I am not actually referring to the lilly-livered, balls-less, blithering idiots in England (who since the brexit scarpered fast), I am generalising.
We probably suspect that many politicians (in democratic countries) seem to be puppets, they act idiotically, they are full of themselves and not much else, and they seem easily enticed by the finance industry (take the recent example of a prominent EU politician, for example). In other words, politicians seem to not only lack values, they also don't seem to have much in the way of brain power where it matters: negotiating, for example, or thinking what's best for their country or the situation at hand.
For example, Greece's politicians in the past 10 years have literally sunk the country beyond local repair;
For example, Chamberlain was idiotic enough to believe in Hitler's promises despite evidence to the contrary;
For example, lethal misfits create havoc in France and the French President indulges in soft talk ather than action (fortunately the French police & military did take action).
For example, we have a situation with inferiority complexed criminals (who imagine they are a state - rather than in a state) and the two people who could probably get rid of them still can't fully get tjheir collaboration act together: Presidents Obama and Putin.
And, for example, we are witnessing the biggest emigration epidemic in our recent history - but most of what EU politicians are doing is throwing words (and money) at each other and try to export the problem of emigrants' upkeep to Turkey. This includes the Greek PM -- Greece being the first geographical target of the moving people.
There are many smaller examples in smaller, everyday matters -- but consider this: can you imagine your average (mediocre) politician negotiating with the CEO of a major corporation and come out on top?
It has been said that these poiticians are just a reflection of who we all are.
Are we all somewhat mediocre, or are we uninterested, or disinterested? Do we just say things and get away with it, or are the people willing to become politicians simply not very competent - the corollary being that competent children go on to do soemthing more useful?
That would be sad because opoliticians have it good: they don;t worry about mundane things such as bureacracy, taxes, they get way with petty crimes (usually, not always), they move in exalted circles, they get paid handsomely for being self-centred & not much else.
Are governments, politicians, the facilitators of a small number of people whom they represent?
Case in point: in Greece, the current fascist - socialist government has pointedly asserted its indifference to the needs of all but its voters, and very openly, as it were. In fact, that government openly declares to be partisan and represents a small minority of the population.
Are all politicians just smugly content in their comfort zone of living a life of leisure far away from everyday chores the citizens face; equally, they do not have to manage the vagaries of business either -- exaggerating a bit of course.
It would seem that such is the case.
In which case, politicians' is one of the best jobs out there, far outranking successful novelists (who have to write), successful businessman/ women (who actually have to work hard), star actors & singers (they work hard and need talent), even senior level UNESCO employees ?
Actually here, the jury is still out.
Tuesday, 19 July 2016
Friday, 24 June 2016
Brexit
Or, political misinformation takes all. So many people have been fed so much bullshit over so much time, that, in the end those most removed from the centres of visible information are, naturally misinformed.
England voted against remaining in the EU and the UK (seems to have) has to follow suit. Scotland and N. Ireland, however, voted massively in favour of remaining.
I think:
I think English politicians who were hot on for Britain's exiting the EU are kicking themselves at the actual outcome.
I think this a golden opportunity for Germany to impose itself further -- by which I mean, throw its weight around and unchain all its fears, ghosts and phobias on the remainder of the EU. Hopefully, France will stand up to them -- but I won't bank on it.
I think this is a golden opportunity for Scotland (who voted to remain) to assert its own, European, personality. After all, it is England & Wales that voted Brexit, not Scotland, so why should Scotland be left out?
And likewise, for Northern Ireland... By the way, shouldn't Eire, another pro-european country, examine the applicability of a reunion between North and South now?
There is more to come.
Stay tuned.
England voted against remaining in the EU and the UK (seems to have) has to follow suit. Scotland and N. Ireland, however, voted massively in favour of remaining.
I think:
I think English politicians who were hot on for Britain's exiting the EU are kicking themselves at the actual outcome.
I think this a golden opportunity for Germany to impose itself further -- by which I mean, throw its weight around and unchain all its fears, ghosts and phobias on the remainder of the EU. Hopefully, France will stand up to them -- but I won't bank on it.
I think this is a golden opportunity for Scotland (who voted to remain) to assert its own, European, personality. After all, it is England & Wales that voted Brexit, not Scotland, so why should Scotland be left out?
And likewise, for Northern Ireland... By the way, shouldn't Eire, another pro-european country, examine the applicability of a reunion between North and South now?
There is more to come.
Stay tuned.
Monday, 6 June 2016
A man I met is grieving the loss of his daughter, recently killed in a car accident when a mindless man driving a truck rammed into her car, stopped at a red light.
Disasters happen all the time, no doubt, and also befall poeople I never met. Fortunately, good things also happen; these happy events also befall people I know and many others I do not.
In the grand scheme of things, maybe that's the way the world balances itself out: some people experience good and others are hit by disaster.
In a manner of speaking, in the hierarchy or tragigedy, the worse off are the ones that are no longer with us: the daughter for example.
Then there are the people who are left behind, they feel the loss. It is incomprehensibe, especially if it is totall out of order - loss of a child, for example.
Trying to understand, to find a kind of reason behind the unjustifiable, is veritably grasping at straws trying to inject reason into the tragically absurd: what is there to say or think of the loss of a 29 year old who had stopped at a traffic light and is now dead?
Some people look to religion to find solace. It is God's Will but, does God's Will offer a justification for an act of unspeakable horror? Does the child go to heaven? Even if so, that doesn not justify its unnaturally short sojourn on earth.
Does the bereaved one place the grief in God's hands? Even so, that will not change reality.
At least, in these cases there is a lot of goodwill from all around and people are ready to advise "you have to be strong, you have to carry on..." -- but often, these friendly pep-talks are just another version of teh ubiquitous "there, but for the grace of God, am I".
After, all, to what purpose should, say, the father of the dead girl pull himself together and carry on? What is there, from a purely emotional point of view that justifies being strong - other than life itself - the act of beating death? Does one say "I will live on to remember her"?
I am fortunate at this stage to say, don't know.
I think there is only one remedy - if remedy it is: closure.
And closure, if it is to introduce some kind of balance between the the event and its cause, must be congruent with thevalues ofthe ones left behind.
Disasters happen all the time, no doubt, and also befall poeople I never met. Fortunately, good things also happen; these happy events also befall people I know and many others I do not.
In the grand scheme of things, maybe that's the way the world balances itself out: some people experience good and others are hit by disaster.
In a manner of speaking, in the hierarchy or tragigedy, the worse off are the ones that are no longer with us: the daughter for example.
Then there are the people who are left behind, they feel the loss. It is incomprehensibe, especially if it is totall out of order - loss of a child, for example.
Trying to understand, to find a kind of reason behind the unjustifiable, is veritably grasping at straws trying to inject reason into the tragically absurd: what is there to say or think of the loss of a 29 year old who had stopped at a traffic light and is now dead?
Some people look to religion to find solace. It is God's Will but, does God's Will offer a justification for an act of unspeakable horror? Does the child go to heaven? Even if so, that doesn not justify its unnaturally short sojourn on earth.
Does the bereaved one place the grief in God's hands? Even so, that will not change reality.
At least, in these cases there is a lot of goodwill from all around and people are ready to advise "you have to be strong, you have to carry on..." -- but often, these friendly pep-talks are just another version of teh ubiquitous "there, but for the grace of God, am I".
After, all, to what purpose should, say, the father of the dead girl pull himself together and carry on? What is there, from a purely emotional point of view that justifies being strong - other than life itself - the act of beating death? Does one say "I will live on to remember her"?
I am fortunate at this stage to say, don't know.
I think there is only one remedy - if remedy it is: closure.
And closure, if it is to introduce some kind of balance between the the event and its cause, must be congruent with thevalues ofthe ones left behind.
Friday, 3 June 2016
The Elusive Randomness of Fortune
Nothing new here, not a new story at all. Some are born with it and some are born without. Of the latter, some grow into it, marry into it or actually build it, and others remain the same. And most fall soemwhere in-between.
"It" being Fortune of course. Whatever way we look at it, the apparent randomness is there; for (like me) it is right before me but elusive because I cannot seem to be able to grasp it firmly in my hands. And yet it's there, I it.
I rarely think of those for whom, in my eyes, i.e. visibly, it's far away. Take the Syrians, for example, or low income Afghans, both living in fear. There are many others. Take my neighbours, the ones I do not know who may be strugglingto make it financially, through this month.
I (and most of us, I'm sure) think of my other neighbour, the one who fell in love and married that fantastic resourceful girl: together they have amassed enough to not worry about the future and they look happy together. Very happy. Or yet another neighbour, the one who married that tall thin, beautiful woman with perfect manner, daughter of a very. very auto industrialist...
Most of us think in terms of what we do not have, and much of what we think we do not have comes to our mind through comparison, rather than intrinsic need. We compare ourselves to, the seemingly fortunate, others and feel they're just one of us -- in all respects but one: the ultimate turn of fortune.
And this makes me think:
If all the people living under a jurisdiction of sorts - say a country - were brainwashed into thinking that everyone lived equally badly, would they just sit back and bear it? Especially if they were told that people outside that commuinity or jurisdiction, or country, lived even worse and are heading head-on for a major melt-down?
After all, a comforting lie is alsways a comfort first and a lie second.
Comfort trumps sincerety.
I think these people would.Maybe that is the example of Cuba, the case of Nazi Germany and of the first Soviet era and even, in more subtle ways, take the case of Greece and France, for example; for example, Greece is run by (allegedly) corrupt and visibly weak governments, their present one being a fascist-left wing coalition that has gone back on all its declarations and promises, one that has openly declared that journalists have too much freedom and that the people should be protected from the internet. France has a Socialist President whose popularity has reached historical lows, a government that has never openly lied but is not doing much better in popularity and, when said government proposed to reform retirement and dramatically change tax laws -- all hell broke loose. They took most of it back.
In Greece, taxes & contributions are a record setting 67%, doing business is "punished" (as one minister - G Kyritsis said), an additional 26% tax was insituted aimed at contractors, lower-scale pensions were further lowered and... nothing happened. The people jsut bear it. Is it the fear of even worse or is it the comfort of basking in soothing lies. Who knows?
One thing is for sure: another neighbour, one who fell in love and married a very wealthy young lady is very happy with his, equally radiant, wife. They didn't buy it. They live in London UK. Another friend, a beautiful young lady who married a very rich (self-made) man also didn't buy it: they are living in Luxambourg where their son is very happy at the international school.
So, when the French don;t buy it, they revolt. When the Greeks don't buy... they prefer to believe the lie that is fed -- or leave.
One up for being born into, or marrying money: if you don't buy the spiel you can alsways go elsewhere. Much easier than a revolution or bearing it while you're screwed over.
"It" being Fortune of course. Whatever way we look at it, the apparent randomness is there; for (like me) it is right before me but elusive because I cannot seem to be able to grasp it firmly in my hands. And yet it's there, I it.
I rarely think of those for whom, in my eyes, i.e. visibly, it's far away. Take the Syrians, for example, or low income Afghans, both living in fear. There are many others. Take my neighbours, the ones I do not know who may be strugglingto make it financially, through this month.
I (and most of us, I'm sure) think of my other neighbour, the one who fell in love and married that fantastic resourceful girl: together they have amassed enough to not worry about the future and they look happy together. Very happy. Or yet another neighbour, the one who married that tall thin, beautiful woman with perfect manner, daughter of a very. very auto industrialist...
Most of us think in terms of what we do not have, and much of what we think we do not have comes to our mind through comparison, rather than intrinsic need. We compare ourselves to, the seemingly fortunate, others and feel they're just one of us -- in all respects but one: the ultimate turn of fortune.
And this makes me think:
If all the people living under a jurisdiction of sorts - say a country - were brainwashed into thinking that everyone lived equally badly, would they just sit back and bear it? Especially if they were told that people outside that commuinity or jurisdiction, or country, lived even worse and are heading head-on for a major melt-down?
After all, a comforting lie is alsways a comfort first and a lie second.
Comfort trumps sincerety.
I think these people would.Maybe that is the example of Cuba, the case of Nazi Germany and of the first Soviet era and even, in more subtle ways, take the case of Greece and France, for example; for example, Greece is run by (allegedly) corrupt and visibly weak governments, their present one being a fascist-left wing coalition that has gone back on all its declarations and promises, one that has openly declared that journalists have too much freedom and that the people should be protected from the internet. France has a Socialist President whose popularity has reached historical lows, a government that has never openly lied but is not doing much better in popularity and, when said government proposed to reform retirement and dramatically change tax laws -- all hell broke loose. They took most of it back.
In Greece, taxes & contributions are a record setting 67%, doing business is "punished" (as one minister - G Kyritsis said), an additional 26% tax was insituted aimed at contractors, lower-scale pensions were further lowered and... nothing happened. The people jsut bear it. Is it the fear of even worse or is it the comfort of basking in soothing lies. Who knows?
One thing is for sure: another neighbour, one who fell in love and married a very wealthy young lady is very happy with his, equally radiant, wife. They didn't buy it. They live in London UK. Another friend, a beautiful young lady who married a very rich (self-made) man also didn't buy it: they are living in Luxambourg where their son is very happy at the international school.
So, when the French don;t buy it, they revolt. When the Greeks don't buy... they prefer to believe the lie that is fed -- or leave.
One up for being born into, or marrying money: if you don't buy the spiel you can alsways go elsewhere. Much easier than a revolution or bearing it while you're screwed over.
Friday, 13 May 2016
Business In Greece: How'bout Doing The Islands Instead?
A friend who -- in his words -- is cursed to have his home in Athens Greece, wishes to set up a small company in Greece. It is a sort of simple garage operation designing & assembling audio devices, very small scale.
First you have to register your comapny and to do it "fast track" has taken 6 weeks exactly - not counting the time to gather the "papers" (yes, that's right, hard copies) which took the better part of two weeks prior to this. Fortunately, this friend has another friend who is very well versed in Greece's bureacratic labyrinths and had warned in advance of what is really needed -- as opposed to what the indifferent civil servant at the tax office says is needed.
Then, 6 weeks into the saga, the register of commerce (another obligatory and paying step to creating a company in Greece) rejected the file because the shareholders' resumes were missing. That is after they had requested, tax returns, address, etc all sorts of private data that are the domain of the NSA and terrorists in other parts of the world.
The resumes were necessary, it was claimed, to see if shareholders have a degree attesting to knowledge in electronics!!??
By the same brilliant piece of reasoning, every telecom company's shareholders team must have one person with a degree in telecom and any football club operation must have at least one shareholder with a degree in football... And what about the entertainment industry: a degree in applied copulation?
Then, the moment came to open a bank account: why not open it before? Because you cannot open an account until you have a company.
This takes about one month and requires the same package of private data, this time given out to a bank teller who probably has little better to do than gossip about your tax return with her / his boy/girl friend.
And onece youre up and going, there is more: if you plan on exporting, you will never receive a return VATreturns owed to you without a consideration of exactly 10% (under the table) for small sums dropping to 5% for large sums.
Worse, if you are in arrears and request that the VAT owed is balanced agaist your arrears - forget it. It doesn't work that way.
Business in Greece?
What a joke!
Try holidaying instead. Prices have gone down in certain respects and you might even consider bying some property - pay the seller abroad, in cash if possible, and there's a win-win situation right there.
First you have to register your comapny and to do it "fast track" has taken 6 weeks exactly - not counting the time to gather the "papers" (yes, that's right, hard copies) which took the better part of two weeks prior to this. Fortunately, this friend has another friend who is very well versed in Greece's bureacratic labyrinths and had warned in advance of what is really needed -- as opposed to what the indifferent civil servant at the tax office says is needed.
Then, 6 weeks into the saga, the register of commerce (another obligatory and paying step to creating a company in Greece) rejected the file because the shareholders' resumes were missing. That is after they had requested, tax returns, address, etc all sorts of private data that are the domain of the NSA and terrorists in other parts of the world.
The resumes were necessary, it was claimed, to see if shareholders have a degree attesting to knowledge in electronics!!??
By the same brilliant piece of reasoning, every telecom company's shareholders team must have one person with a degree in telecom and any football club operation must have at least one shareholder with a degree in football... And what about the entertainment industry: a degree in applied copulation?
Then, the moment came to open a bank account: why not open it before? Because you cannot open an account until you have a company.
This takes about one month and requires the same package of private data, this time given out to a bank teller who probably has little better to do than gossip about your tax return with her / his boy/girl friend.
And onece youre up and going, there is more: if you plan on exporting, you will never receive a return VATreturns owed to you without a consideration of exactly 10% (under the table) for small sums dropping to 5% for large sums.
Worse, if you are in arrears and request that the VAT owed is balanced agaist your arrears - forget it. It doesn't work that way.
Business in Greece?
What a joke!
Try holidaying instead. Prices have gone down in certain respects and you might even consider bying some property - pay the seller abroad, in cash if possible, and there's a win-win situation right there.
About A Friend, I'll Call Her Eva T.
Eva is a vibrant person full of life and positive energy. No-one has the same reassuring aura as Eva(ggelia). She is the archetypal can-do person.
Eva T was a manager at one of the major globl insurance agents. I say was, because Eva is no longer of this world. I say is because nothing can wipe out the energy, the sheer strenght and willingness to live -- not even death.
Eva T has two children, both very capable and hardy; it rubbed off on them as well!
Eva T was a manager at one of the major globl insurance agents. I say was, because Eva is no longer of this world. I say is because nothing can wipe out the energy, the sheer strenght and willingness to live -- not even death.
Eva T has two children, both very capable and hardy; it rubbed off on them as well!
Tuesday, 5 April 2016
Greece, the IMF, and Their Respective Accountants (or, Thomsen vs Tsakalotos for Minister)
Greek media has made known that the Greek government is leaking rumours that Mr Thomsen, IMF envoy responsible for Greece, is
(unofficially) "non grata" in Greece because "we cannot have him (Mr
Thomsen) acting as the Minister of Finance..."
While it is not for me to appoint one for Greece, the country's present government opened the door allowqing a comparison between the actual Minister, named Euclid Tsakalotos and P Thomsen. Given each person;s public performance thus far and using the country benefit as a yardstick, I am hard pressed not to propose Mr Thomsen to become officially the finance minister for Greece.
A few pointers:
+Euclid Tsakalotos comers from a wealthy family; Poul Thomsen comes from a modest family; Tsakalotos has the nicer name of the two (Euclid kills Poul anytime): this is a no-brainer in favour of Tsakalotos.
+Mr Thomsen has work experience, Mr Tsakalotos doesn't yet (unless you count his stint at being a minister of economics)
+Mr Tsakalotos speaks English and some Greek; Mr Thomsen speaks english and no Greek.
+Mr Thomsen is very well placed to negotiate with the IMF and can handle talks with other insitutions as proven by his experience. Mr Tsakalotos has no experience in this matter and is still a nonentity in matters of negotiation.
+Mr Thomsen has been actively involved with Greece and the country's interests (as he and his organisation sees these interests) and its survival since 2010, i.e. 6 years. Mr Tsakalotos has been unaware of his country's interests and supremely (as a well-intentioned romantic) indifferent to them until less than a year ago.
It is clear that Thomsen is the better candidate of the two to take on the role of Minister of Economics etc.
Tsakalotos should go back teaching fairy-tale economics to 1st semster students.
The Greek government should opt for Thomsen in a heartbeat - especially as someone else is paying his salary!
While it is not for me to appoint one for Greece, the country's present government opened the door allowqing a comparison between the actual Minister, named Euclid Tsakalotos and P Thomsen. Given each person;s public performance thus far and using the country benefit as a yardstick, I am hard pressed not to propose Mr Thomsen to become officially the finance minister for Greece.
A few pointers:
+Euclid Tsakalotos comers from a wealthy family; Poul Thomsen comes from a modest family; Tsakalotos has the nicer name of the two (Euclid kills Poul anytime): this is a no-brainer in favour of Tsakalotos.
+Mr Thomsen has work experience, Mr Tsakalotos doesn't yet (unless you count his stint at being a minister of economics)
+Mr Tsakalotos speaks English and some Greek; Mr Thomsen speaks english and no Greek.
+Mr Thomsen is very well placed to negotiate with the IMF and can handle talks with other insitutions as proven by his experience. Mr Tsakalotos has no experience in this matter and is still a nonentity in matters of negotiation.
+Mr Thomsen has been actively involved with Greece and the country's interests (as he and his organisation sees these interests) and its survival since 2010, i.e. 6 years. Mr Tsakalotos has been unaware of his country's interests and supremely (as a well-intentioned romantic) indifferent to them until less than a year ago.
It is clear that Thomsen is the better candidate of the two to take on the role of Minister of Economics etc.
Tsakalotos should go back teaching fairy-tale economics to 1st semster students.
The Greek government should opt for Thomsen in a heartbeat - especially as someone else is paying his salary!
Thursday, 3 March 2016
Visa Europe Collab - New Hub
Visa Europe collab brings together a communicty of people with ideas and the stamina to implement the ideas -- about payment: how to make it, how to make it simple, safe, soft, hard, you name it -- and it may happen! So, there is a community and a new hub is being created in SE EUrope -- in Sofia Bulgaria.
Why Sofia, Bulgaria?
Apart fromaesthetic reasons, subjective reasons and the fact that basically Sofia is a nice place and is populated by nice, hospitable people, and the living is very reasonable in Sofia, I can offer other reasons as well. More objective ones and more specific to Bulgaria as opposed to, say, Greece.
FOr that matter, why choose Sofia and not Athens?
On the latter, I can give many reasons - but, basically, two:
1) It is illegal to operate such lose "collab" communities in Greece and labour inspection can barge in at any time and fine everything & everyone in site at 10k a pop, for any number of reasons. For example: have these people been declared, where is their contract, how many hours are they working, what is the job title, have their hourly schedule been filed with appropriate authorities, are there foreigners here???...
In Greece, there is no legislation favouring or simplifying studetns employment - they have to be declared offically, the social security declared in addition to their insurance as students - there is confusion which of teh two regimes applies -- and at the end of the day, there is a danger that a minimum expected income will apply in the next fiscla year when the studetn is not working but is expected to pre-pay taxes!
2) What is the fiscal situation? Does it apply?
Well, we don't know. For income accrued in the year 2015 it is not known yet. Let alone for future years? And what is the status of such a "collab community"?
Better leave it.
Sofia is great, tax is officially low, labour law is flexible - all you have to do is pay your dues when and if they are due.
Exactly.
That's why most Greek start-ups move outside the country OR are actually born outside the country.
In Bulgaria, for example, to where a record 160,000 businesses have moved from Greece. Which means that some of their people have also moved there.
That's a third reason why a Visa Collab would *not* choose Athens.
It is unfortunate that Athens needs such initiatives, desperately.
Why Sofia, Bulgaria?
Apart fromaesthetic reasons, subjective reasons and the fact that basically Sofia is a nice place and is populated by nice, hospitable people, and the living is very reasonable in Sofia, I can offer other reasons as well. More objective ones and more specific to Bulgaria as opposed to, say, Greece.
FOr that matter, why choose Sofia and not Athens?
On the latter, I can give many reasons - but, basically, two:
1) It is illegal to operate such lose "collab" communities in Greece and labour inspection can barge in at any time and fine everything & everyone in site at 10k a pop, for any number of reasons. For example: have these people been declared, where is their contract, how many hours are they working, what is the job title, have their hourly schedule been filed with appropriate authorities, are there foreigners here???...
In Greece, there is no legislation favouring or simplifying studetns employment - they have to be declared offically, the social security declared in addition to their insurance as students - there is confusion which of teh two regimes applies -- and at the end of the day, there is a danger that a minimum expected income will apply in the next fiscla year when the studetn is not working but is expected to pre-pay taxes!
2) What is the fiscal situation? Does it apply?
Well, we don't know. For income accrued in the year 2015 it is not known yet. Let alone for future years? And what is the status of such a "collab community"?
Better leave it.
Sofia is great, tax is officially low, labour law is flexible - all you have to do is pay your dues when and if they are due.
Exactly.
That's why most Greek start-ups move outside the country OR are actually born outside the country.
In Bulgaria, for example, to where a record 160,000 businesses have moved from Greece. Which means that some of their people have also moved there.
That's a third reason why a Visa Collab would *not* choose Athens.
It is unfortunate that Athens needs such initiatives, desperately.
Friday, 12 February 2016
Communication Crises: Vying for Attention, Who cares About the Victims
Yesterday morning I was communication and digital communication with a Public Relations executive.
She specialises in managing crises - from a communications point of view.
She detailed the tactics one follows, before, during and following the crisis inducing event; how one identifies and then focuses on stakeholders and stakeholders' communication channels. And she gave me examples of what happens in such cases. How the stakeholders often pich up cudgels and staves in favour of the victims (real or purported).
The victims are usually the employees of the corporation.
Let's take the example of a corporate "reorganisation" -- i.e. firing of employees en masse.
As I listened to her describe the stakeholders involvement, during & post event , realised a number of things.
Two stand out: they illustrated the utter folly of self-centred selfishness of all actions involved
1) Consumer organisaitons rallying in favour of Boycotting the corporation (to teach them a lesson): obvious boomerang effect, especially for the smaller subsidiaries of multinationals. Hitting the company where "it hurts the most" safely results in the loss of more jobs as the corporate numbers no longer add up.
So, more lay -offs.
But, does anyone care - other than the employees and their friends and families? Which brings me to the second realisation.
2) No stakeholder actually cares about the stakeholders; unions, consumer organisations, local municipalities, etc, outdo one another in their efforts to captivate attention and push forward their own agenda - basically their own awareness and PR campaign.
Stakeholders couldn't care less about the victims. If ever anything good comes out of any of the usually vociferous mobilisations pursuant to a crisis inducing action, it is fortuitous.
Had the stakeholders been really interested, the would have campaigned long and hard to attract global attention - even for a legendary 15min! Hit corporate equity where it hurts most: the corporate image. Research and come up with real dta; present said data. Go global, try to go viral with it. And put the vistims first.
Ain;t gonna happen.
Victims are alone... except for happy coincidences. Maybe.
She specialises in managing crises - from a communications point of view.
She detailed the tactics one follows, before, during and following the crisis inducing event; how one identifies and then focuses on stakeholders and stakeholders' communication channels. And she gave me examples of what happens in such cases. How the stakeholders often pich up cudgels and staves in favour of the victims (real or purported).
The victims are usually the employees of the corporation.
Let's take the example of a corporate "reorganisation" -- i.e. firing of employees en masse.
As I listened to her describe the stakeholders involvement, during & post event , realised a number of things.
Two stand out: they illustrated the utter folly of self-centred selfishness of all actions involved
1) Consumer organisaitons rallying in favour of Boycotting the corporation (to teach them a lesson): obvious boomerang effect, especially for the smaller subsidiaries of multinationals. Hitting the company where "it hurts the most" safely results in the loss of more jobs as the corporate numbers no longer add up.
So, more lay -offs.
But, does anyone care - other than the employees and their friends and families? Which brings me to the second realisation.
2) No stakeholder actually cares about the stakeholders; unions, consumer organisations, local municipalities, etc, outdo one another in their efforts to captivate attention and push forward their own agenda - basically their own awareness and PR campaign.
Stakeholders couldn't care less about the victims. If ever anything good comes out of any of the usually vociferous mobilisations pursuant to a crisis inducing action, it is fortuitous.
Had the stakeholders been really interested, the would have campaigned long and hard to attract global attention - even for a legendary 15min! Hit corporate equity where it hurts most: the corporate image. Research and come up with real dta; present said data. Go global, try to go viral with it. And put the vistims first.
Ain;t gonna happen.
Victims are alone... except for happy coincidences. Maybe.
 |
| Let us, at least, drink to the health of these victims. More than their job, in many countries they also lose their medical care. |
Thursday, 14 January 2016
David Robert Jones and Thoughts on Genius
David Bowie (David Robert Jones) dies 5 days ago on Jan 10th.
Ziggy Stardust lives on.
The Rocket Man embarked upon his last journey from earth.
Thinking of Bowie while watching Clapton play in a video, I wondered what makes such people what they are.
The word I ended with is genius: these people have genius.
What is this genius?
I reflected on this for a while, trying to understand genius (not easy as I am not one) and trying to make a long issue brief.
Ultimately, I think that genius is a combination of many things; these things come together in a person and that person stands out: globally, universally.
More to the point, that person brings together all these elements and that is what makes that person stand out, globally, universally.
Others may have elements and do not bring them together - or not to a similar degree.
Here are some of the elements I thought of:
Not easy to fit a genius inside a brief post!
Ziggy Stardust lives on.
The Rocket Man embarked upon his last journey from earth.
Thinking of Bowie while watching Clapton play in a video, I wondered what makes such people what they are.
The word I ended with is genius: these people have genius.
What is this genius?
I reflected on this for a while, trying to understand genius (not easy as I am not one) and trying to make a long issue brief.
Ultimately, I think that genius is a combination of many things; these things come together in a person and that person stands out: globally, universally.
More to the point, that person brings together all these elements and that is what makes that person stand out, globally, universally.
Others may have elements and do not bring them together - or not to a similar degree.
Here are some of the elements I thought of:
- They have the music inside them
- They have or acquire sufficient technical expertise to express this music to the world
- They have perception of how we want to hear music
- They are not afraid to immerse themselves into world and do their thing
- They are not afraid of reflecting, identifying, and creating or implementing their thing
- The times are receptive
- These people are perceptive and intuitive: perceptive to respond to their times and intuitive, allowing heart & mind to work together
- They have the competence to attract the right people around them and the foresight to distance themselves from the wrong people
- Create the right events
- Be fearless in doing things
- Be THEMSELVES at all times
- Recognise themselves and their calling
- Follow their intuition and their calling
- Overcome their fears - sublimate their shortcomings, let their qualities flow
Not easy to fit a genius inside a brief post!
Monday, 9 November 2015
A Greek Politician at a Public Event, hosted at Parliament in London.
A speech was given by Thanos Tzimeros, a Greek politician and leader of Dimourghia Xana, at a public event that took place in Parliament on the 4th November 2015.
It addresses issues surrounding Greece, its present state and thoughts about a possible more positive future.
T. Tzimeros is a good talker and often manages to be humorous, caustic, and truthful in even doses in his addresses. In so doing he does not distort reality; and the few numbers included in his speeches are usually correct AFAIK.
It is not a bad text and it does give a reasonably accurate overview of why things are what they are in Greece and how they came to be as they are. And it is refreshingly short for a politician...
No further comments necessary.
------------
"Right Honourable Members of the British Parliament, dear all!
I thank you for the invitation and for granting me the opportunity to analyze the causes that have driven my country, a country which in the past inspired poets and philosophers, to inspire today only cartoonists and presenters of satirical shows.
Greece is a country in deep crisis, a crisis that is not only financial. I would dare to say that the financial issue is the least of its problems. For the past 35 years, Greece has been living through a continuous decline in ethics, institutions, public life, education and the level of its leaders.
There is no precedent in World History where a government adopted as its official state policy the blackmailing of its partners. This is precisely what SYRIZA did during its seven-month "negotiation" with the European Union - negotiation in quotation marks. And, let us not forget that the EU partners had already given to a basically bankrupt state, an enormous debt “haircut” and two bailout loan agreements with extremely favourable terms, mostly at the expense of the European taxpayers.
It is clear that the SYRIZA government went to Brussels with the following shocking message, a message which was its central platform during the pre-election campaign period: "You lend us money, we spend it. And, we intend to keep on spending in the exact same way that led us into bankruptcy; on huge pensions for fifty-year olds and on salaries for hundreds of thousands of redundant civil servants, many of whom with a ghost job description. And, not only shall we not fire any persons holding sinecure offices, but we shall hire even more civil servants and create more early pensioners. We are not undertaking any commitments for the new loans that we want you to give to us, and we demand that you write off the old ones." Unbelievable!
According to the SYRIZA propaganda in Greece, there was not even one in a million probability that the European Union would turn down the demands of SYRIZA, because the alternative of not lending to this Neo-Bolshevik Greek government would be the collapse of the European Union, a much greater catastrophe that the leaders of the European Union would certainly want to avoid!
I am ashamed for my country’s government. I am ashamed for its politicians. I am ashamed of the image of Greece in the modern world. I admire the composure and patience of the European governments that continued to negotiate for 7 months with these blackmailers! However, surprisingly, the SYRIZA won the national elections for a second time in a row. What has happened? Have the Greeks gone mad?
No. Even for the most irrational of behaviors there is always a rational explanation. But one has to look at the entire picture. Please, allow me a brief historical overview. It is essential in order to comprehend the Greek Drama.
The rule of law was never really applied in Greece, a country that did not go through the renaissance and the enlightenment. The Ottoman occupation was succeeded by an Ottoman model of governance, “Greek style”. The Greek State has always been a mixture of guilds and interest groups, in conflict with each other. The core of this model has always been state sponsored patronage. In Greece we call it “clientelism”. The Greek citizens have been giving their vote to those from whom they expected the greatest benefit.
The Greek politicians, on the other hand, ensured their re-election by giving away public money through the appointments to civil service positions, and through the granting of pensions and allowances. Policies to benefit the entire Greek population have never taken hold in Greece. The political parties seized power by any and all means, lawful or not, in order to look after their client sextion of the people and, of course, to put their hands on the public money wich is taxpayers’ money, as the late baroness Thatcher used to say.
Consequently, in the past, the Greeks were divided because of conflicts of interest and not because of substantial ideological differences. The ideological differences came after the civil war. Under the pretext of the communist danger, the rightist governments, who won the civil war, adopted practices of legalized fascism, which divided the Greeks between “loyalists” and “infected”. Infected were not only the communists, but also the progressive thinking citizens. No person could occupy public office, get higher education, or even marry a civil servant, unless they could obtain a “certificate of political convictions”, granted by the police, which certified that none of the person's family members had ever been involved in any “anti-national activity”.
Given the fact that this term is totally vague, it was at the discretion of the police officer to determine how to classify a person and thus stigmatize him or her for the rest of his or her life. This regime lasted until 1981, leaving the civil war wounds open, and leading the post-war generations to believe that anything to the "right" is fascist and regressive, while anything to the "left" is synonymous with progress and humanism.
Then, came PASOK with Andreas Papandreou. By opening up the public sector to the leftists, who up to that time had been excluded, he could have led Greece to a national reconciliation. In addition, he happened to come into power at the time when the then E.E.C had opened the tap of financing. Thus, Andreas Papandreou also had the financial means to build the necessary infrastructure and modernise the country, especially its institutional framework.
He did exactly the opposite. He fostered a new division, but this time it was the rightists that were left out of the game, and all power went to Papandreou's partisans. In the first year of his tenure, he increased the number of civil servants from 121,000 to 208,000! By the time the crisis broke out, Greece had nearly 1,100,000 civil servants, burdening the State with a cost of 31 billion Euros per year!
Andreas Papandreou created one more industry of debt production and of "buying of consciences": pensions. He was granting early retirement at full pension to literally everyone: to 32-year old mothers of minors, to 40-year old military officers, to unmarried daughters of military officers or judges, to leaders of trade unions, to repatriated Greeks from the ex-Soviet Union, to artists as a prize for their work, and to anybody who had supposedly participated in the resistance during the German occupation, including those born in 1933! 7 year old partisans!
The most outrageous benefits were granted to the members of certain unions through the so-called supplementary pension funds. In some cases, these union members, with insurance contributions to the supplementary pension funds of less than 200 Euros in total, have received, up to date, nearly 200,000 Euros per person in supplementary pensions! It was a good investment, don't you agree? Between the year 2000 and today, Greek taxpayers have paid 200 billion Euros for pensions; which corresponds to almost two-thirds of the Greek debt.
In the periods when New Democracy, the alleged Greek conservative party, exercised power, it simply copied PASOK. The two parties, thus, created a monstrous mechanism of clientelism, even stronger than the position of the Prime Minister: The efforts of Constantinos Mitsotakis of New Democracy and of Costas Simitis of PASOK, both prime ministers, to implement some liberal reforms were undermined and eventually reversed by their own parties, themselves!
The clientelistic establishment that grossly inflated the ranks of the civil servants also destroyed the quality of the services provided. The party followers that were appointed were generally people without skills, with minimal education, low intelligence and without any desire to work. A note from a minister that Mr. Rakintzis, the Inspector of Public Administration, discovered in the file of a newly hired civil servant, is very telling. The politician wrote: “He is good for nothing. Just place him somewhere”.
This partisanship has infiltrated everything, and has removed any notion of meritocracy and personal responsibility, eliminated any concept of benefit versus cost, and has also transformed the simplest civil functions into indecipherable riddles. Every time a citizen comes into contact with any part of the state mechanism, he or she knows in advance that they will live through a nightmare of absurdity, stupidity, legal chaos, bureaucratic sadism, wasted time, wasted energy and wasted money. And it is even worse for potential investors.
The parties nurtured state workers unions as a mechanism to control the civil servants. But in doing so, they actually fed a monster that has broken away and is devouring everything in its path. When the union of civil servants goes on strike, the country grinds to a hold. It is estimated that, over the last four decades, the time lost due to strikes by the civil servants is more than 1500 working days! That is approximately 6 years’ worth of work!The unions have imposed an unprecedented regime where there is a complete absence of any control and complete impunity for their union members. Civil servants that have been sentenced for embezzlement of tens of millions of Euros, or even for murder, continue to be paid and keep their posts in the civil service, as if nothing had happened! The heads of the state workers unions are, by law, exempt from work. They cannot be fired, they receive a special union pension, they are illegally financed by the state with hundrends of millions of Euros, with no proof required for their expenses.
So, the Greeks have learnt to survive within a state that is hostile to them, that steals from them, does not fulfil its obligations, and does not honour its agreements. The state entraps its citizens taxes, retroactively, and constantly changes the rules of the game. The Greeks have learnt to operate within a non-existent institutional framework, where there are no checks and balances or separation of powers, where the justice system operates under the thumb of the executive branch, where it takes up to 30 years to reach a court judgement, where most operating regulations are not through laws voted in the parliament, but through decrees issued by each Minister depending on his personal political interests. It is telling that out of the 110.000 regulatory provisions of the last 15 years, a mere 2% have actually been voted in parliament.
Often it is impossible to sort out what to do because of the existence of contradictory laws for the same issue. Evidently, in no way does Greece resemble a western state operating under the rule of law. Thus, in the elections, citizens punish one party by voting for the other, if they don’t abstain altogether, disgusted with the political system as a whole.
This decadence has gradually driven almost all capable people away from politics and, certainly anyone who would be able to reform this state-monster. There have been many examples of worthy, honest, and innovative politicians during these past years, but their own political parties pushed them to the margins, or away from politics altogether.
Most Greeks actually want this model changed. I remember when the troika appeared for the first time, I was in a taxi when I heard the news of the arrival of the troika on the radio. The driver, a simple guy, also heard it, and told me: “Can they stay here forever? Can they get into the ministries, and clean up the deadwood? It is the only way for us to become a real state!”
But this did not happen. Unfortunately, in my opinion, two criminal mistakes were made. The first was made by the Greek political system. First Mr. Samaras, then Mr. Tsipras, discovered the charm of the “revolution” against the bailout agreements. Instead of explaining to the citizens, in every detail, the real causes for the Greek bankruptcy, and instead of supporting the reforms that are necessary for the survival of the country, they fabricated the myth that the evil foreigners want to impoverish us, whilst at the same time they pretend to battle for the salvation of the Greeks. And, in order to preserve the privileges of their clients, they chose to overtax the private sector, forcing over 400.000 Greek companies to close or to relocate, and driving two million Greeks into unemployment, underemployment, or emigration.
The other big mistake was made by the Troika: Even though they were fully aware that the politicians they were dealing with were completely unreliable, they did not demand during the application of the first two bailout agreements that reforms must be made before the money is given. In fact, the Troika should have implemented what I had suggested, back in 2011, in my - very well known in Greece - letter to Chancellor Merkel: “Small installments against specific reforms, step by step. Not all the money at once!”
The governments of George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras voted for the laws of the bailout, took the money, and then voted other laws that annulled the first laws, or simply did not enforce them.
The data pertaining to the pension system are revealing. Even in the middle of the crisis, there are still 200 different pension funds and 40 legal loopholes for early retirement. Even today, one-third of the civil servants retire before the age of 55, with an average retirement age of 56.3 years. 91% of the retirements from the so-called "noble" funds are early. We pay 4.7 billion Euros per year to pensioners below 60 years of age. And, 417,000 people are receiving from 3 to 10 pensions each!
Despite being aware of these facts, the Troika accepted and continues to accept the criminal logic of allowing equivalent measures instead, which means new taxes in order to finance old privileges.
At the January national elections, the Greek people voted for the SYRIZA party because Mr. Tsipras promised tax relief and the end of austerity. At the same time, Mr. Tsipras promised new benefits and the hiring of hundreds of thousands of additional civil servants. Obviously, these were promises that could not be kept. But the Greek voters had to choose between slow death in the hands of the indecisive and ineffective New Democracy and PASOK or the unknown SYRIZA, that campaigned with false promises under the mask of humanitarianism. The people chose the unknown, longing for a change for the better.
While SYRIZA has won two consecutive elections this year, its populist leadership faces a daily painful humiliation, since they are forced to recant on all their pre-election promises. At the same time, New Democracy is forced, for the first time in its history, to face the question of its ideological identity, and there is even a possibility that it will elect a reformer as president of the party. This is of great interest to us because most of our voters are trapped in the polarization that the Greek political system has created, and many of them vote for New Democracy hoping that the Neo-Stalinists of SYRIZA will be defeated and that New Democracy may change its nature.
We, Dimiourgia Xana, are consistent in our pro-European orientation and radical reform agenda. We believe that the European Union is at a critical juncture in its history, since it is becoming necessary to transfer vital responsibilities from the sovereign member states to a central government. It is an extremely complex step, which we could discuss for days. But it is we, the citizens of Europe, and no one else, who have to attempt it, because, if we do not, no single European country alone will be able to play a leading role in the world of tomorrow.
However, the imperfect European structure is not in any way an excuse for the Greek problem. The debt of our country is 100% a Greek achievement, and we must be responsible for the repayment of every cent of it. And, we are the ones responsible for eliminating the mechanism that is creating the debt, because even if the entire debt were written off today, the corrupt system of governance would create the debt all over again.
The reform of our country is our obligation. It can only be done by politicians and technocrats who are not calculating the political cost and are willing to clash with vested interests.
Are there the necessary human resources to achieve this? Of course there are, but you are not seeing them in the news. Greece is full of intelligent, honest, energetic, innovative, productive, decent Greeks, who excel anywhere in the world, when they find an environment where the rule of law and meritocracy apply. Even in Greece, despite the enormous difficulties, there are people who work hard and produce wealth. There are also many competent and honest public servants at every level of the hierarchy that wish to work in an environment of transparent rules and the enforcement of the laws.
The healthy Greece exists everywhere, it exists among the Greeks of the diaspora, it exists in this room, and it exists in the last Greek village. Greece is favoured by nature. It has abundant natural resources, history, culture. In the same way that we excel in the shipping industry, we can excel in all types of business, in academia and in research. If an open-minded government were in power, which would encourage enterprise and innovation, Greece would be galloping.
We ask for your help to accomplish that. Not by giving us new loans, but by supporting reformist voices like ours, those voices that the Greek political system is silencing. It is a matter of time for the Neo-Bolsheviks of SYRIZA to collapse, especially if the European partners stick to their guns and force the Greek Government to reduce the size and waste of the State. This can only be done by shutting down useless public institutions and laying off their staff. Then, we will have a lot of work to do to rebuild Greece from the ground up. It is a big challenge, but we can do it! There are many Greeks like us that have sworn to our children to deliver to them a modern European country, productive, civilized, proud and worthy of its history. We are determined to succeed, no matter how much we will have to fight."
------
A small point: one can always hope, hope dies last. Meanwhile, why not check the flights out of the country while the border is still open; the "neo-bolsheviks", as Mr Tzimeros refers to the present ruling party in Greece, have shown clear authoritarian (neo-fascist?) inclinations...
It addresses issues surrounding Greece, its present state and thoughts about a possible more positive future.
T. Tzimeros is a good talker and often manages to be humorous, caustic, and truthful in even doses in his addresses. In so doing he does not distort reality; and the few numbers included in his speeches are usually correct AFAIK.
It is not a bad text and it does give a reasonably accurate overview of why things are what they are in Greece and how they came to be as they are. And it is refreshingly short for a politician...
No further comments necessary.
------------
"Right Honourable Members of the British Parliament, dear all!
I thank you for the invitation and for granting me the opportunity to analyze the causes that have driven my country, a country which in the past inspired poets and philosophers, to inspire today only cartoonists and presenters of satirical shows.
Greece is a country in deep crisis, a crisis that is not only financial. I would dare to say that the financial issue is the least of its problems. For the past 35 years, Greece has been living through a continuous decline in ethics, institutions, public life, education and the level of its leaders.
There is no precedent in World History where a government adopted as its official state policy the blackmailing of its partners. This is precisely what SYRIZA did during its seven-month "negotiation" with the European Union - negotiation in quotation marks. And, let us not forget that the EU partners had already given to a basically bankrupt state, an enormous debt “haircut” and two bailout loan agreements with extremely favourable terms, mostly at the expense of the European taxpayers.
It is clear that the SYRIZA government went to Brussels with the following shocking message, a message which was its central platform during the pre-election campaign period: "You lend us money, we spend it. And, we intend to keep on spending in the exact same way that led us into bankruptcy; on huge pensions for fifty-year olds and on salaries for hundreds of thousands of redundant civil servants, many of whom with a ghost job description. And, not only shall we not fire any persons holding sinecure offices, but we shall hire even more civil servants and create more early pensioners. We are not undertaking any commitments for the new loans that we want you to give to us, and we demand that you write off the old ones." Unbelievable!
According to the SYRIZA propaganda in Greece, there was not even one in a million probability that the European Union would turn down the demands of SYRIZA, because the alternative of not lending to this Neo-Bolshevik Greek government would be the collapse of the European Union, a much greater catastrophe that the leaders of the European Union would certainly want to avoid!
I am ashamed for my country’s government. I am ashamed for its politicians. I am ashamed of the image of Greece in the modern world. I admire the composure and patience of the European governments that continued to negotiate for 7 months with these blackmailers! However, surprisingly, the SYRIZA won the national elections for a second time in a row. What has happened? Have the Greeks gone mad?
No. Even for the most irrational of behaviors there is always a rational explanation. But one has to look at the entire picture. Please, allow me a brief historical overview. It is essential in order to comprehend the Greek Drama.
The rule of law was never really applied in Greece, a country that did not go through the renaissance and the enlightenment. The Ottoman occupation was succeeded by an Ottoman model of governance, “Greek style”. The Greek State has always been a mixture of guilds and interest groups, in conflict with each other. The core of this model has always been state sponsored patronage. In Greece we call it “clientelism”. The Greek citizens have been giving their vote to those from whom they expected the greatest benefit.
The Greek politicians, on the other hand, ensured their re-election by giving away public money through the appointments to civil service positions, and through the granting of pensions and allowances. Policies to benefit the entire Greek population have never taken hold in Greece. The political parties seized power by any and all means, lawful or not, in order to look after their client sextion of the people and, of course, to put their hands on the public money wich is taxpayers’ money, as the late baroness Thatcher used to say.
Consequently, in the past, the Greeks were divided because of conflicts of interest and not because of substantial ideological differences. The ideological differences came after the civil war. Under the pretext of the communist danger, the rightist governments, who won the civil war, adopted practices of legalized fascism, which divided the Greeks between “loyalists” and “infected”. Infected were not only the communists, but also the progressive thinking citizens. No person could occupy public office, get higher education, or even marry a civil servant, unless they could obtain a “certificate of political convictions”, granted by the police, which certified that none of the person's family members had ever been involved in any “anti-national activity”.
Given the fact that this term is totally vague, it was at the discretion of the police officer to determine how to classify a person and thus stigmatize him or her for the rest of his or her life. This regime lasted until 1981, leaving the civil war wounds open, and leading the post-war generations to believe that anything to the "right" is fascist and regressive, while anything to the "left" is synonymous with progress and humanism.
Then, came PASOK with Andreas Papandreou. By opening up the public sector to the leftists, who up to that time had been excluded, he could have led Greece to a national reconciliation. In addition, he happened to come into power at the time when the then E.E.C had opened the tap of financing. Thus, Andreas Papandreou also had the financial means to build the necessary infrastructure and modernise the country, especially its institutional framework.
He did exactly the opposite. He fostered a new division, but this time it was the rightists that were left out of the game, and all power went to Papandreou's partisans. In the first year of his tenure, he increased the number of civil servants from 121,000 to 208,000! By the time the crisis broke out, Greece had nearly 1,100,000 civil servants, burdening the State with a cost of 31 billion Euros per year!
Andreas Papandreou created one more industry of debt production and of "buying of consciences": pensions. He was granting early retirement at full pension to literally everyone: to 32-year old mothers of minors, to 40-year old military officers, to unmarried daughters of military officers or judges, to leaders of trade unions, to repatriated Greeks from the ex-Soviet Union, to artists as a prize for their work, and to anybody who had supposedly participated in the resistance during the German occupation, including those born in 1933! 7 year old partisans!
The most outrageous benefits were granted to the members of certain unions through the so-called supplementary pension funds. In some cases, these union members, with insurance contributions to the supplementary pension funds of less than 200 Euros in total, have received, up to date, nearly 200,000 Euros per person in supplementary pensions! It was a good investment, don't you agree? Between the year 2000 and today, Greek taxpayers have paid 200 billion Euros for pensions; which corresponds to almost two-thirds of the Greek debt.
In the periods when New Democracy, the alleged Greek conservative party, exercised power, it simply copied PASOK. The two parties, thus, created a monstrous mechanism of clientelism, even stronger than the position of the Prime Minister: The efforts of Constantinos Mitsotakis of New Democracy and of Costas Simitis of PASOK, both prime ministers, to implement some liberal reforms were undermined and eventually reversed by their own parties, themselves!
The clientelistic establishment that grossly inflated the ranks of the civil servants also destroyed the quality of the services provided. The party followers that were appointed were generally people without skills, with minimal education, low intelligence and without any desire to work. A note from a minister that Mr. Rakintzis, the Inspector of Public Administration, discovered in the file of a newly hired civil servant, is very telling. The politician wrote: “He is good for nothing. Just place him somewhere”.
This partisanship has infiltrated everything, and has removed any notion of meritocracy and personal responsibility, eliminated any concept of benefit versus cost, and has also transformed the simplest civil functions into indecipherable riddles. Every time a citizen comes into contact with any part of the state mechanism, he or she knows in advance that they will live through a nightmare of absurdity, stupidity, legal chaos, bureaucratic sadism, wasted time, wasted energy and wasted money. And it is even worse for potential investors.
The parties nurtured state workers unions as a mechanism to control the civil servants. But in doing so, they actually fed a monster that has broken away and is devouring everything in its path. When the union of civil servants goes on strike, the country grinds to a hold. It is estimated that, over the last four decades, the time lost due to strikes by the civil servants is more than 1500 working days! That is approximately 6 years’ worth of work!The unions have imposed an unprecedented regime where there is a complete absence of any control and complete impunity for their union members. Civil servants that have been sentenced for embezzlement of tens of millions of Euros, or even for murder, continue to be paid and keep their posts in the civil service, as if nothing had happened! The heads of the state workers unions are, by law, exempt from work. They cannot be fired, they receive a special union pension, they are illegally financed by the state with hundrends of millions of Euros, with no proof required for their expenses.
So, the Greeks have learnt to survive within a state that is hostile to them, that steals from them, does not fulfil its obligations, and does not honour its agreements. The state entraps its citizens taxes, retroactively, and constantly changes the rules of the game. The Greeks have learnt to operate within a non-existent institutional framework, where there are no checks and balances or separation of powers, where the justice system operates under the thumb of the executive branch, where it takes up to 30 years to reach a court judgement, where most operating regulations are not through laws voted in the parliament, but through decrees issued by each Minister depending on his personal political interests. It is telling that out of the 110.000 regulatory provisions of the last 15 years, a mere 2% have actually been voted in parliament.
Often it is impossible to sort out what to do because of the existence of contradictory laws for the same issue. Evidently, in no way does Greece resemble a western state operating under the rule of law. Thus, in the elections, citizens punish one party by voting for the other, if they don’t abstain altogether, disgusted with the political system as a whole.
This decadence has gradually driven almost all capable people away from politics and, certainly anyone who would be able to reform this state-monster. There have been many examples of worthy, honest, and innovative politicians during these past years, but their own political parties pushed them to the margins, or away from politics altogether.
Most Greeks actually want this model changed. I remember when the troika appeared for the first time, I was in a taxi when I heard the news of the arrival of the troika on the radio. The driver, a simple guy, also heard it, and told me: “Can they stay here forever? Can they get into the ministries, and clean up the deadwood? It is the only way for us to become a real state!”
But this did not happen. Unfortunately, in my opinion, two criminal mistakes were made. The first was made by the Greek political system. First Mr. Samaras, then Mr. Tsipras, discovered the charm of the “revolution” against the bailout agreements. Instead of explaining to the citizens, in every detail, the real causes for the Greek bankruptcy, and instead of supporting the reforms that are necessary for the survival of the country, they fabricated the myth that the evil foreigners want to impoverish us, whilst at the same time they pretend to battle for the salvation of the Greeks. And, in order to preserve the privileges of their clients, they chose to overtax the private sector, forcing over 400.000 Greek companies to close or to relocate, and driving two million Greeks into unemployment, underemployment, or emigration.
The other big mistake was made by the Troika: Even though they were fully aware that the politicians they were dealing with were completely unreliable, they did not demand during the application of the first two bailout agreements that reforms must be made before the money is given. In fact, the Troika should have implemented what I had suggested, back in 2011, in my - very well known in Greece - letter to Chancellor Merkel: “Small installments against specific reforms, step by step. Not all the money at once!”
The governments of George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras voted for the laws of the bailout, took the money, and then voted other laws that annulled the first laws, or simply did not enforce them.
The data pertaining to the pension system are revealing. Even in the middle of the crisis, there are still 200 different pension funds and 40 legal loopholes for early retirement. Even today, one-third of the civil servants retire before the age of 55, with an average retirement age of 56.3 years. 91% of the retirements from the so-called "noble" funds are early. We pay 4.7 billion Euros per year to pensioners below 60 years of age. And, 417,000 people are receiving from 3 to 10 pensions each!
Despite being aware of these facts, the Troika accepted and continues to accept the criminal logic of allowing equivalent measures instead, which means new taxes in order to finance old privileges.
At the January national elections, the Greek people voted for the SYRIZA party because Mr. Tsipras promised tax relief and the end of austerity. At the same time, Mr. Tsipras promised new benefits and the hiring of hundreds of thousands of additional civil servants. Obviously, these were promises that could not be kept. But the Greek voters had to choose between slow death in the hands of the indecisive and ineffective New Democracy and PASOK or the unknown SYRIZA, that campaigned with false promises under the mask of humanitarianism. The people chose the unknown, longing for a change for the better.
While SYRIZA has won two consecutive elections this year, its populist leadership faces a daily painful humiliation, since they are forced to recant on all their pre-election promises. At the same time, New Democracy is forced, for the first time in its history, to face the question of its ideological identity, and there is even a possibility that it will elect a reformer as president of the party. This is of great interest to us because most of our voters are trapped in the polarization that the Greek political system has created, and many of them vote for New Democracy hoping that the Neo-Stalinists of SYRIZA will be defeated and that New Democracy may change its nature.
We, Dimiourgia Xana, are consistent in our pro-European orientation and radical reform agenda. We believe that the European Union is at a critical juncture in its history, since it is becoming necessary to transfer vital responsibilities from the sovereign member states to a central government. It is an extremely complex step, which we could discuss for days. But it is we, the citizens of Europe, and no one else, who have to attempt it, because, if we do not, no single European country alone will be able to play a leading role in the world of tomorrow.
However, the imperfect European structure is not in any way an excuse for the Greek problem. The debt of our country is 100% a Greek achievement, and we must be responsible for the repayment of every cent of it. And, we are the ones responsible for eliminating the mechanism that is creating the debt, because even if the entire debt were written off today, the corrupt system of governance would create the debt all over again.
The reform of our country is our obligation. It can only be done by politicians and technocrats who are not calculating the political cost and are willing to clash with vested interests.
Are there the necessary human resources to achieve this? Of course there are, but you are not seeing them in the news. Greece is full of intelligent, honest, energetic, innovative, productive, decent Greeks, who excel anywhere in the world, when they find an environment where the rule of law and meritocracy apply. Even in Greece, despite the enormous difficulties, there are people who work hard and produce wealth. There are also many competent and honest public servants at every level of the hierarchy that wish to work in an environment of transparent rules and the enforcement of the laws.
The healthy Greece exists everywhere, it exists among the Greeks of the diaspora, it exists in this room, and it exists in the last Greek village. Greece is favoured by nature. It has abundant natural resources, history, culture. In the same way that we excel in the shipping industry, we can excel in all types of business, in academia and in research. If an open-minded government were in power, which would encourage enterprise and innovation, Greece would be galloping.
We ask for your help to accomplish that. Not by giving us new loans, but by supporting reformist voices like ours, those voices that the Greek political system is silencing. It is a matter of time for the Neo-Bolsheviks of SYRIZA to collapse, especially if the European partners stick to their guns and force the Greek Government to reduce the size and waste of the State. This can only be done by shutting down useless public institutions and laying off their staff. Then, we will have a lot of work to do to rebuild Greece from the ground up. It is a big challenge, but we can do it! There are many Greeks like us that have sworn to our children to deliver to them a modern European country, productive, civilized, proud and worthy of its history. We are determined to succeed, no matter how much we will have to fight."
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A small point: one can always hope, hope dies last. Meanwhile, why not check the flights out of the country while the border is still open; the "neo-bolsheviks", as Mr Tzimeros refers to the present ruling party in Greece, have shown clear authoritarian (neo-fascist?) inclinations...
Monday, 5 October 2015
The Walk
Two went out for a long walk; grandfather and grandson.
The grandfather went away to another world.
I miss the one who left. I am lucky to have the one who is still here.
The grandfather went away to another world.
I miss the one who left. I am lucky to have the one who is still here.
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