Janus, Clio and the poison
by Achilles Hekimoglou
Greece, my homeland, is a country full of powerful contradictions.
Born in the cradle of Europe and the gate to the East, we Greeks have the rare capability to speak the same language with, practically, everybody.
We can speak with the eyes to our Balkan fellows, talk about business with a Dutch, attend an art exhibition with a German, flirt like a Spaniard and dress like an Italian or attach to the family as a Turk or an Arab.
Our tremendous Egos - a result of an ultra-conservative education system and the powerful bonds of the traditional Mediterranean family - are usually minimized by the hard work and our natural tendency to travel and fit almost everywhere.
That’s the human context of the Greek Janus.
Like all countries, Greece has a history and some burdens.
Our unfinished obligations may be hundreds or thousands and most of them are legacies from the 20th or the 19th century. Many things should have been fixed. But they weren't.
Nonetheless, during these years of the international crisis, the Greeks have paid a heavy burden, perhaps heavier than anybody else in Europe. Lives are being destroyed on a daily basis with no hope of returning back to normality. This news usually does not arrive in the front page of the international newspapers.
At the same time, the entire world has witnessed the inability of the Greek political system that lacks vision, guts and inspiration. That's our fault. We are the ones that elected them and that's something that we should fix.
But this doesn't mean that the Greeks have to be punished as an example for other black sheep or “PIGS”. And that is because the financial crisis has made every single one of us a potential candidate for poverty, misery and despair.
In the global battle between politics and the markets, who is safer? Italy? France? Belgium? Sweden? Nobody knows. And those who claim the opposite are either ignorant or liars. The only weapon that has been used against the expansion of the crisis is the good old package of fiscal measures and austerity with poor results.
Nobody is safe nowadays, not even powerful Germany. The fear of the markets and the rating agencies controls the European capitals and Berlaymont.
If the members of the European Elite believe that they would beat the crisis, save the Euro and their countries’ prosperity, if they sentence millions of Greeks to financial death they would be as successful as the doctors of the Dark Times, who healed the wounds of the crusaders, by cutting the leg or the arm of the warriors.
Greece doesn't need a punishment, but motives to produce, create and evolve.
Now, that the time of the hard choices has come and under the burden of the living history that it's being written, once again, Greeks are asked to pick a side of their Janus that will grant them a minimum hope for survival.
I hope that we’ll choose wisely.
But, do our fellow friends realise that, if they give this poison to Greece, an antidote will be necessary?
And have they considered that the absence of an antidote may condemn their children to be next?
I pray that Clio, the muse of History, will show them the way.
Greece, my homeland, is a country full of powerful contradictions.
Born in the cradle of Europe and the gate to the East, we Greeks have the rare capability to speak the same language with, practically, everybody.
We can speak with the eyes to our Balkan fellows, talk about business with a Dutch, attend an art exhibition with a German, flirt like a Spaniard and dress like an Italian or attach to the family as a Turk or an Arab.
Our tremendous Egos - a result of an ultra-conservative education system and the powerful bonds of the traditional Mediterranean family - are usually minimized by the hard work and our natural tendency to travel and fit almost everywhere.
That’s the human context of the Greek Janus.
Like all countries, Greece has a history and some burdens.
Our unfinished obligations may be hundreds or thousands and most of them are legacies from the 20th or the 19th century. Many things should have been fixed. But they weren't.
Nonetheless, during these years of the international crisis, the Greeks have paid a heavy burden, perhaps heavier than anybody else in Europe. Lives are being destroyed on a daily basis with no hope of returning back to normality. This news usually does not arrive in the front page of the international newspapers.
At the same time, the entire world has witnessed the inability of the Greek political system that lacks vision, guts and inspiration. That's our fault. We are the ones that elected them and that's something that we should fix.
But this doesn't mean that the Greeks have to be punished as an example for other black sheep or “PIGS”. And that is because the financial crisis has made every single one of us a potential candidate for poverty, misery and despair.
In the global battle between politics and the markets, who is safer? Italy? France? Belgium? Sweden? Nobody knows. And those who claim the opposite are either ignorant or liars. The only weapon that has been used against the expansion of the crisis is the good old package of fiscal measures and austerity with poor results.
Nobody is safe nowadays, not even powerful Germany. The fear of the markets and the rating agencies controls the European capitals and Berlaymont.
If the members of the European Elite believe that they would beat the crisis, save the Euro and their countries’ prosperity, if they sentence millions of Greeks to financial death they would be as successful as the doctors of the Dark Times, who healed the wounds of the crusaders, by cutting the leg or the arm of the warriors.
Greece doesn't need a punishment, but motives to produce, create and evolve.
Now, that the time of the hard choices has come and under the burden of the living history that it's being written, once again, Greeks are asked to pick a side of their Janus that will grant them a minimum hope for survival.
I hope that we’ll choose wisely.
But, do our fellow friends realise that, if they give this poison to Greece, an antidote will be necessary?
And have they considered that the absence of an antidote may condemn their children to be next?
I pray that Clio, the muse of History, will show them the way.
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