a new government of technocrats to take over. Does democracy and democratic procedures bare no meaning in Europe anymore? We invented the whole democracy thing you know, we do have a say in it. This is infuriating behaviour. There’s one other thing as well, which I, unfortunately, cannot prove, but our PM, the Minister of Defense and several Greek reporters claim that German companies own hotels in Turkey, which is why our German lenders want to increase the VAT taxes for our islands to 23%, when the Turkish hotels across the sea have them at 3%. Want to kill our tourism much? It’s one of the few fields we’re still doing well at. Hmmm.
In addition to the above, every European leader and their mother has advised the Greeks to vote Yes, with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urging us to vote Yes no matter the actual measures. “I say to the Greeks, don’t commit suicide because you’re afraid of dying”, he said to a country that’s lost an estimated 11.000 people that committed suicide ever since the crisis began. This, by the way, is the same person that told the whole world that he feels betrayed by our government and that Tsipras is lying about the Troika requesting a further cut-down on the already low pensions. If foreign reporters hadn’t called him out on his lies (this is a greek site, but the tweets by the reporters are in English, so you get the gist), he would still be telling everyone they don’t insist on lowering pensions. Why he feels betrayed? Because the Greek government supposedly left the negotiation table. He failed to mention that they were given a 48-hour ultimatum to sign the new papers. That was luckily reported by foreign media, or else how would anyone believe the “Greek government of beggars”? The ECB even refused to extend the program we’re on by 5 days, so that the referendum be held without people panicking and running to the banks, thus being unable to vote what’s in their heart in a calm manner. All of this caused the United Nations to call the leaders out on violating human rights.
Speaking of media, did you know that the big networks/radio stations/newspapers here are corrupt af? We are 99th in the World Free Press, according to Reporters Without Borders. The aforementioned media are owned by key families, who use them to ensure their family of companies obtain government contracts (thanks to our useless former governments). These private media outlets are members of large groups of companies who undertake construction projects, and shipowners who control the oil trade and imports. A huge part of the viewership/readership is outraged because the big media have been yapping about voting Yes and basically about the sky falling on our heads if we dare vote No. They’ve been terrorizing people with gross exaggerations, outright lies such as spreading false rumors that the IMF itself had to debunk and presenting a completely unbalanced POV between the Yes and No movements. For example, the coverage of the Yes protest was 46 mins in total to the 8 of the No protest. What do they have to gain? The new government’s proposed measures to the Troika include bigger taxes for the rich. What are their owners to do? They already owe millions in taxes, for which noone used to talk about.
Sign this other petition yay petitions
Join protests organized near you, if you can. There are a few, especially for Europeans.
Read. Understand. Spread the word. Share this post. If my country goes down in flames (which it won’t because you best believe we’re bamfs), then the world should know the truth.
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