Have Greeks become like us?

In Greece, protesting crowds pack steel clubs they can hurt the police with and they set buildings on fire.

In Greece, protesting crowds don’t do seena-kobi (chest-beating) and lie down on the roads naked. They pack steel clubs they can hurt the police with and they set buildings on fire. Other behaviour traits are the same. They want their lives subsidised by a state that is bankrupt.

Why is Greece bankrupt? Because people don’t pay taxes! And every Greek is out to make a buck in defiance of law. Greek governments lie to the outside world about the national economy which is up to its eye-teeth in debt. It dished out bonds to the world which are now junk; and the lending banks in Europe are fearing collapse if Greece doesn’t pay up. The IMF and the European Central Bank have pledged up to $145 billion to rescue Greece. But Greece is $400 billion in hock!

Greece is only 11 million people. Compared to them, our 180 million look like saints. But Greek railways earn only $100 million euros while the salaries of railwaymen are $400 million. And trains run several hours late! The school system is so bad parents have to hire private tutors to get their children to pass exams. Familiar? Health system allows state hospitals to buy medicines at inflated prices; and doctors are bribed routinely to do the job they are paid for by the state. By the time ministers leave office they can buy villas and live like kings.

Greece cooks its figures. This is because huge sums were loaned to it by the EU provided it kept the budget deficit at three per cent. In October 2009, it said it had a deficit of 3.7 per cent; two weeks later it said it was 12.5 per cent! But by the time outsiders finished taking a look, the deficit was 14 per cent! The agriculture ministry thought it could digitise public lands. (Somewhat like us trying to eliminate the patwari.) It employed 270 people for the job — most of them hairdressers!

This comes from the Vanity Fair magazine of October 2010 (Beware Greeks bearing Bonds) and this is what a rare honest tax collector says: “The Greek people never learned to pay their taxes. Because no one is ever punished. It’s a cavalier offence — like a gentleman not opening a door for a lady”. But he would not interview together with fellow honest collectors because he hated them all! It is a Greek-hate-Greek situation.

In 2001, Greece entered the European Monetary Union, swapped the drachma for the euro, and acquired for its debt an implicit European (read German) guarantee. Greeks could now borrow long-term funds at roughly the same rate as Germans — not 18 per cent but five per cent. To keep the deficit low, it then had to engineer false statistics. Result: many lender banks in the EU will collapse because of Greek default.

Today, Greece is very ‘oriental’ in its habits although centuries ago it gave Europe its way of thinking about democracy and ethics. Its historical rival, Turkey, is considerably westernised just across the Aegean, but remains ‘oriental’ and ‘Muslim’ in the eyes of Europe. In contrast to Greece, latest reports on Turkish economy say it grew at an annual 10.3 per cent because of low interest rates. What did not work in Pakistan is working in Turkey and consumers are pushing the economy along.

The US and UK want Turkey in the EU; Germany and France don’t. But the real trouble for now is coming from Greece. Economically, it is becoming like Pakistan, without, of course, the additional curse of terrorism. Will Greece change? Germans, who have to foot most bills in the EU, are highly sceptical. And Pakistan? If cricket is any indicator…

Published in The Express Tribune, October 31^st, 2010.