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Sacrificing the Europeans like PIGS
by Thanos Kalamidas
2011-11-15 08:13:29

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Amazingly the German chancellor, Angela Merkel declared in her party’s conference that leaving Europe to collapse is something unthinkable while she among the rest of the European leadership leave Europe to slip away. And they doing that the last two years applying the dogma too little too late with latest victim to be Italy.

And if they want to blame Berlusconi and Papandreou is fine, especially Berlusconi did all the mistakes by the book and he did them for a whole decade, but this doesn’t change the fact that doesn’t matter the name of the person who rules Italy or Greece the problem remains. Actually it doesn’t matter the name of the leader of Portugal, Ireland, Spain or Portugal. The problem is still there and the solution is not. There is only damage control and Europe has become the champion of damage control in every single aspect of her life, politically, economically and socially. By the way, a few months ago the rich north was talking dismissal about the European PIGS, now Belgium is definitely knocking the door how are they going to call it? The farm?

The last few months Europe is using the most ridiculous economic experiments trying to save the Euro with the logic of using aspirin to cure cancer and in the meantime the crisis deepens and while the Greek crisis seemed like a serious cough for the Europeans, the Italian situation is definitely pneumonia. And let’s see now what kind of guarantees Finland is going to ask. But what I really find amazing browsing the news and reading different analysis is that nobody is talking about the real size of the euro-zone crisis. Most enclose the crisis inside the euro-zone members forgetting first of all that all 27 European Union members one way or another depend on the Euro, use the Euro for their imports and exports and mainly for their loans as the main currency exchange and that the Euro had from its foundations – also trying to fight/replace the dollar in the international market – has included all the European satellites plus a lot of countries that wanted for one reason or another to escape from their dependence from the dollar. Again most of the analysis we read forget to mention that the hard currency this minute in Africa is the Euro. That the Euro has expelled the dollar in a few Asian areas and that South Americans for a long period – especially while the difference between euro and dollar was increasing – felt much more comfortable with the new European currency than the capitalist dollar.

Funny isn’t it that the vision of the strong euro was left in the hands of so short vision people and I’m sorry to say but the first thing the new, the banker Greek prime minister said will hunt me for long time, “I’m not a politician!” the man who took over the supreme political position in a democracy declared that he’s not a politician, he has nothing to do with the vision of Plato’s city – oddly he said it in the city of Plato – and the only thing that matters to him is numbers forgetting that the main job of the prime minister in every democratic country is to serve and protect the people. Equally the European leadership instead of serving and protecting the European people has turned them into expendable numbers in accounting sheets and they only care for the economic balance sacrificing the European citizens like …pigs!

And they try all over again the already failed cures with Italy now, first disastrous measures, then austerity and in the end a hair cut so deep that bleed the skin. Actually this is where we are today, the next step unknown but plenty of guinea pigs to try; at least that’s what they think. You see again they forget the forest and while everybody has focus on Italy, Slovenia – a country that has enjoyed a remarkable growth the last couple of years – got the first hit seeing their bonds in sale with similar interest like the Italian. And if Ljubljana looks light-years away from Berlin imagine how far Yamoussoukro of Ivory Coast looks but euro is the currency in the streets of Yamoussoukro and Merkel loved it four years ago, I’m not sure how she feels today. If she has thought of it. And I’m afraid the end of the euro-zone will not come from within but from the outside uncontrollable and without political support expansion it got. In the mean time the pigs becoming just part of the animal farm called European Union!

Ovi+economy Euro Euro-zone Ovi+Europe Thanos_Kalamidas Europe Ovi EU

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Christos Mouzeviris	2011-11-15 16:46:48
A small correction Thano, Slovenia IS a eurozone member... Perhaps you meant "as if Slovenia was not a member of the eurozone?" Anyway what you say is interesting.. How come they hit at Slovenia, since while in the eurozone the country enjoyed a healthy growth! It makes me think: it is the euro that they do not want! But who and why?


Emanuel Paparella	2011-11-15 17:44:34
Indeed Thanos. An anecdote which I suspect is not uncommon in both Italy and Greece. In Italy, in a small city of Puglia where my mother used to live there is a merchant whose name will remain unmentioned and who is one of the richest men in town. He used to own a clothing store and has not paid taxes in decades and has gotten away with it. He considers evasion of taxes a sign of high intelligence and the poor and the disadvantaged either stupid or deserving of their situation; in fact he aspects them to be grateful to him, the job creator and benefactor who gave them a job at starvation wages. At the end, when he retired and closed the store he even tried to cheat them of their severance pay and the employee ended up suing him. He comes to the US often and invariably either goes to Las Vegas or Disney world or a Carribean cruise. Nothing else interests him. In Italy he goes to soccer games every Sunday. Even Marx never envisioned that kind of “class warfare” being waged against the poor and disadvantaged (not excluding the middle class) on both sides of the Atlantic ocean. As I said, an anecdote that unfortunately is more common than one would wish.


Thanos	2011-11-15 18:07:22
Christos, you are right about Slovenia but my point is somewhere inside your question. The Euro is whatever it is the point is that they don't even understand it anymore even though they invested in its creation and growth but even that they did it in a very short vision way.


Thanos	2011-11-15 18:15:38
You said it all in the last sentence, an anecdote that unfortunately we all have seen more often than we wished. I'm afraid nowadays in Europe among others we also lack of "ethic" and demanding "ethic" from the ones who hardly understand the Aristotelian meaning of the word is just ...too much! Paraphrasing the tittle of a book, "at least Aristotle died ...early!"