Greek Laws: Revoked, Interrupted, Repeated

Greek Laws: Revoked, Interrupted, Repeated.

Confusion.............

According to statistics it seems that Greeks feel depressed and lonely, that many are out of work and that salaries are low, but that their life expectancy is longer than most Europeans, they eat healthier, and they retire earlier. Should we feel sorry or envious?

Then, when it comes to education, we hear the same kind of confusing stories; that Greece has the highest rate of university degree holders and that its educational system is better than other countries, but also that the education level is lower than other EU countries. And, I’m always being told by friends with children that they have to send them out to private evening schools to catch up and pass exams. What does this mean?

 

I’m guessing that this kind of disconnect is about incorrect statistics.

 

I wrote a blog recently about the long term difficulties that Greece has to deal with in terms of its history and geography. But Governance is also a problem.

It's also about Episodical Governance.

 

Previous governments have tried to deal with the Greek problem of students, with the thousands of so-called ‘eternal students’ enrolled at Greek universities who take ages to complete their courses. Evidently laws were passed in 2007 and again in 2011, and again and again. I believe the latest move by the Syriza government has been to revoke what the previous government did about this problem. They can again take as long as they like to get a degree. Why these change of faces?

I’m guessing these continual changes happen because of pressure put on the government by unions, by students, by wealthy parents.

In the last couple of years all in Greece were aware of the shut down of ERT, the government media station. The previous Samaras government laid-off 2,600 employees and closed the broadcaster down for a month. But this closure as an indication of the government’s commitment to cut back an excess of civil servants did not seem sincere when ERT was reopened with 2,000 workers as contract workers. And then the Syriza government continued to revoke the previous by move by hiring them all back!

There is a plethora of various laws and restrictions in Greece that render everything so difficult, and a plethora of laws disregarded that make everything so unpredictable. The result? Folk gossip and argue, and shout and riot, and march and wave manners, and re-elect new governments. While we were in Greece this year the tone of arguments, and of debates on the TV, spiraled upwards, and upwards. There would be five faces on the panel, all discussing and disagreeing with at each other. Then there would be ten faces around a huge table, shouting over each other.

Ordinary folk took to the street; they were worried by their government, by the media. It is the way things are done in Greece. Short elderly men in checked shirts, elderly ladies dressed in black and wearing glasses and they blamed the troika, the Germans, the EU. Reforms had been tough, but they had also been blown up into dramas of Ancient Greek Proportions. 

The latest government called the wrath of the Gods down on the EU for what was called their ‘intransigence’.

 

If only, if only, there was a consistency and unyieldingness about Greek law making!

One Greek paper wrote how this repeated procedure has eventually led to the loss of the country’s credibility. Adding

‘There is nothing worse than committing to something officially and subsequently not fulfilling your promise.’

And all this while, during the spiraling political panic of 2015 there was an elephant in the room that was ignored until it grew so big that another problem altogether has arrived in Greece.

Meanwhile.....

Refugees and Migrants in the Mediterranean

The Elephant in the Room!

Jan to May 2015

Italy 55,500

Greece 48,000

Spain 1,000

Malta 1,500

The number of migrants reaching Greece by sea has soared to 63,000 this year, overtaking the 62,000 who arrived in Italy by sea.

The voyage from Libya to Italy is longer and more hazardous. Migrant deaths at sea this year stood at 1,865 by 10 June, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told the BBC. And of those, 1,816 died trying to reach Italy.

These figures are from the BBC.

Storm Clouds Over Greece

We are all hoping!