Into the Woods

Today is the final day for European Parliaments—including Greece’s—to approve the four-month extension deal (deferring predicted financial Armageddon) entered into between Greece and the Eurogroup.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about don’t worry.  No one does. 

You see, even the Greek party in power responsible for negotiating the deal is having trouble explaining what’s going on to its own party members.  So much so, that a day ago Greece’s Prime Minister wasn’t sure he had enough votes in his parliamentary coalition to agree to the lifeline deal, leading him to say that he might decide not to submit it to Parliament at all.  

And protestors are back on Athens streets tossing Molotov cocktails, burning cars, and shattering shop windows.

As for what the deal actually meant, well, Greece’s tieless Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, called it a deliberately vaguely worded “fig leaf” document designed to give cover to European parliaments so they could approve an agreement actually “dispensing with Greece’s bailout deal”—something the member countries said they would not do.  He also said Greece’s “coffers are empty,” and that the folks now wearing the fig leaf should turn over the money Greece needs to help with its “relatively small cash problem.”

Like I said, who knows?

Frankly, I see two ways of enduring all this while preserving sanity.  

Option #1.  Keep a sense of humor…something American television and German television have found fit to do by poking fun at Minister Varoufakis.

John Oliver from HBO's "Last Week Tonight."

Germany's ZDF "Neo Magazin Royale."

Option #2:  Take off into the woods until things sort themselves out…hopefully by the Spring thaw. I’ve opted for option #2, as I don’t see what’s happening in Greece as much given to humor at the moment.  

All I can say is, things might look bleak but the sun will shine again.

And once again, thank you Barbara Zilly for the photos.

Jeff—Saturday