Greece: A sun country full of delusions

                                The hopeful

While the ‘no’ vote in Greece is being hailed as milestone for democracy and somehow has many citizens thinking they are going to get a free get out of jail card, they will be forced to think again after a rather severe dose of reality has set in. Greece is a sun country full of delusions. Much like Ireland, except for the sun part,  where corruption does not exist either in convictions and even less in actuality, because  most investigations end after a brown envelope full of money has been paid either officially or unofficially, and without admission of liability, someone, somewhere, has to pay. 

That someone is usually the less informed and those living in perpetuity of hope that things will change. They are sometimes called the electorate, honest citizens, and much worse behind their back. Bless their moral laden hearts. 

                                                   
                                  The delusional

Like any errant borrower or lender, if one refuses to pay then the other will refuse to lend more money. But the lender has more options unlike the borrower. 

He/she can go to the Government and convince them that unless their particular private lending company is saved and the bondholders with it, the country will be crushed and all the pillars and bulwarks that goes with it will collapse and never rise again. The commerce of fear has always worked and why not this time yet again. 

                                   The Reality

But the stakes of corruption and unaccountability can only go so far if nothing is done to reign in the recklessness and greed of the lender in tandem with the stupidity of the borrower. That is where Greece is today and where Ireland will be tomorrow along with a few more; the domino effect of greed and delusions is as much as you can describe it without trying to make something simple that much more complicated. 

                                 The anger

In broad strokes, Greece is consistently ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world. They have no sense of reality and any sense of the difference between institutional corruption and that of the ideals of democracy. It is not what any Greek can do for his country but only what they can do for himself and not country. That sense of self comes before pride or patriotism and trying to sell the echo of their glorious ancestry in a ridiculous   game of bluff and an empty hand, is better left down at the local pub after copious amounts of larger. The hangover will always come one way or the other. The Greeks are literally blind to economics and the warnings of Shakespeare: “Be not a borrower or lender be.” In fact one greek island tried to take that blindness to a whole new level.

                        The  sympathisers


One island there named Zakynthos, 680 people pretended to be blind. 61 of those felt so confident of not being caught they drove around the island in their cars. 498 were not blind at all or even partially sighted. This scam netted each person €724 every two month and a reduction in utility bills and all traced back over other participants in the scam, and there was many, to one ophthalmologist and one official. This cost Greece €9,000,000, or rather it will cost us that if we allow ourselves, yet again, to bail these people out or anyone else for that matter. Of course this is only an illustration of what goes on as ‘normal’ in what is becoming a very backward country and heading for third world rankings without the brakes. It is also just the tip of the iceberg.

Emotional scenes of pensioners is one thing to stir up anger and angst, but free lunches do not exist in reality for someone inevitability has to pay, and we have nothing left to give. 

Charity begins at home and accountability, reform and meaningful change must come too before anyone reaches for coinage in the pocket just after the tissues. It must not just come for the Greeks but for this island as well for the scenes in Greece may well yet stoke an economic tsunami. How we do business and conduct ourselves in the future must be not just a departure from the past, but that it must be so different that it would beg the simple question of why it had not been done sooner and long before the tears.

Barry Clifford