Catch 22
I enjoyed this article by Nikos Dimou in The Observer particularly the part where the writer explains that the Greeks theoretically support all the reforms required to turn their economy around, but only on the basis that normal, everyday life is not disturbed.
Now that sounds like something straight out of Catch 22 - important reforms are agreed but then deliberately sabotaged so that, in practice, nothing changes.
The bailout crisis: why Greece is content to put the blame on Germany
Berlin is cast by Athens as the fount of its troubles, but Greek politicians must bear part of the blame
Germany’s invasion of Greece near Larissa on 19 April 1941. Photograph: Roger Viollet Collection/Getty Images
By Nikos Dimou - The Observer
Never have Greek-German relations been as bad as they are today. The image of the heartless, cold and disciplinarian Germans hovers over Greece – while in Germany the talk is of the lazy, greedy and spendthrift Greeks who milk the German taxpayer.
Traditionally Germans have been the most ardent admirers of ancient Greece. German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) was the first to depict the Greek antiquity as an ideal of otherworldly perfection. The classical image of Greeks as tall, blond Aryans was his invention. He influenced poets from Goethe and Hölderlin to Byron and the entire romantic 19th century. Greece owes its liberation from the Turks to the fact that public opinion in all of Europe was on its side.
The first king of Greece was a German: Otto, prince of Bavaria. His father, Ludwig, was so passionate about Greek antiquity that he transformed his capital, Munich, into an “Athens of the North”. Otto came to Greece with an army of German professors who tried to Europeanise the country – with limited success. German archaeologists excavated some of the most famous Greek sites (Olympia foremost), and German scholars published the best editions of classical authors.
Of course, the second world war changed everything. The Germans invaded Greece – after their allies, the Italians, had failed in their attempts – and remained in the country for three-and-a-half years, during which they committed more atrocities than in any other conquered nation.
After the war, relations resumed and soon ameliorated. During the 1960s, many Greeks went to Germany as Gastarbeiter (guest workers) and brought back money and secondhand Mercedes cars. Germans visited Greece as tourists and loved the beaches and the carefree style of living. The woes of the war seemed forgotten, to the extent that by 2005, according to an opinion poll, 78% of Greeks cited Germany as their favourite nation.
Greeks have always had a love-hate relation with the Germans. On one hand, they admired German discipline and thoroughness (and adored German products). On the other, they could not abide their Protestant work ethic, their seriousness and their austerity. And then came the economic crisis.
It would take pages to analyse the many reasons and causes behind it. I would mainly blame our politicians – especially the administration of the Socialist leader Costas Simitis and its decision to join the euro in 2001. Greece was not ready for such a hard currency.
Its nonexistent productive mechanism could not profit from it – while the low-cost borrowing that it permitted was a constant temptation. It was (to quote myself) like letting a five-year-old loose in a sweet shop.
So the main culprits were the Greek politicians. But the European authorities must also take some blame. By 2006, when the interior minister, Prokopis Pavlopoulos (now head of state), hired hundreds of thousands of public sector employees and the pharaonic expenses for the Olympic Games had emptied the public treasury, it was already clear that Greece would never be able to cope with such a debt burden. But nobody from the international institutions intervened.
The causes of the crisis may be complex – but the Greeks always needed a simple and straightforward answer. They have a long history of attributing their problems to foreign powers and agents. When I was a child, it was the English (“the secret finger of the intelligence service”) who were to blame. Then, for five decades, it was the US and the CIA. In the 1980s and 1990s, Greece was the most anti-American nation in the world after Pakistan.
And now the enemy is Germany. But why only Germany? After all, many factors were involved: the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and 18 eurozone states.
One explanation is that Germany is the biggest and most powerful nation in Europe. It is very visible and suits all kinds of conspiracy theories. It has an arrogant style and a dark record. The war’s bad memories were unearthed. Popular radio commentators constructed an imaginary world, with Greece once again under German occupation. This time it was the Fourth Reich of the iron lady chancellor. The Greek politicians were Quislings and traitors – and some of these radio journalists actually saw the Wehrmacht patrolling our streets.
Of course, the Germans are to blame for some things – especially their approach to Greece’s problems, which was almost military. The troika just ordered people around. Trying to reform a country and change the mentality of an entire nation, without taking into consideration its customs and ways of thinking, can be lethal.
The problem with northern Europeans is that they regard Greece as a typical European nation. This is not true. Greece is different. It has not experienced all the ideological movements that formed western Europe. There has been no Renaissance, Reformation or Enlightenment. It is a border country between east and west. According to Samuel P Huntington (in his The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order), it belongs to an entirely different civilisation: the Orthodox one, together with Serbia and Russia.
Having had a lot of problems with the west (starting with the Fourth Crusade, which instead of liberating Jerusalem sacked Constantinople), Greeks have always felt a deep mistrust of western initiatives. Being insecure because of their problematic identity (east-west/ancient-modern) they tend to reject change and restructuring. Theoretically they like reforms – as long as they do not affect their life.(This is why Greek politicians have been consistently sabotaging all changes, in order not to confront their electoral clients and the almighty unions of the public sector.) So instead of reforms, Greeks got pay cuts and austerity measures that resulted in a 26% unemployment rate – and a 25% loss of national income.
No one explained to suffering and worried people how and why reforms would help them earn more, live better, feel more secure. Neither the Greek politicians nor western bureaucrats have done anything to sell these programmes to the Greeks. So it is understandable that they would feel oppressed and reacted negatively.
The left and Alexis Tsipras profited from this reaction and promised to liberate people from oppression. That gained them victory. But now they feel trapped because, as they very well know, reforms are necessary. In many ways Greece (especially the public sector) still belongs to the 19th or early 20th century. But how do you go back on your (highly charged) words? As a policy, it is better to blame the Germans. For everything.
It’s a very old propaganda trick: you fabricate an enemy, a culprit, a scapegoat, and throw all responsibility on them. Given the historical context and the behaviour of Wolfgang Schäuble, who was wagging his admonishing index finger at Greeks for four years – this was an easy job.
So it came to be that our ex-beloved nation became our arch-enemy.
Nikos Dimou is author of 65 books, including the international bestseller On the Unhappiness of Being Greek
By Nikos Dimou - The Observer
Never have Greek-German relations been as bad as they are today. The image of the heartless, cold and disciplinarian Germans hovers over Greece – while in Germany the talk is of the lazy, greedy and spendthrift Greeks who milk the German taxpayer.
Traditionally Germans have been the most ardent admirers of ancient Greece. German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) was the first to depict the Greek antiquity as an ideal of otherworldly perfection. The classical image of Greeks as tall, blond Aryans was his invention. He influenced poets from Goethe and Hölderlin to Byron and the entire romantic 19th century. Greece owes its liberation from the Turks to the fact that public opinion in all of Europe was on its side.
The first king of Greece was a German: Otto, prince of Bavaria. His father, Ludwig, was so passionate about Greek antiquity that he transformed his capital, Munich, into an “Athens of the North”. Otto came to Greece with an army of German professors who tried to Europeanise the country – with limited success. German archaeologists excavated some of the most famous Greek sites (Olympia foremost), and German scholars published the best editions of classical authors.
Of course, the second world war changed everything. The Germans invaded Greece – after their allies, the Italians, had failed in their attempts – and remained in the country for three-and-a-half years, during which they committed more atrocities than in any other conquered nation.
After the war, relations resumed and soon ameliorated. During the 1960s, many Greeks went to Germany as Gastarbeiter (guest workers) and brought back money and secondhand Mercedes cars. Germans visited Greece as tourists and loved the beaches and the carefree style of living. The woes of the war seemed forgotten, to the extent that by 2005, according to an opinion poll, 78% of Greeks cited Germany as their favourite nation.
Greeks have always had a love-hate relation with the Germans. On one hand, they admired German discipline and thoroughness (and adored German products). On the other, they could not abide their Protestant work ethic, their seriousness and their austerity. And then came the economic crisis.
It would take pages to analyse the many reasons and causes behind it. I would mainly blame our politicians – especially the administration of the Socialist leader Costas Simitis and its decision to join the euro in 2001. Greece was not ready for such a hard currency.
Its nonexistent productive mechanism could not profit from it – while the low-cost borrowing that it permitted was a constant temptation. It was (to quote myself) like letting a five-year-old loose in a sweet shop.
So the main culprits were the Greek politicians. But the European authorities must also take some blame. By 2006, when the interior minister, Prokopis Pavlopoulos (now head of state), hired hundreds of thousands of public sector employees and the pharaonic expenses for the Olympic Games had emptied the public treasury, it was already clear that Greece would never be able to cope with such a debt burden. But nobody from the international institutions intervened.
The causes of the crisis may be complex – but the Greeks always needed a simple and straightforward answer. They have a long history of attributing their problems to foreign powers and agents. When I was a child, it was the English (“the secret finger of the intelligence service”) who were to blame. Then, for five decades, it was the US and the CIA. In the 1980s and 1990s, Greece was the most anti-American nation in the world after Pakistan.
And now the enemy is Germany. But why only Germany? After all, many factors were involved: the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and 18 eurozone states.
One explanation is that Germany is the biggest and most powerful nation in Europe. It is very visible and suits all kinds of conspiracy theories. It has an arrogant style and a dark record. The war’s bad memories were unearthed. Popular radio commentators constructed an imaginary world, with Greece once again under German occupation. This time it was the Fourth Reich of the iron lady chancellor. The Greek politicians were Quislings and traitors – and some of these radio journalists actually saw the Wehrmacht patrolling our streets.
Of course, the Germans are to blame for some things – especially their approach to Greece’s problems, which was almost military. The troika just ordered people around. Trying to reform a country and change the mentality of an entire nation, without taking into consideration its customs and ways of thinking, can be lethal.
The problem with northern Europeans is that they regard Greece as a typical European nation. This is not true. Greece is different. It has not experienced all the ideological movements that formed western Europe. There has been no Renaissance, Reformation or Enlightenment. It is a border country between east and west. According to Samuel P Huntington (in his The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order), it belongs to an entirely different civilisation: the Orthodox one, together with Serbia and Russia.
Having had a lot of problems with the west (starting with the Fourth Crusade, which instead of liberating Jerusalem sacked Constantinople), Greeks have always felt a deep mistrust of western initiatives. Being insecure because of their problematic identity (east-west/ancient-modern) they tend to reject change and restructuring. Theoretically they like reforms – as long as they do not affect their life.(This is why Greek politicians have been consistently sabotaging all changes, in order not to confront their electoral clients and the almighty unions of the public sector.) So instead of reforms, Greeks got pay cuts and austerity measures that resulted in a 26% unemployment rate – and a 25% loss of national income.
No one explained to suffering and worried people how and why reforms would help them earn more, live better, feel more secure. Neither the Greek politicians nor western bureaucrats have done anything to sell these programmes to the Greeks. So it is understandable that they would feel oppressed and reacted negatively.
The left and Alexis Tsipras profited from this reaction and promised to liberate people from oppression. That gained them victory. But now they feel trapped because, as they very well know, reforms are necessary. In many ways Greece (especially the public sector) still belongs to the 19th or early 20th century. But how do you go back on your (highly charged) words? As a policy, it is better to blame the Germans. For everything.
It’s a very old propaganda trick: you fabricate an enemy, a culprit, a scapegoat, and throw all responsibility on them. Given the historical context and the behaviour of Wolfgang Schäuble, who was wagging his admonishing index finger at Greeks for four years – this was an easy job.
So it came to be that our ex-beloved nation became our arch-enemy.
Nikos Dimou is author of 65 books, including the international bestseller On the Unhappiness of Being Greek
