It's quite often here in Uppsala that when I meet new people, especially Europeans, they ask me about the greek crisis. They are interested in knowing about what happened in Greece and how's the situation right now. This discussion becomes more interesting for me when it is a German asking for information. Then I usually hear about the "lazy Greeks" or even worse that "Greeks hate Germans" because of the austerity measures german government dictated. Well, I have no reason to hate Germans if they try to ensure they will get the money they borrowed Greece back. I would hate them for what they did during the second World War but then again I believe it's totally meaningless. After all you can't have peaceful future if hate blinds you. But let's talk about the greek crisis.
It is my belief Greeks carry the main responsibility for their bankrupt state and society. Who tries to put the blame on other nations for ruining Greece simply avoids assuming his/her responsibility and deliberately fails to see that lot of things went wrong in the country for decades. I am not going to analyze what went wrong. This should be a separate article, maybe of limited interest to those who aren't Greek. However I will stress one point that lead us to dead-end and this is overconsumption.
Before 2008 getting a loan from a bank was really easy. Banks didn't really care if you were able to pay back your loan. They would borrow you money for holidays, for the acquisition of a new car, for the construction of a new house, for whatever. Therefore every Greek who wanted to show off his/her non existent richness would buy a Mercedes-Benz car. Those who were poorer would still do their shoping in a Lidl or Aldi supermarket and buy a Volkswagen car. Housewives would be happy to have a Siemens washing machine or oven and Siemens was "smart" enough to bribe Greek politicians in order to get big construction projects. Let aside the fact Greece was a good customer of Krauss-Maffei, the industry which build Leopard tanks. And this series of examples goes on endlessly...
So maybe it would be useful for the Germans to stop reading "Der Spiegel" and look themselves in the mirror asking whether the deficit of what they call PIGS (=Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) is their surplus. Maybe it is useful to ask themselves whether they were making money from the "sinful" Greeks...
And by the way Greeks are usually hard working but not efficient (me included). Thus if they want to end the crisis they created they have to improve the efficiency of doing things. Just let them do it!
To sum up I believe there is no reason for the Greeks to hate Germans or vicersa. I believe in European Union as space and entity that fits every single european citizen and is based on mutual respect and understanding. This should be our goal if we want to share a better future for all of us. :)
It is my belief Greeks carry the main responsibility for their bankrupt state and society. Who tries to put the blame on other nations for ruining Greece simply avoids assuming his/her responsibility and deliberately fails to see that lot of things went wrong in the country for decades. I am not going to analyze what went wrong. This should be a separate article, maybe of limited interest to those who aren't Greek. However I will stress one point that lead us to dead-end and this is overconsumption.
Before 2008 getting a loan from a bank was really easy. Banks didn't really care if you were able to pay back your loan. They would borrow you money for holidays, for the acquisition of a new car, for the construction of a new house, for whatever. Therefore every Greek who wanted to show off his/her non existent richness would buy a Mercedes-Benz car. Those who were poorer would still do their shoping in a Lidl or Aldi supermarket and buy a Volkswagen car. Housewives would be happy to have a Siemens washing machine or oven and Siemens was "smart" enough to bribe Greek politicians in order to get big construction projects. Let aside the fact Greece was a good customer of Krauss-Maffei, the industry which build Leopard tanks. And this series of examples goes on endlessly...
So maybe it would be useful for the Germans to stop reading "Der Spiegel" and look themselves in the mirror asking whether the deficit of what they call PIGS (=Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) is their surplus. Maybe it is useful to ask themselves whether they were making money from the "sinful" Greeks...
And by the way Greeks are usually hard working but not efficient (me included). Thus if they want to end the crisis they created they have to improve the efficiency of doing things. Just let them do it!
To sum up I believe there is no reason for the Greeks to hate Germans or vicersa. I believe in European Union as space and entity that fits every single european citizen and is based on mutual respect and understanding. This should be our goal if we want to share a better future for all of us. :)
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