Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Rays of Hope in Greece?

For over 3 years now, one has become accustomed to the fact that news from Greece are bad news. This is why I want to point out that, of late, there have been several reports in the other direction. They suggest that, unbelievably, there might be a chance of things getting better. Perhaps even some hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, after all. Here is a selection:

Ten rays of light in the Greek crisis
EU Task Force sees improvements in Greece

Well, what is to be made of that?

The most important conclusion which could be drawn from such positive news is that - perhaps, perhaps, perhaps - it is not true that 'Greece and Greeks will never ever change'. That statement I have heard on many occasions, always by Greeks, and I have to admit that I have come around to believing it.

Secondly, there is just no way that things can always and only go down. At some point, bottom is reached and the trend will be reversed. Many people project that point of reserval to come next year. Let's hope that they are correct. But at some time it will have to come. No way to avoid that.

But one cannot ignore the almost unbelievable size of the challenge. The last thing I heard is that Greece now has about 1,5 million people unemployed (about 800.000 without any income) and many others who are in very dire straits.

It may well be (and let's hope it will be!) that some time in the near future the bottoming-out will occur; that we will start seeing growth rates replacing destruction rates. Presumably, that will also have an impact on spirits which is badly necessary.

But one has to bear the sad reality in mind that an economy of the size of Greece's has no way of creating over 1 million new jobs in a reasonably short time frame. And that, in my opinion, is the crux.

Will those over 1 million Greeks accept their misfortune and remain quiet? Or will they leave the country for greener pastures elsewhere? Or will they stay in the country and begin causing social trouble?

Time will tell.

4 comments:

  1. I can not value the Greek economy in detail, but imho it does not look good and in http://www.macropolis.gr/?i=portal.en.the-agora.423 the situation looks pretty dark.

    H.Trickler

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps you overlooked my questionmark in the title...

      BTW, your comments mostly come in classified as 'spam'. I have no other commentator who is not spam but who does come in as spam, so it doesn't appear to be a problem on my end.

      Delete
    2. I always use "Replay as Anonymous". I also have an account tricky1 at wordpress. That logon works on other pages but not on yours?

      Delete
  2. "Or will they stay in the country and begin causing social trouble?"

    I bloody well hope they do!

    ReplyDelete