I have been wondering… should I comment cynical, satirical, offended or just angry? I can’t decide… But slowly an answer comes up in my mind. Yes, we can sell the Acropolis for 1 trillion euro but only to Bild readers and only if they manage to collect this sum with the social care allowances they receive monthly. And then only if they can pass a culture and history test and prove they can appreciate the priceless value of this eternal monument.
Photoshop by BILD/ Picture from AP
German populist daily BILD in the usual manner of beer-belly humour asks the crucial question that upsets millions of Greeks including the Prime Minister: “Must Greece sell the Acropolis?”
The EU increases pressure!
Bankruptcy candidate Greece should sell off state property in order to finally get money into the cashiers. The Euro finance ministers have decided so in Brussels on Monday.
Athens had announced in March sales of 50 billion euros of state holdings and the sale of property. Something not implemented up to now.
BILD recounts the statements of the finance ministers of Austria Maria Fekter and France Christine Lagarde, and continues:
Greece has some for sale
Opposite to the 340 billion euro there standing state properties worth of 270 billion euro. However it is not so simple to be sold as in many cases the real estate titles are not clear.
Currently, experts from the European Central Bank (ECB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU Commission examine the Greek-saving efforts and the debt sustainability. The report is to be submitted by June. Based on the results the finance ministers (?) will then decide on further action.
If the report is negative, the next financial aid for the Greeks in the amount of twelve billion euros in is question. A worst case scenario! Athens needs the money, otherwise it looks bad for the payment of salaries and pensions as of July. Government bonds could not be refinanced. The default threatens …
As at the very end, the EU will not let Greece neither default nor exit the euro zone, I see the Germans work until the age of 81 to come up for the Greek debt… In order to buy the Acropolis, of course…
The original article in German you can read here
My impression is, and I live in Australia, that Germans, particularly that frumpy female leader, hates Greece and I find that really offensive. Who is Germany to really have a passive-aggressive stance toward a nation after all the hell they have unleashed in the 20th century? As a nation, they practically were responsible for a terrible genocide and when it comes to Greece, their current leader has the audacity to be a bitch.
My view is the EU does not want to lose face. At the end of the day they know that their system is not working. You cannot have a monetary policy that is favourable to countries like Germany and France and ignore the fact that other countries within the supposed ‘union’ have different economic conditions. Each country needs to either have its own monetary policy or the EU and countries like Germany need to shut the hell up and work together with other countries. They can’t have a union and have it both ways.
I forgot to add to my above comment (so people don’t misunderstand) that in addition to different monetary policies that consider varying economies, Greece needs to wake up and by ‘Greece’ I mean corrupt politicians but also citizens who live beyond their means and have over-loaned themselves and think they don’t need to pay tax.
From some Australian Greeks I constantly hear their complaining, that everything is the fault of politicians. That may be so, but it’s not like many Greek citizens care about sharing the tax load. Every other democratic country that isn’t facing an incredible crisis has or has had a taxation system in place. In the past, I’ve had friends who’d amaze me with their apathy regarding their tax status in Greece. Who do they expect to foot their bills?
I find it incredible that people cannot easily access medical assistance in Greece unless they pay a ‘fakelo’. It’s a terrible system and sometimes a system has to reach its nadir before people wake up and make changes.
At the rate Greeks were spending, on themselves on their ‘good lives’, they didn’t even consider the future. It’s a shame, but that’s the harsh truth. Still, it doesn’t justify Merkel being a bitch, but Greece did contribute to its financial problems by also taking out loans (I think one of the last loans they took that brought them to their knees was from Lehman Brothers) that it also couldn’t afford to pay.
there are several reasons about the ‘bad morals’ of Greeks concerning taxes. One – maybe the main reason for the masses of the people – is that taxes are not redeeming. For health and education for example people spend x- hundreds and thousands per year to help their children with educational skills, pay operations and other medical needs as the state facilities and organisations need months to provide essential care. To get prescription medicine I need 2 whole months to get an appointment. People with cancer have to wait 2 even 6 months to get life saving treatment.
Not to mention the ‘bribes’ one needs to ‘push’ issues through public administration.
This money has to come from somewhere….