Για όλα φταίει το Μνημόνιο!

(also in ENG at the bottom)

Δεν μπορεί να έχει υπάρξει μεγαλύτερη ύβρις στον κόσμο ανά τους αιώνες!

Δεν υπάρχουν λεφτά για τα αναγκαία. Κόβονται μισθοί και δαπάνες στην υγεία στην εκπαίδευση στην λογική. Το κράτος καταρρέει συμπαρασύροντας τα πάντα. Και αντί να μειώσουμε το κράτος για να μπορέσει να παρέχει τα βασικά και αναγκαία, ζητάμε να αυξηθεί! Μα καλά το έχουμε χάσει τελείως; Πόσο ιερές είναι πια αυτές οι αγελάδες; Tο χειρότερο είναι ότι αντί να απολυθεί ένα τμήμα του πελατειακού δημοσίου εξευτελίζεται το σύνολο των εργαζομένων, δημόσιων και ιδιωτικών.

Αλλά για όλα φταίει το μνημόνιο! Γιατί αν δεν υπήρχε, αυτό το θέμα θα είχε λυθεί από μόνο του πριν τρία χρόνια. (Σημ.: δεν θα ήμασταν σήμερα εδώ να το συζητάμε αλλά λεπτομέρειες τώρα!)
Τρία χρόνια μετά, είναι απίστευτο αλλά η ηρωική, πατριωτική, ριζοσπαστική λύση είναι το περισσότερα ελλείμματα, περισσότεροι φόροι, μεγαλύτερο χρέος. Τώρα ποιός θα μας δανείσει, λεπτομέρειες τώρα!

Καλά για τον χρυσό να μην το συζητάμε καλύτερα. Μεσαίωνας!

Φταίνε και οι ασύδοτες τράπεζες γιατί χρεοκόπησαν για να μην χρεοκοπήσει ανεξέλεγκτα το ελληνικό δημόσιο. Λεπτομέρειες τώρα! Αυτές πάντα φταίνε. Γιατί ακόμα και αν δεν ξέρεις εσύ ακριβώς το γιατί, αυτές ξέρουν.

Τώρα, με οριακά ισοσκελισμένο προϋπολογισμό, είναι η ώρα να αναλάβουμε τις πραγματικές ευθύνες μας. Τόσο καιρό, αντιπολίτευση και συμπολίτευση κρυβόμαστε (κρύβονται) πίσω από ένα μνημόνιο. Ήρθε η ώρα να κάνουμε το δικό μας μνημόνιο, αυτό μεταξύ μας.

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my English Version

There must have been no greater hubris in the world! Ever!

There's no State money for necessities. Horizontal wage cuts and spending cuts on health, education and public investments defy all logic in such a depression. The State collapses dragging everything with it. Yet, instead of reducing the state to a size that is sufficient to provide the basic necessities, we hear –here in Greece- more calls for its enlargement! Have we completely lost our minds? How insane is this? How sacred are those “holly cows”1 after all?
The worst part is that instead of laying off those public sector employees that were hired because of political patronage in large numbers (the spoils system), we humiliate all the workers. Both in the public and in the private sector with massive reductions in nominal and even more so in disposable incomes!
Put the blame on the MOU2. Should there have been no MOU this issue would have been resolved since 2010. (Note: we wouldn’t be here discussing it though but that’s a minor detail!) Three years later, it‘s hard to grasp but the heroic, patriotic, radical and “humane” solution for the many “indignados” is more deficits, more taxes, and more debt! Well, one should ponder who would be willing to lend us? But that’s another minor detail!
Or better put the blame on the banking sector; those irresponsible Greek banks that went bankrupt in order to satisfy the northern voters and the IMF/Troika statisticians on debt sustainability. That way we have avoided the uncontrollable default of the Greek government (not to say that we have avoided a major contagion risk spreading throughout the Eurozone) but that’s another minor detail, as well!
Today, with roughly a balanced budget and a primary surplus insight, it's time we take up the responsibility. For almost three and a half years, all of us, both the opposition and the government (all governments) we are hiding behind the Memorandum. It's time we do our own memorandum of understanding, amongst ourselves.

1 The civil servants that no one seems to be able to let them go like India’s holly cows.
2 All the populist sides and leaders of the rebellious “indignados” seem to agree on that respect. The MUO is to blame for our predicament. 

The problem with fantasia (Deus ex machina)

In Disney’s masterpiece Fantasia, Mickey Mouse, the Sorcerer's Apprentice is tired of fetching water by pail. When the sorcerer departs from his workshop, he seizes the opportunity and enchants a broom to do the work for him using magic in which he is not yet fully trained. He gets mesmerized by his newfound powers but soon the floor is awash with water. The apprentice realizes that he cannot stop the broom because he does not know how.

Not knowing how to control the enchanted broom, the apprentice cuts it in pieces with an axe. However, instead of stopping it, each of the pieces becomes a new broom and takes up a pail and continues fetching water, now at twice the speed. When all seems lost, the sorcerer returns and in a “biblical” fashion he quickly breaks the spell and saves the day.

The story is based on Goethe’s poem “Der Zauberlehrling”, written in 1797. It is a very graphical representation of a situation where someone overwhelmed by his problems summons the help of others –allies in politics- that he cannot control. Soon he realizes that he ends up with a far worse mess than the one he was trying to resolve in the beginning. Sounds familiar? Probably yes!

But there is another lesson to be learned. That is “don’t mess with things you don’t fully understand”. For example; it is very self assuring to think that a magical solution exists for Greece’s troubles.

“We first curtail the remaining public debt; then we erase all the conditions (MOU’s) and relevant legislation and because we are young and innocent we will renegotiate our magic with the universe from scratch. And if that was not enough, because we want it the universe will conspire to make it happen.”

But this doesn’t happen, even in fairytales and poems; why will it happen in real life?

And now a real life question: assuming you are wrong and the universe doesn’t conspire to make it happen. What happens next? Is there an old sorcerer to save the day? Is there a “Deus ex machina” to save us all? Not really unless you are Euripides or Goethe or a Mickey Mouse apprentice.