The following is an open letter to Chancellor Merkel from Thanos Tzimeros, leader of the small liberal party Dimiourgia Xana (literally, Creation Again), a voice of sanity in Greece. It clearly and succinctly describes the situation in Greece and the real reasons the country is in such trouble.
I am still in Benghazi though I hope to be back in Athens in time to vote for Mr Tzimeros in the June 17 elections. Internet is spotty here in Libya, especially on Thursday night but I will try to be around to respond to comments. I will also try to write a diary soon about my experiences and the situation here.
Cheers,
Athenian
Your Excellency,Thank you for your continued efforts to offer blood to Greece to help it come out of intensive care but, as you have come to realize, day by day, this will have no effect unless the source of the bleeding is first identified and treated: the wasteful corruption that is hostile to any productive initiative in the Greek State. If you have not found yourself in a Greek public authority asking for some certificate, you cannot imagine the egregious corruption and the extent of the absurdity of this Kafkaesque organization. The Greek State, which consists in large part of former hangers of campaign posters for the two main political parties, is eating the bowels of the productive capacity of the country, as the vulture in the tragedy “Prometheus Bound" of Aeschylus.
I want to assure you that two cultures coexist in Greece. Greece is not only the crooked politicians and bureaucrats who have made us feel ashamed of our country. Greece does indeed have a huge potential of intelligent, creative, hard-working and ethical people who are strangled every day by the mafia of the political parties. In Italy, the Mafia may have dealings with the State, but in Greece the State itself is the Mafia! All these years, the politicians, in collaboration with public works contractors, who also own media organizations, shamelessly steal the EU subsidies and the taxes of those Greeks who cannot evade taxation, while offering outrageous immunity to any gangster of their ilk.