"You are listening to the voice of Greece. Greeks, stand
firm, proud, and dignified. You must prove yourselves worthy of your history.
The valor and victory of our army has already been recognised. The
righteousness of our cause will also be recognised. We did our duty honestly.
Friends! Have Greece in your hearts, live inspired with the fire of her latest
triumph and the glory of our army. Greece will live again and will be great,
because she fought honestly for a just cause and for freedom. Brothers! Have
courage and patience. Be stouthearted. We will overcome these hardships.
Greeks! With Greece in your minds you must be proud and dignified. We have been
an honest nation and brave soldiers."
“An address from Athens Radio the day before the Greek
capitulation in the war of 1940/1941….”
In the early hours of
October 28th, 1940, the Italian ambassador to Greece Emmanuel Grazzi
presented the Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas with an
ultimatum that demanded Greece to allow Italian troops occupy Greek
territory. Mr. Metaxas responded with a firm “oxi” (“no”) and that event has
always been commemorated as an example of steadfastness and bravery of a nation
when faced with a threat of invasion.
It is all the more mind
boggling that the current Greek leadership is docilely begging for loans and
can’t stand up to the challenge and put its financial house in order. There are
some recent publications “as in The Economist” that literally call it “the
scapegrace” of the European Union for its lack of a resemblance of discipline
and clear idea of getting out of the current quagmire. Perhaps it is time for the Greek people as
well as the citizens of the world to say “oxi” to the existing world order and
strive for a better future unobstructed by greed and begging for loans.
There are several trends
that are poised to form the world order in the years to come that certainly
deserve careful analysis. The recent elections in Tunisia for instance seem to
be the harbinger of a political development in the entire region-namely the
ascendance of religion and faith as predominant factor when choosing who to
vote for. There are several reasons for that and this article will attempt to
shed some light on the causes that led to the victory of the Nahda party there.
In the mean time the western part of the world has been rocked by the grass
root “Occupy Wall Street” movement that seems to be digging in for a long
battle with the existing political order. It’s interesting to note a recent
announcement made by the office of the Vatican that effectively proposed the
world to establish a supranational financial authority that could set the
course of the global economic development in order to avoid crisis and mismanagement
as the ones occurring in Europe. So what seems to be the parallel between a
moderate religious party winning the elections in Tunisia, a grass root
movement in the West and the Vatican getting involved in macroeconomics?
The answer could be associated
with a dramatic dissatisfaction that citizens across the globe are experiencing
with the current state of affairs-namely corruption, enrichment based not on
good business but on manipulation of political connections and favors and ultimately
unfettered greed.
Corruption has always
been present in various countries but what has occurred in the last twenty or
thirty years has been unfathomable and hard to accept. If we just mention the
millions embezzled by Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippinnes, Taxin Shinawatra in
Thailand, Alberto Fujimori in Peru, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, oligarchs in Russia
and Ukraine, Bernie Madoff in the US, the list can go on and on and on. They
all have been either presidents of countries or high level participants in the
financial order that allowed them to swindle money while pretending they were
involved in legitimate governance or business operations. What that perception
of enrichment based on power created in the world was the dissatisfaction with
the status quo and ultimately searching for ways to topple the existing order
and replace it with one that would be more sensitive to the plight of the
ordinary people.
Tunisia is a perfect
example of the trend that is due to sweep through the entire region in the near
future. It is a country of approximately 11 million people that was the first
in the Arab World to overthrow its dictator and have free elections. The party
that won the majority in the Parliament on October 23rd was Nahda-a
political establishment based on moderate religious postulates. It would be
quite near sighted to brandish it “islamist”. The reason the people in Tunisia
voted for Nahda is not because they wanted some sort of “sharia” state to be created
but because they thought that Nahda would “steal less”, meaning would be less
corrupt in the long run.
I can’t help but
associate myself with the lines of people on this past Sunday waiting patiently
to cast their votes in the cities of Tunisia. It reminded me of the early free
“elections” in Bulgaria that I witnessed when everyone was excited and ready
for a change. What occurred however was corruption and general lack of trust to
the ruling elite as it proved itself to just strive for enrichment based on
power and not even remotely think about “the people”.
Another example of a
failure based on greed would naturally be Greece. The European Union is still
struggling to find a solution how to handle the crisis. In order to understand what happened in
financial terms, imagine a consumer whose annual salary, for the sake of
argument, is say $20,000 a year. Then imagine that person borrows $31,000 by
forging his financial statements, etc. Then imagine he spends it all in Las
Vegas overnight and then picture him calling the banks the following day
telling them that he can’t pay, and asking them to lower his debt to $15,000 if
they want to get anything back at all. That’s exactly what Greece has been
doing for the last two years. It borrowed roughly 160% to its GDP (or what its
revenue is per annum) and now it is saying that this debt is unsustainable and
if the banks want something back they should consider a “haircut” or reduction
of 50 cents to the dollar. What is even more appalling is the fact the Greek
government is now asking its “people” to sacrifice and share the burden of this
debt that was accumulated without their knowledge to start with.
I also can’t help but
remember a high ranking minister from a country in Africa whom I met while he was
visiting Washington, DC who was handing out $100 bills to the staff at the
hotel he was staying in as gratuity. That was happening when that particular
country’s nominal GDP per capita was a mere $186!
The current
disillusionment with the existing world order will continue to be essential for
the years to come. More “Nahda” parties will appear and people will vote for
them because they think that the basic humanistic values like “Don’t steal”
that lie in every major religion are to be upheld and cherished. The world
however is lacking a leader like Charles De Gaulle or Willie Brandt to inspire
people all over the world and propose a solution to the current predicament.
Let’s hope that one day
there will be a world that is united and based on the very humanistic essential
values that have sustained us over so many centuries regardless if the religion
is Christian, Muslim or Buddist.. Perhaps the United Nations will also become a
“world parliament” without special interests and vetoes. Perhaps one day a
leader as Ioanis Metaxas will have the courage to say “oxi” (“no”) to the injustice
done and the world will become a better place without greed and embezzlement,
perhaps……
