Blog: Greek austerity measures were the easy bit
Blog: They have done the easy bit, getting the austerity measures passed, that was never in doubt, the alternative was instant bankruptcy.
Former Shropshire man Colin Dodd writes about the Greek debt crisis from his home on the island of Kefalonia
Blog: They have done the easy bit, getting the austerity measures passed. That was never in doubt; the alternative was instant bankruptcy.
Now comes the hard part, actually implementing them. The feeling is that there will be a general election later this year, the result of which is a source of much discussion in the local bars. Who is going to vote for Pasok after all the riots and protests we have had recently? NOBODY.
Who is going to vote for the opposition, who played a major part in getting the country into this mess? NOBODY.
The answer, in the words of a well known song, is blowing in the wind.
We had some planned power cuts a week ago, the power workers were striking in protest at the privatisation measures that are to be introduced. These workers are currently on a good wage, a good pension plan, and, believe it or not, if the daughter of ANY of the people employed in the industry gets married, said employee gets a tax free handout of 12,000 euros to help with the wedding. There are a great many employed by the power company, which covers all of Greece, so the yearly handout bill will be quite substantial. The figures are not made public. I wonder why.
Before the phone company was taken over by OTE, any employee of that company was given FREE phone access. As there are a large number of American and Canadian Greeks here, one can only imagine the sort of bills they would be running up chatting to Granny in New York for a couple of hours etc etc.
The feeling amongst the locals on Kefalonia is that successive administrations have dug their own grave with far too many perks for public sector employees, far too many public sector employees, and a totally negative attitude to the root cause of the current situation, TAX EVASION.
Now, having dug their grave, the time is approaching to occupy it. There is no doubt that foreigners WILL be installed to oversee privatisation and the spending of any bailout cash in Greece. The Greeks' past record of corruption in high places will make that a racing certainty.
Greece has the next cash injection in hand, but the party has not started yet. When it does, expect more strikes, more riots and more massive protests. This blinkered approach is slowly leading us down the path to a re-introduction of the Drachma. That should be very interesting.
I see that the medical profession in the UK is talking about taking industrial action. After our experience of that here, I wish you luck, and try not to fall ill.
Best wishes from sunny Kefalonia
Colin
