With
the Greek psyche itself the victim of a relentless shaming campaign,
the idea of Greece “going it alone” begins to seem outlandish and
quixotic. It is not. But it is as much tied to a revival of spirit
and self-esteem as to the nuts and bolts of economic transformation.
by
Michael Nevradakis
Part
2 - Fostering fear and lies
Throughout
the crisis, the austerity measures that have been imposed on Greece,
the arguments in favor of the necessity of remaining “in Europe,”
the mythos surrounding the “European dream,” and the horror that
would result from “Grexit” have been propped up by a series of
lies and scare tactics that have been repeatedly propagated by
politicians and media outlets alike.
This has
fostered a form of learned helplessness in Greece, a belief that the
country is incapable of surviving outside the eurozone and EU and
therefore must remain, even if the preconditions for doing so are
harsh.
One such
myth pertains to the idea that Greece “doesn’t produce anything”
and is therefore reliant on imports. These imports must, of course,
be paid for with hard currency; therefore, the conventional line of
thinking suggests that Greece would be unable to import vital
necessities with its own “soft” currency.
Case in
point: a 2012 Eurobarometer survey found that 94 percent of Greeks
were concerned about national food security, the highest level in the
EU. In addition, Greece was the only EU member-state where a majority
(61 percent) expressed concern with national food production.
Moreover, 79 percent of Greeks expressed the belief that Greece does
not produce enough food to meet domestic needs. Again, this was the
highest percentage recorded in the EU.
The claim
that Greece doesn’t produce anything and is not nutritionally
self-sufficient is constantly repeated by the media and used to
justify remaining in the common market, but is it true? As of 2010,
the most recent year for which complete statistics seem to be
available, Greece met, exceeded, or came close to meeting domestic
demand for staples such as eggs, meat and milk derived from sheep and
goats, olive oil, several crops (including oranges, peaches,
tomatoes, cucumbers, apricots, potatoes, and grapes), honey, whole
grains, and poultry.
Furthermore,
according to data from 2012, Greece is second worldwide in the
production of sheep’s milk, third in olive and olive oil
production, fourth in the production of pears, fifth in the
production of peaches and nectarines, sixth in pistachio production,
and in the top ten in goat’s milk, chestnuts, cantaloupes,
cherries, and cotton. It is also just outside the top ten in the
production of almonds, cottonseed, asparagus, figs, and other
legumes. Greece is third in the world in the production of saffron
and sixteenth in the world in the production of cheese products.
Outside of
food production, Greece is a strong producer of such resources as
aluminum and bauxite (first in Europe), magnesium (meeting 46 percent
of Western Europe’s production), second in the world behind the
United States in the production of smectite clay, and is the only
European country with significant nickel deposits. Greece is also a
significant producer of laterite and marble, as well as steel and
cement.
Outside of
production, Greece possesses one of the world’s largest shipping
fleets, ranking second worldwide in total tonnage, while the Greek
flag fleet and merchant fleet rank second in the EU and seventh
globally. In addition, Greece is fourteenth in the world in tourist
arrivals (but twenty-third in tourist revenue).
It is these
three sectors — agriculture, shipping, and tourism — that have
traditionally sustained the Greek economy, alongside domestic small
businesses, which themselves have suffered during the crisis under
the weight of decreased spending and increased taxation. Prior to the
euro, the agricultural, shipping, and tourism sectors provided Greece
with the hard currency with which it financed imports.
Indeed, it
is membership in the EU that has led to a sharp decline in the
domestic production of numerous staples in Greece. In 1961, twenty
years before joining the EU, “impoverished” Greece produced
169,200 tons of figs, 6,374 tons of sesame, 52,000 tons of dry beans,
13,365 tons of chickpeas, and 19,246 tons of quince. In 2011, the
respective figures were 9,400 tons of figs, 33 tons of sesame, 22,744
tons of dry beans, 2,200 tons of chickpeas, and 3,432 tons of quince.
In 1981, the
year Greece joined the EU, production of fresh vegetables was at
123,298 tons, lemon production was at 216,874 tons, apple production
was at 337,091 tons, almond production at 73,181 tons, tobacco
production at 130,900 tons, tomato production at 1,884,600 tons, and
potato production at 1,056,000 tons.
Thirty years
later, the figures for each of these crops had sharply declined:
74,393 tons of fresh vegetables, 70,314 tons of lemons, 255,800 tons
of apples, 29,800 tons of almonds, 20,287 tons of tobacco, 1,169,900
tons of tomatoes, and 757,820 tons of potatoes.
A major
factor in this decline is the EU’s common agricultural policy,
which sets production quotas for each country and each sector of
production, and dictates to each country what to produce and which
crop varieties to cultivate, what not to produce, where to export,
where not to export, how much to export and at what price.
For example,
until 2005 Greece’s sugar production sector was profitable and met
a large part of domestic demand. In a 2006 deal with the EU, however,
Greece agreed to reduce its domestic sugar production and increase
imports. In 1980, the year before Greece ascended to the EU, pork
meat production met 84 percent of domestic needs, while beef
production met 66 percent of domestic demand. Those figures have
declined to 38 and 13 percent, respectively.
The decline
in beef production has also impacted the dairy sector. The EU’s
influence is evident here as well: in 2000, Greece was fined 2.5
billion drachmas (over 7.3 million euros) for exceeding EU-imposed
quotas for the production of cow’s milk.
And yet the
myth persists: Greece “cannot survive” outside of the eurozone
and EU. And while the lack of production—whether imagined or
real—is one of the main arguments used by proponents of remaining
in the EU, the lies do not stop there.
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