Looking into the abyss - Giorgos Papandreou, prime minister of Greece, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.
Showing posts with label nowpublic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nowpublic. Show all posts
Thursday, October 07, 2010
How did it come to this? The roots of the current Greek economic crisis
Looking into the abyss - Giorgos Papandreou, prime minister of Greece, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Greece: Looking beyond the cliches.
One effect of Greece's recent financial problems is that the country has been on the front pages of the world's newspapers and media sites for the last few weeks. It is not the kind of publicity that any country, especially one which relies so thoroughly on tourism would wish for. As a result journalists round the globe have turned their attention to Athens and with it brought with them an array of misconceptions and cliches which they regularly use to lard their reports.
One of the most common is the use of allusions to ancient Greece in order to explain the present situation. This, of course might make for a clever opening gambit but no more explains what is happening at the moment than an attempt to account for Gordon Brown's policy decisions in terms of King Alfred's burnt cakes or Sarkozi's foreign policy by referencing Gaul. By using these sad, old cliches reporters show us how little they understand about the dynamics of the modern Greek state and the political and economic forces that drive it.
Also the fact that Greece is a popular tourist destination visited by millions each year seems to have blinded foreign commentators to the fact that life really is not a beach. A week spent on Crete or Rhodes offers no more insight into Greece's economic woes than a week spent in a crofter's cottage in the Outer Hebrides can explain The Bank of England's base interest rate policy.
On the other hand the traumatic modern history of Greece which reads as a saddening litany of wars, savage political repression, and privation lightened only by a hard won fight to escape crushing poverty has been ignored in favour of pithy quotes about Athenian democracy. One of the reasons why people are so fearful of what the current austerity measures will bring is the raw memories of the hardships of the post war period, a time which saw millions flee the country in search of a decent living. The horrors of starvation and malnutrition are not just footnotes in academic journals but rather a part of many Greek's folk memory.
Along with material deprivation went a brutal system of social control which meant that those suspected of any kind of leftist or even liberal political views were subject to harrasment, detention or exile. Even though Greece's traumatic civil war ended in 1949 the repression it engendered continued for decades afterwards, seriously delaying the development of a modern democratic institutions.
It is against this backdrop, which is rarely mentioned in the foreign press that people are anxious and angry about what is in store for the country. There is the fear that with the massive cuts in public spending likely to be implemented either by Greece's EU partners or the IMF many will tumble back into the kind of grinding poverty that was the norm just a generation ago and that all the dreams they had for their children will become wishful thinking. With such dire economic conditions the fear is that the autocratic reflexes of much the country's political and economic elites will once more find more fertile ground with the desperate.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Athens sees still more violent clashes
Athens marchers attacked by police - Indymedia Athens-Photo-01
Pictures from Indymedia Athens
Protests turned violent as some demonstrators clashed with riot police near the Propylia area of downtown Athens. However, eyewitness accounts published in Greek language blogs say that the police used excessive force, throwing stun grenades into the crowds and indiscriminately beating marchers. Attacks were also reported upon riot police in Thessaloniki, Greece's second city last night in which Molotov cocktails were thrown at police vans.
Despite hopes that last year's violent confrontations have died down, the marches demonstrate that popular anger has yet to be extinguished. On Thursday (see here for video) about 1000 people marched in protest against the attack on Labour activist, Konstandina Kouneva, the victim of an acid attack in December. The 44 year - old Bulgarian trade unionist is still in intensive care after having acid thrown in her face and being forced to drink the liquid.
Lawyers representing her say the attack was prompted by her work in exposing an alleged scam by cleaning companies with contracts with the state run organisations which meant that the mainly foreign born work force received slave wages.
The duration of the confrontations has seen the rapid development of a mini "arms race" on Greek streets with the appearance of more and more protesters wearing gas masks in order to counter-act the authorities extensive use of tear gas. According to the BBC the government has responded by ordering water cannons which will be ready for action within the next two weeks.
The ruling New Democracy party also faces protests by farmers who have used tractors to block road junctions across the country in demonstration over low prices and lack of government support for the nation's agricultural sector. Attempts to placate farmers with a 500 million euro aid package have still not seen an end to the roadblocks.
Tags: Greece | protests | farmers | World | Riots | athens | roadblocks | Thessaloniki | kouneva
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Karamanlis - Greek PM under siege
With the presence of 2000 extra police officers on the streets, snipers stationed on rooftops and helicopters circling overhead, downtown Thessaloniki resembles less a city celebrating the opening of a major trade fair than a town under siege.
The arrival of the Greek prime minister Kostas Karamalis in Greece’s second city has triggered massive street protests by those unhappy with his government’s handling of the economy and upset at a seemingly endless stream of financial scandals involving senior ministers.
In a keynote speech at the opening of the trade fair the prime minster tried to put a brave face on what has been a disasterous summer for the New Democracy administration by emphasising the need for reform of Greece’s ailing economy and by promoting public works such as the Thessaloniki underground which he says are proof that the present government has been able to improve the lives of ordinary Greeks.
However, critics have pointed out that despite five years of conservative rule the country, unlike neighbouring Turkey and Bulgaria has failed to attract increased foreign investment and that direct investment is now lower than in countries such as Uzbekistan.
Similarly, all except one of the major public works in Greece’s second city have ground to a halt due to lack of funding from Athens and that the much hyped underground is behind schedule and over budget.
Karamanlis and party officials have been keen to point out that Greece is suffering from the effects of worldwide problems caused by rising oil prices and a global credit crunch. However, many of the ruling New Democracy party’s problems appear to be strictly home made.
Their standing in the opinion polls has fallen dramatically over the 12 months since re-election as scandal after scandal has come to public light, many connected with dubious land deals involving ruling party MPs and ministers. As if to add to the government’s woes last week the party even faced accusations of tampering in a parliamentary vote.
In addition the rises in the cost of basic goods and services, which have long outstripped those in other European countries, stagnant wages and most recently swingeing tax increases for lower income groups have combined to undermine public confidence in the Greek government.
Opposition to government attempts to push through an unpopular political agenda has seen groups as disparate as cleaners and anarchists, police officers and communist trade unionists joined forces on the streets of Thessaloniki. Yesterday. Between ten and twenty thousand protesters marched to express their unhappiness with government policies and the state of the country’s political scene in general.
Whilst the march passed off peacefully, local media sources reported that small anarchist groups attacked shops and a bank afterwards and the police had made 15 arrests.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/greek-pm-under-siege
Friday, August 08, 2008
All the fun of the fair
There are some days when so many weird and wonderful things happen you don't know where to begin. As yesterday was the start of the 30th annual Bristol Balloon Fiesta (click her for more details) I decided to have a day out with my camera and eventually wind up there for the 6pm take off. On my way however, I managed to come across stuff both beautiful and bizarre.
I was going through Bedminster on the bus when I saw this guy, literally covered in pigeons so I rang the bell jumped off and rushed back to take his picture.
Next as I was drinking coffee on Corn St I saw these cops giving the guy on the steps a hard time. I'm not sure why as he wasn't doing anything illegal or disruptive. Simply resting.
As part of my 100 Strangers project on Flickr I sometimes go up to people and ask if I could take their photograph. As I had already had success with the guy with the birds in Bedminster I thought I'd ask this woman busking. She said yes and told me that she is travelling around the south of England busking and playing gigs. Click here to listen to her music on her Myspace page. Brooke Sharkey is playing at the Blue Lagoon, Bristol on the 9th August.
Next it was onto the Bristol Balloon Fiesta at Ashton Court and to tell you the truth I wanted to get as close as possible in order to take photos of what happens before the balloons lift off so I blagged my way through the cordoned off area saying I was looking for the Press Office to get my credentials. Naughty but fun. As I was passing this balloon the pilot asked me if I wanted to take some pictures which was great. That reminds me I have to send off a bunch of emails to the people I photographed as I promised I'd send them pictures.
Somebody told me the guys in the balloon were part of a famous band so I thought I'd take their picture just for the hell of it. Click here to find out more about Blake. The guy on the right, for those of you not living in the Bristol area is a local anchorman.
That evening was the monthly get together of the Bristol Flickr group and thankfully even though I went to the wrong pub I bumped into another Flickrer and so didn't miss anything.
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Much of the current media coverage over Greece's debt crisis is focused on how the country is going to raise the funds necessary to cover the $400 plus billion it owes creditors. Scenarios concerning the role of Germany and/or France in bailing out Athens are discussed constantly on national TV and in the newspapers and what will need to be done in order to convince Greece's European partners to cover cost of lending the billions needed just to keep the country afloat.
However, whatever happens in the coming months the question of what Greece does next in a world in which its financial choices are closely scrutinised by whatever monetary institution steps into the breach to save the country from bankcruptcy has not been addressed.
The prospect that an elected socialist government will be obliged to implement a conservative fiscal policy controlled by unelected officials raises all kinds of political dilemmas which Giorgos Papandreou's PASOK administration will have to deal with in the immediate future.
Papandreaou will be forced to challenge directly exactly those public sector trade unions which have put him and PASOK in power. In addition he will be forced to cut areas of spending which have been used by successive government to ensure political support.
The prospect of a place in the Greek civil service has long been the source of political power for parties on the right and left of the political spectrum. This combined by the promise of public sector contracts to economic elites in the private sector form the basis of the country's feudal political structure and in no small measure contributed to its present woeful economic situation.
Instead of land and power being swopped for military service the present Greek version of feudalism sees votes and political support flowing up the system in return for public funds and the influence it garners flowing downwards. It is a structure of patron-client relations which links the heads of the major parties to the humblest villager and is the lifeblood of modern Greek politics.
The ebb and flow of such influence and the complicated web of personal, familial and political relations that it engenders helps explain much of the apparent confusion and chaos of modern life in Athens and other major cities. Much of the country's infrastructure is divided into a patchwork of competing fiefdoms that have formed as a result of the present political setup. Each participant owes their position and continued economic well being to maintaining the right connections with those above and below them in the hierarchy. In such a system qualifications, skill, effectiveness and ability play second fiddle to being able to stay in with those who are in a position to advance your career.
Another by - product is chronic inefficiency and confusion as its duty of every fiefdom to ensure that it gets the maximum amount of resources in order to guarantee its survival. Co-operation and cost cutting mean giving up exactly those resources one needs to make sure that money and influence continues to flow to those whose support you need.
The effects of this system also affect the private sectors as the companies competing for contracts with the public sector, a huge player in the Greek economy, do so on the basis of political, personal and family connections. In some cases this takes the form of outright bribery but many others there is the mutual understanding that favours given must at some point be returned. It is no coincidence that many of the country's richest men have media wings attached to their business conglomerations which can be used to promote or attack parties and politicians .
The upshoot of this unholy alliance is that crony capitalism and "licence Raj's" dominate the economy stifling innovation and competition. There is little incentive to cut the cost of your product or improve the quality of your service in such a system. As a result Greek companies will dominant nationally rarely have the expertise to break into developed markets where transparency means that methods used at home cannot be employed.
Whilst foreign observers often point the finger of blame at Greece's powerful public sector unions for lack of competiveness and low productivity the reality is that pay in the private sector has remained stagnant for years and that much critised worker protection laws are rarely applied to non - public sector businesses. Despite a pool of cheap, educated labour which can be hired and fired at will the private sector has done little to prepare the demands of a modern globalised economy and instead reaped the benefits of European Union's lowest wage while raising prices far beyond the rate of inflation safe in the knowledge that an invisible web of cartels and unofficial "gentlemen's agreements" mean that they will not be faced with any real competition.
It is difficult to see how an economic and political system run on such principles can reform itself in the kind of time scale being proposed by Europe and controlled by exactly those people who helped run the country into the ground in the first place. The obvious answer is that Greece will not be able to implement the kinds of reforms being demanded and that in trying to square the circle the country will tear itself apart as different social and economic groups turn on each other to preserve a semblance of their priviledges and power.
Already there has been a growing wave of political violence with terrorist attacks now forming a staple of the daily news. That combined with a burgeoning crime rate form the background to a society that appears to be gradually coming apart at the seams.