Happy New Year! Oh, and by the way, do you trust your politicians???

Answer: of course not.

In a recent survey, Gallup discovered that trust in government has sunk "to a new low" in South Europe. Not surprisingly, Greece fares the lowest.

I would upload a photo to illustrate the element of non-suprise, but google has decided I should no longer do so: whenever I click on the link to choose files, it defaults to google docs -- so, no cigar...

Anyway, one he point I would like to make is that the news about South Europe's politicians' ratings is not all bad news; some of it is good.
I have met few politicians and many of the few I have met are either Greek or French. Some are English (as in GB but not N. Irish, Scots or Welsh). All of the people I have met have been pleasant, a bit over the top, and silly. Some of them are arrogant: all of the Greek ones and one or two of the French ones. All displayed varying levels of gravitas, the English ones less so than the rest, the Greek ones topping the list of pseudo-seriousness.

All in all, not attributing much credibility to politicians can be seen as a measure of, wisdom is stretching it, maturity. And maturity is welcome, especially when it right-sizes the importance of adolescents playing adults -- which is what most politicians are and do.

In the same way one would not give much credence to a 3rd Reich documentary on the Jewish race nor take the ensuing political analysis at face value... thus, it is not wise to give much more than entertainment value to the things our politicians say and do.

Especially what they say.

Case in point: European MP J. Swoboda recently made a comment on abolishing "Troikas" because, in his opinion, they have failed in whatever role assigned to them. Because this is not "democratic".Quite. And revert to the failed governments that brought them into the countries after said governments sank said countries beyond recovery... presumably that is democratic, in Mr Swoboda's opinion.

While pretending to run a country without being part of the elected reps of that country is not on the apparent agenda for most of our countries, hence the Troikas of this world are there, officially,  to "consult" and not manage.However, even if this were the case, one can wonder at the obvious import of admitting officially that you need external support to stand on your (two) feet again (i.e. the Troika) because you have made a sorry mess of it all -- and mortgaged the whole country in the process.


I.e. the actions of Greece's politicians indicate that they pay only lip service to the woes of their country's inhabitants; they are portrayed as either squabbling between them or spending their time in inane public proclamations or bandying chaff and exchanging inane platitudes in Parliamentary sessions -- those that are there and awake, that is.That is, Great entertainment value, little else.

No wonder Gallup attributes 14% trust level in Greece to government and leaders alike.Gallup are polite: what they are not saying is that 86% of all Greeks have no confidence in their country's management team: too bad Greece's stakeholders can't get rid of them and appoint the best talent in the market. Who'd need a Troika then?