As a Wise Bird Once Said [Five Years Ago]

Jeff--Saturday

 

As you may know, I'm recovering from shoulder surgery and hope to be back to two-handed typing soon, but for now I'm posting blasts from the past. This one, from five years ago, struck me as unbelievably prophetic...and yet still topical in the most twisted of ways!  It anticipated the successful run by Greece's SYRIZA party for control of Parliament, but in describing the predicament of the then ruling coalition, precisely describes the current situation of SYRIZA!  With elections looming on the horizon, I thought this a good time to run it again...while one hand's still tied down.

The Sky is Falling! 

But we all know better than to listen to Chicken Little.  And over in Greece, poor Kotopoulaki is about as welcome as Cassandra.  Okay, enough with the bold literary illusions.  It’s time to move on to reality.  Hmmm, that last line should be re-read at least three times by every soul in Greece officially charged with making sure that gorgeous Greek sky stays up there.

Frankly, anything that gets the Greek bureaucracy to look up from the tops of their shoes would be welcome.  Far too many still spend their time lurking around the dark edges of their land, hoping to find whatever pots of gold remain from those bright rainbow times of the past.

The Coalition Partners, Nea Demokratia & PASOK

Greece’s current government is now a two-party coalition instead of three, and its razor-thin majority margin has gone from electric to blade.  The likely largest vote getting party if new elections were called today is grooming its leader to be the next king.  Excuse me, I shouldn’t say “king” for his party (SYRIZA) is an amalgam of five…or is it four…or is it three…socialist parties (with views ranging from North Korean to Swedish).  Yet, from the way his professional image makers are out there packaging him and his party to the world, I think they’re secretly planning a coronation.

SYRIZA’s leader made his mark saying “no” to whatever the other guy said in trying to deal with the crisis.  If the IMF, EU, the ruling coalition, or any of the demon financiers of the West were for it, he was against it.  That makes it easy to say, “I told you so” now.  Smart politics, especially if one conveniently forgets that he refused an offer to form his own government and lead Greece through its crisis.

The Contender

My guess is he thinks it’s time to take his shot, and I come to that conclusion from such things as the op-ed piece placed in this week’s The New York Times titled, “Only Syriza Can Save Greece” bearing a central message of comfort to the west: “SYRIZA would be a good thing for America and the European Union.”  I wonder how that will play at home, where bashing America has been a political staple of the left since the fall of Greece’s Junta dictatorship in 1974—one of the last Greek governments publicly hailing itself as “good for America.”

Frankly, I don’t care who governs Greece as long as the new government’s very first act is to tear down that plaque which must exist somewhere in the secret recesses of the Parliament bearing this inscription: “All ye who enter here make as much as possible of the situation while you have the chance.”

The Parliament

Yes, there are selfless, dedicated public servants working hard to drive their country through its time of direst need.  But far too often they’re compromised or cutoff by colleagues driven only to help themselves.

The Reporter

The Greek people are not fools, no matter how some of their leaders might regard them.  Word is out, more so everyday.  Bankers who drove the country into its horrid corner are reported as being lavishly rewarded by friends in government (inspired possibly by bankers in the US), and the reporter who exposed a list of highly influential Greeks possibly owing taxes on Swiss bank accounts, suppressed for years by Greece’s Ministry of Finance, led to the prosecution of only one person: the reporter.  That he was found innocent didn’t matter to the prosecutor who has gone after him again.  He has his priorities. (Here’s the reporter’s side of the story.)   

Hello out there, the sky is falling! 

If this government fails, and SYRIZA steps in but things remain the same—frustrating the millions who believed its leader’s rhetoric—waiting in the wings is the neo-Nazi Chrysi Avgi party aka Golden Dawn, currently with 18 members in Parliament (of 300—not of the Thermopylae sort).  It, too, has packaged itself snappily.  Marketing specialists converted its unvarnished message of hate into nationalistic jingo rhetoric, and PR consultants cower those who dare challenge the parties brutal physical attacks upon “enemies of Greece.”

The Chrysi Avgi Party Symbol

The Party in Parliament

The Party in the streets

All that is necessary for Chrysi Avgi to prevail is for good, fair-minded Greeks to do nothing to demand better of their country.  And should Chrysi Avgi’s day come, Greece will know that the sky has fallen…for the Devil shall be ruling its land.

--Jeff

There is Much to Learn From the Greeks

I promised not to talk about what’s going on in Greece…at least not now.  Even though there are such juicy stories to pounce on, such as these three:

ONE.  Greece’s former transit minister, the nephew of the founder of Greece’s currently ruling political party, was arrested for running a stop sign and found to be driving an unregistered luxury vehicle bearing false license plates. If registered, he’d have had to pay 3300 euros in vehicle related taxes. He showed up in court wearing a 1500-euro jacket and claimed he was a "pensioner" affected by the crisis and only driving the vehicle to “charge the battery.”

 

Former Transit Minister in transit.

TWO.  Parliament agreed to block dispersal to neo-Nazi political party Golden Dawn of 300,000 euros it would have received as a member of Parliament, doing so on the basis of a law denying such funding to a party with leaders facing criminal prosecutions. On the same day it refused to allow an investigation into the role played by the leader of the ruling party’s coalition partner in a 360 million-euro loss sustained by Greece in a stalled, three submarine deal signed-off on by that leader who, incidentally, was recently reported to be perhaps the richest of the country’s party leaders.

Golden Dawn leader

PASOK leader

Savvas Xeros of November 17

THREE.  As reported by Ekathimerini, Greece’s equivalent of The New York Times, convicted terrorist Savvas Xeros—currently serving five consecutive life sentences plus an additional 25 years for his involvement in the November 17 terror group’s 27-year reign of terror covering 23 assassinations and thousands of related crimes—was granted a one-month furlough from prison by a Piraeus court on Thursday so that he could undergo medical treatment in a university hospital.  The issue stirred controversy in Parliament between opposition SYRIZA and ruling New Democracy, with the former’s human rights committee saying that the continued detention of an inmate diagnosed with serious health problems constitutes “inhumane treatment,” and the ruling party accusing the “leftists” of “trying to achieve the release of the murderer and terrorist by intervening in justice.”

New Democracy and SYRIZA leaders

Obviously, there are different sides to those stories, but I’m going to honor my promise and pass on offering my take. Instead, I’m posting what I think a very well thought out editorial by Alexis Papachelas, Executive Editor of Ekathimerini.  It appeared in last Sunday’s paper. And, yes, you might say it applies to us as well. That’s “us” as in US.  It’s titled, “Dangerous Ambitions”:

Alex Papachelas

I would very much like to ask all those dreaming of becoming the country’s next prime minister whether they have thought it through properly and are sufficiently prepared, with a specific plan and an even more specific team to implement it. 

Daydreamers abound. Some feel they have been treated unfairly by history while others wish to take revenge for injustices suffered by their parents. There are also those who are immature enough to believe that the premiership will simply fall into their laps, just like everything else.

Very few realize how tough the job of prime minister in a country which has fallen apart actually is. The way they seem to ignore danger is impressive. They could at least realize that for the first time in decades, a wrong move while at the country’s helm could lead to disaster for the country and themselves. But they still insist on working solely on their publicity skills. 

You hear supposedly serious people boasting about receiving backing from newspapers and businesspeople. So what? Even if they do get elected, who will govern the country amid such adverse conditions? Those who backed them in the first place will turn against them if they don’t return the favor – this has always been the case. And when the going gets really tough, whoever has realized this dream will find himself alone in the Maximos Mansion, feeling the tremendous pressure exerted by the Greek people, the country’s lenders and interest groups on the one hand and history waiting to issue its verdict on the other. 

Partisan sycophants who seemed like giants in party offices will seem like midgets as they take on positions of even basic responsibility. Ambition is legitimate. What angers people, however, is the shallowness and unbearable lightness with which everyone across the political spectrum is preparing themselves: with low-quality staff, a complete lack of planning, big words and ludicrous tactics.

Some of it is our own – citizens’ and the media’s – fault. We glorify communication mastery and light populism and condemn anyone who comes across as gray and serious. Acting tough and playing the media game properly is today’s winning ticket. But this doesn’t lead anywhere. 

Antonis Samaras will eventually leave office and history will tell whether he did everything in his power to accomplish his mission. He has certainly given his role as premier much more than most people expected. It’s time to get stricter with anyone who wants the country’s top job. In the past we put our trust in people who had never worked before, who had never felt the threat of getting laid off. We considered pamphlets with pretty graphics sufficient plans for governing. 

We should not fall into this trap again because things are really serious this time around.

*****

As is often said, we can learn from the Greeks.   Let’s just hope they do so as well.

By the way, the photo at the top of this post is of a Christmas tree erected two years ago by volunteers in front of Greece’s Parliament building.  It’s made out of donated milk cans, later distributed to the needy.  In that spirit, and an ecumenical prayer for better times for all on earth, Merry Christmas and Kala Kristouyenna.

Jeff—Saturday

As A Wise Bird Once Said...

The Sky is Falling! 

But we all know better than to listen to Chicken Little.  And over in Greece, poor Kotopoulaki is about as welcome as Cassandra.  Okay, enough with the bold literary illusions.  It’s time to move on to reality.  Hmmm, that last line should be re-read at least three times by every soul in Greece officially charged with making sure that gorgeous Greek sky stays up there.

Frankly, anything that gets the Greek bureaucracy to look up from the tops of their shoes would be welcome.  Far too many still spend their time lurking around the dark edges of their land, hoping to find whatever pots of gold remain from those bright rainbow times of the past.

The Coalition Partners, Nea Demokratia & PASOK

Greece’s current government is now a two-party coalition instead of three, and its razor-thin majority margin has gone from electric to blade.  The likely largest vote getting party if new elections were called today is grooming its leader to be the next king.  Excuse me, I shouldn’t say “king” for his party (SYRIZA) is an amalgam of five…or is it four…or is it three…socialist parties (with views ranging from North Korean to Swedish).  Yet, from the way his professional image makers are out there packaging him and his party to the world, I think they’re secretly planning a coronation.

SYRIZA’s leader made his mark saying “no” to whatever the other guy said in trying to deal with the crisis.  If the IMF, EU, the ruling coalition, or any of the demon financiers of the West were for it, he was against it.  That makes it easy to say, “I told you so” now.  Smart politics, especially if one conveniently forgets that he refused an offer to form his own government and lead Greece through its crisis.

The Contender

My guess is he thinks it’s time to take his shot, and I come to that conclusion from such things as the op-ed piece placed in this week’s The New York Times titled, “Only Syriza Can Save Greece” bearing a central message of comfort to the west: “SYRIZA would be a good thing for America and the European Union.”  I wonder how that will play at home, where bashing America has been a political staple of the left since the fall of Greece’s Junta dictatorship in 1974—one of the last Greek governments publicly hailing itself as “good for America.”

Frankly, I don’t care who governs Greece as long as the new government’s very first act is to tear down that plaque which must exist somewhere in the secret recesses of the Parliament bearing this inscription: “All ye who enter here make as much as possible of the situation while you have the chance.”

The Parliament

Yes, there are selfless, dedicated public servants working hard to drive their country through its time of direst need.  But far too often they’re compromised or cutoff by colleagues driven only to help themselves.

The Reporter

The Greek people are not fools, no matter how some of their leaders might regard them.  Word is out, more so everyday.  Bankers who drove the country into its horrid corner are reported as being lavishly rewarded by friends in government (inspired possibly by bankers in the US), and the reporter who exposed a list of highly influential Greeks possibly owing taxes on Swiss bank accounts, suppressed for years by Greece’s Ministry of Finance, led to the prosecution of only one person: the reporter.  That he was found innocent didn’t matter to the prosecutor who has gone after him again.  He has his priorities. (Here’s the reporter’s side of the story.)   

Hello out there, the sky is falling! 

If this government fails, and SYRIZA steps in but things remain the same—frustrating the millions who believed its leader’s rhetoric—waiting in the wings is the neo-Nazi Chrysi Avgi party aka Golden Dawn, currently with 18 members in Parliament (of 300—not of the Thermopylae sort).  It, too, has packaged itself snappily.  Marketing specialists converted its unvarnished message of hate into nationalistic jingo rhetoric, and PR consultants cower those who dare challenge the parties brutal physical attacks upon “enemies of Greece.”

The Chrysi Avgi Party Symbol

The Party in Parliament

The Party in the streets

All that is necessary for Chrysi Avgi to prevail is for good, fair-minded Greeks to do nothing to demand better of their country.  And should Chrysi Avgi’s day come, Greece will know that the sky has fallen…for the Devil shall be ruling its land.

Jeff—Saturday