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Education and financial crisis
by Thanos Kalamidas
2010-11-11 09:18:20 |
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Cameron’s honeymoon is over but the one who is really going to regret his momentum in power is definitely going to be Nick Glegg. After all it was the leader of the liberal democrats who kept talking about education during the electoral campaign that brought them to the odd partnership and power.
For months now most of the European countries have been pointing the finger at Greece and her economic situation that led to dispirit measures hiding or better ignoring their own financial situation but the moment of reality has come to most of them. Ireland this moment is facing the same problem Greece was dealing with last spring when the country was borrowing from the banks in so high rates that was making nearly impossible to pay back. And Portugal is not far behind with Italy to follow. And it is one thing when crisis hits Greece and Portugal but when it hits industrial Italy then everything changes and this crisis takes a new dimension all together.
The same time and due to contemporary economic theories the only way to preserve and deal with the crisis is to cut expenses from the public sector risking moving the public services into private sector dangerously Americanizing the welfare state for all to the state for the few and privilege and the same time not touch the private money machinery because they might help into the recovery. Actually this last bit is something I never understood, if you don’t increase tax to the money machine controlled by the industrialists and bankers, if you give them every service to increase their income including better condition on how to handle workers cutting off union and workers’ rights and when you actually invest to their private plans how the hell you going to short out your problem remains a mystery. I suppose they are investing in future profits like gabling in the stock market but the last two decades have shown how bad idea was when the states invest in the stock market and private sector mainly because the state doesn’t have the necessary flexibility and ruthless.
So as the great detective pointed ones what remains even though the most unreasonable is the only solution and in this case what remains to the state to pump is the non privilege, the ordinary people and how we start? Of course with public services and public obligations. Pensions are always the easy victim that’s why they are always first in the list. Increasing retirement age was a great trick to send a whole generation to a questionable retirement while when they were taking money from their salary to support their retirement they hadn’t warn them or change those deductions equally. But that’s only the beginning.
Education used to be the right of the financial privilege for many social reasons and it worked for centuries keeping people who could offer and change things in the dark, actually keeping whole civilizations in dark and whole eras of our human history. But from the nineteenth century most leadership realized that the future of the nations depended on an educated well youth. After the independence war and victory against the Ottoman Empire they asked the marshal of the Greek army and main strategist of the war where the future of Greece lay and he pointed at the direction of Athens University. Just thing how many things would have been different all around the world if everybody had access to good education and in these ‘how many things’ I definitely include terrorism wherever it comes from.
But there is another thing with education; it is always one of the high points in any kind of electoral campaign. Think one candidate from any part of the political spectrum who hasn’t made extended points about education. Think one politician who while in the opposition hasn’t attacked the government for education reasons. It is because everybody is interest and worries for the education. Well Nick Glegg had it very high in his agenda ready to break the last frontiers of free and education for all. Now he’s going to support double fees for the higher education and nearly 30% cuts in the British education as whole.
Oddly I didn’t see Hilary Clinton complaining about the cuts for the education the same way she complained about the cuts for the army. They all feel the …necessity! And just think how many are going to be happy with less accessible education or education for the few. At least the young people understand; perhaps that they are educated helps!
Ovi+Europe Thanos_Kalamidas Ovi UK |
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