Great article over on the Cedar Lounge Revolution on the autocratic instincts of the European Union elites now being played out in Greece:
“One has to wonder at the logic of an EU approach which argues for austerity as a path to growth. But one has to wonder further at an EU approach which seems to push past austerity into something close to an imposed penury as a path to growth. One can accept the need for certain changes in the Greek economy from the status quo ante while simultaneously considering that what is being imposed is profoundly negative, and not simply for Greece but also for the contemporary European project.
On almost every metric, the democratic – given the imposition of a technocratic administration in Athens, the social – given the abysmal levels of austerity being imposed, the logical – given the deeply counter-productive nature of that austerity, the EU and ECB have failed that state.
When the potential outcomes of these failures are so significant as to fundamentally weaken a modern Europe advanced democracy and perhaps with worse ahead, then the sense that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the direction European leaders have taken is impossible to evade.”
Meanwhile Dole TV brings this all-to accurate satire of the upcoming referendum on the so-called Fiscal Compact Treaty:
Related articles
- Hey, Europe! How’s That Austerity Working Out for You? (slog.thestranger.com)
- More on Greece (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)
- George Kerevan: Leaving coffers in Berlin (scotsman.com)
- Influential think tank issues bleak forecast for Greek economy (theglobeandmail.com)
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
http://noncitizensoftheworld.blogspot.de/2012/03/deja-vu-greek-immigration-crackdown.html
Seems like the Greeks are starting to target illegal immigrants and now deporting 500 a day. Is this a sign of a reactionary state or are the Greeks justified to deport illegal immigrants when there is over 50% youth unemployment.
Thats an awkward question isnt it! The Greeks are no longer ignoring it. Do we stand against them or say its a fair approach.
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Indeed, it is a question with no easy answers. Greece, as a nation-state, is on the point of internal social collapse (far more so I may suggest than is being reported in the global news media, particularly the English-speaking one). The duty of the Greek state in these extreme circumstances is first and foremost to its own citizens. Yet that has to be balanced with the needs of non-Greek people currently or temporarily resident in Greece who are often stuck in terrible circumstances of their own.
I don’t envy anyone those choices.
In Ireland as we face our own crisis (again, one downplayed by the news media, but in this case our own self-interested one), we are still committed to giving away some 800 million euros of Irish taxpayers money each year to overseas aid. We are in effect borrowing money to give to overseas charities and then forcing Irish citizens to pay for those loans while their own circumstances (living standards, education and health care, social welfare services, etc.) are being drastically reduced.
Is it not time for a 5 year moratorium on all overseas aid starting from 2013 until our own troubles have been resolved? It is not an easy choice to make, quiet the contrary, but it is one that now needs to done.
The duty of care of a nation-state is to its own citizens first. Or else why have a nation-state in the first place?
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Depressingly excellent heading and great post.
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Thanks for the Comment, WBS.
CLR is essential reading (regardless of one’s idealogical position or background, as I point out to anyone willing to listen). You guys are asking the questions that need to be asked and which our national media are (in general) shirking away from.
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