A chara, – As Greece struggles to come to terms with its descent into financial chaos, it is pitiful to witness the paucity of intelligent response to its current predicament. To witness a supposed socialist government in Greece unwilling to grasp this ideal opportunity to educate its people as to the real reasons they find themselves in this catastrophic economic situation is truly dispiriting.
Instead, the government in Greece allow the “big brothers” of the free-market ideology, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to bully the Greek public into submissive subservience to a failed ideology and a financial system that is irretrievably fractured. With the country on its knees, as a result of having pursued the very policies that the EU and the IMF championed so enthusiastically, the final ignominious irony is that these two ideologically defunct institutions now claim authority to force the Greek citizens to adopt measures to correct their dire financial situation.
The package of austerity measures proposed by them includes the two basic tenets of “small government”, cutbacks and fast-track privatisation. These policies were the mainstay of the Thatcher and Reagan ideologies that created our current calamitous economic predicament worldwide. Meanwhile, obscene wealth resides in the hands of a privileged elite which the government refuses to tax.
Sound depressingly familiar? We, in Ireland, should ready ourselves now to be prepared to stand up to the Irredeemably Moronic Free-marketers (IMF) when they come knocking on our door in the not-so-distant future. – Is mise,