It all started there.
There is somehow a connection between what is happening in Greece and what ails profoundly the world. What the Greeks are doing now could be revelatory of what we need to do next in order not to fall again into a system which does not work. (If you want to argue on that, feel free.)
Wolfgang Münchau wrote an article for the Financial Times stating that Greece must default it it wants democracy — because Germany is asking for some extreme insurances for the money it is willing to lend. Crazy demands by ze Germans?
The first was the incendiary proposal, contained in a policy paper, to impose a fiscal Kommissar on Athens, with the power to veto economic policy decisions. After that was rejected, officials proposed using an escrow account, which would ensure that the eurozone can withhold funds to Greece at any time without triggering a default. But clearly the most extreme proposal is to suspend the elections and keep the technical government of Lucas Papademos in place for much longer.
Münchau caught my eye when he said that these demands weren’t adequate to Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative. If Germany does not want to implement the same measures to itself, why would Greece do it? I especially find that the fact that the German government asked to postpone the elections in Greece is a saddening proof that even in the European Union the value of democracy in itself has lost some of its past shine.
The Germans being so rigid on virtual principles is surprising: now is the time for pragmatism in policy-making because so many turning points are taking place at the same time everywhere around the world.
Although the second bailout package has been agreed on in the German parliament, trying to reimburse the debt is not going to be a smooth procedure. The amount of money that Greece needs will not be limited to this. It is needed now that the European Union admits that Greece is bankrupt and work to erase its debt.
This doesn’t make economic sense? Who will pay back? No one and it does not matter — that much. This article, written by Christian Rickens for Der Spiegel gives some detail about the bailout package. Around a quarter of the package will not arrive in Athens and will go directly to the country’s international creditors. This leaves 100 billion euros to to the government which is clearly not enough. The problem has nothing to do with the numbers, really, the setting of this package was flawed since its inception.
In truth, Greece has of course been bankrupt for a long time. The country doesn’t need debt forgiveness of 70 percent, it needs a 100 percent debt cut if it is ever to recover. This sick cow won’t be producing any milk for years to come.
Most of the countless officials dealing with the Greek problem in the euro zone are well aware of this simple truth. Some of them, including people in the German government, privately admit that the €130 billion won’t solve the problem. It’s only about buying time, they say. Time until the financial markets have stabilized to such an extent that they can weather a Greek default without a disastrous chain reaction. Without bank insolvencies, without domino effects through credit default swaps and without an explosion of bond yields in the euro zone’s other ailing economies.
While legislators are waltzing in their offices in Berlin and Brussels not doing much to prevent the now inexorable fate that awaits Greece, Greeks themselves have started to consider a different way of life. Sometimes, the answer comes from the eye of the storm itself, rather than from quiet corridors.
In an article called “Vivre en décroissance” published on the 10th of February in French newspaper, Le Monde, Olivier Razemon and Alain Salles correspondents in Athens gave an enthralling account of daily life in Greece. But first, “décroissance” means degrowth which is more or less an, environmentalist, anti-consumerist and anti-capitalistic political and economical movement.
Yes, it reads like a lot of anti-something and not much like a sleek and tailored political message. The absence of true leaders may be causing this confusion but degrowth ideas are already being put in application by quite a lot of citizens in Greece.
In the article, the journalists talk about to Nea Guinea, a project-collective which aims to empower citizens with the self-management of their basic everyday needs such as food, energy, health and clothing. They report on how the thirty-year old couple behind the project is growing basil, tomatoes, thyme and spinach on their roof; how Kostas teach how to build photovoltaic panels and wind turbines or solar ovens in the basement of Nea Guinea and how the wife, Fotini gives Yoga lessons and advice on how people should treat themselves with plants.
A growing body of disillusioned thirty-year olds is starting to adopt the degrowth way of life. Degrowth is scary, they say because technically it is the same as economic recession. Recession however is not to be lived through while degrowth can be an alternate way of life. Of course, this wouldn’t work except if happens simultaneously all around the world — that people stop using money.
To see that a people are turning to other opportunities at large-scale is nonetheless impressive. What must be done is clearer than what politicians say, we must never forget this fact. Meanwhile some people are writing articles in front of their computers and some are moving forward.
Newsletter: one mail a day keeps the boredom away.