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
4 - Varoufakis: more blatant lies and pro-EU propaganda
When
concealing inconvenient public opinion survey results isn’t enough,
more blatant lies are employed. A characteristic example comes from
the statements made by former finance minister and “heroic”
celebrity economist Yanis Varoufakis, who in an interview with ABC
Radio in Australia in 2015 stated that even if Greece wanted to
return to a domestic currency, its printing presses were destroyed in
2000 prior to joining the eurozone. In reality, Greece’s mint is
still in operation in the Athens suburb of Holargos and prints euro
banknotes today.
In the minds
of many Greeks, the old drachma is also associated with crippling
inflation and economic instability, a perspective which the major
media outlets have done nothing to dispel. Listening to certain
Greeks discussing the pre-2002 era, one would think that prior to the
euro Greeks must have lived in caves, without electricity,
automobiles, or running water—and that such days will swiftly
return if Greece dares to depart from the common currency.
Particular
fears are expressed about inflation. However, this ignores the fact
that from the 1950s through the early 1970s, inflation in
“impoverished” Greece hovered at or below 5 percent. In the late
1990s, as Greece prepared to meet Maastricht criteria to join the
eurozone, inflation once again fell into the single digits.
Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, other southern European
countries, such as Italy and Spain, also frequently attained
double-digit inflation levels similar to those seen in Greece.
When all
else fails, stereotypes and collective guilt are employed to great
effect. Greece lied in order to enter the eurozone, we are told, and
therefore is reaping its just rewards. But as was pointed out in the
first installment of this series, other countries such as Spain and
Italy performed similar accounting tricks, but no similar calls to
“punish” these countries have been heard.
What is
heard though, by both the Greek and international media, is that the
Greek people “lived beyond their means.” This viewpoint is
consistent, whether you consult with the “leftist” Guardian, the
right-wing Daily Telegraph, German finance minister-for-life Wolfgang
Schäuble, or former EU economy commissioner Ollie Rehn. The head of
the Eurogroup—the committee of eurozone finance ministers—and
member of Holland’s Labour Party Jeroen Dijsselbloem stated earlier
this year that Greeks spent their money on “drinks and women.” In
turn, Dutch “eurosceptic” politician Geert Wilders claimed that
Greeks spent their money “on souvlaki and ouzo.”
Never mind
that Greece’s private sector debt has consistently ranked at the
lowest levels among OECD countries and still does today. This has not
stopped the Greek media and Greece’s politicians from repeating
such claims, ascribing collective blame to the entire populace when
it was a small cohort of politicians and crony capitalists who
largely benefited from the public spending bonanza and augmentation
of Greece’s public debt.
Nevertheless,
such statements are coupled with heavy doses of racism from Greece’s
“European partners.” In 2010, the “reputable” German magazine
Der Spiegel published, on its front cover, an image of the goddess
Aphrodite, cloaked in a Greek flag, giving the finger to Europe,
accompanied by the headline “Swindlers in the euro family.” Two
studies, commissioned by the Hans Böckler Foundation and by the
German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, have found that German media
coverage of Greece’s crisis has been rife with stereotypes, bias,
and superficial reporting.
The Feb. 13,
2010 edition of the Wall Street Journal featured a parody of ancient
Greek art—now well-concealed on the Internet—displaying an
ancient god begging for change. The Telegraph has referred to the
crisis in Greece as the “ouzo crisis” while referring to the
suffering economies of southern Europe as “Club Med.”
One of the
many end results of this constant barrage of disparagement and
insults towards the Greek people is that they have become ingrained
in the national psyche. A common refrain heard in Greece in reference
to anything negative occurring within the country is that “this is
who we are.” Greece lied and therefore it must be punished. Greeks
lived beyond their means and are now getting their just dues. Greeks
were corrupt and “ate it all together,” in the words of
ex-politician Theodoros Pangalos, and therefore collectively must
share the blame.
Herein lies
a paradox: on the one hand, Greeks are consistently ranked as among
the unhappiest people in the world. Greece ranked fourth in this
year’s Bloomberg misery index, and has been found to be the
unhappiest country in Europe by both the Eurobarometer survey and by
Gallup International. In such a toxic environment, the prevailing
policies of economic austerity, cuts, and privatization are therefore
met with tacit acceptance.
Collective
guilt has set in for Greece’s supposed sins, and these painful
austerity measures—and the misery they bring—are considered an
inevitable result of these “sins.” On the other hand, the actors
in large part responsible for the austerity that has delivered such
misery, such as the EU, continue to receive support from a
significant percentage of the population.
As for those
who dare to openly speak out against austerity and in opposition to
the EU and the eurozone? They are swiftly labeled. A favorite retort
in Greece concerns the supposed existence of a “conspiracy of the
drachma” in which diaspora Greeks and wealthy Greeks who have moved
their money offshore favor a return to the drachma. As this line of
thinking goes, these individuals would then move their money back to
Greece and take advantage of a sharply devalued local currency,
getting wealthier in the process.
Other
attacks are simpler, often branding opponents of the prevailing
European order as “fascists,” “xenophobes,” “nationalists”
and “populists”—the latter two, of course, being rather dirty
words in the present-day context.
When insults
and labels don’t do the job, fear is effective. According to a
European Commission adviser and as reported by Newsweek in 2015,
Greece would promptly find itself out of oil and medical supplies
once it leaves the eurozone and EU. In the lead-up to the 2015
referendum, both Greek and international media outlets, including the
Washington Post circulated untrue and undated photos of supermarket
shelves devoid of food. Greece’s Mega Channel broadcast images of
senior citizens using ATMs in fear—images which actually were from
South Africa.
Greek
tabloid newspaper Press Star published a “heartbreaking” photo of
an elderly man in tears while holding a solitary loaf of bread—even
though the photo was actually from the aftermath of the Istanbul
earthquake of 1999. The photo was shamelessly recycled one more time
earlier this year, in the aftermath of an earthquake on the Greek
island of Lesvos.
Another
national TV broadcaster, Antenna TV, reported that in the 2015
referendum, Greeks were choosing between a future “as Europe” or
“as Zimbabwe.” The same station, prior to the June 2012
parliamentary elections, circumvented a pre-election freeze on
political broadcasts by airing, on the eve of the polls, a
“documentary” on the (obviously adverse) impacts of “Grexit,”
laughably insinuating that a SYRIZA victory would result in “Grexit.”
Never mind
that Greek domestic production and industry have been decimated
during the years of EU and eurozone membership. Never mind that the
EU allowed for the debt of Greece’s national railway to be waived
in order to facilitate its privatization—but refuses to allow the
same for Greece’s national debt. Never mind that 92 percent of the
“bailouts” (loans) Greece has received during the crisis have
gone right back to its lenders. Never mind that even EU monies for
major infrastructure projects often went right back to European
contractors or consultants, in a process of crony capitalism
described by former “economic hitman” John Perkins. Never mind
that the austerity regime itself has been found to violate the
fundamental human rights of the people of Greece. As the title of
part one of this series suggested, for the Greek and international
media and a substantial portion of the Greek populace, it is “EU
über alles”—Europe or bust—even if Greece is the one that goes
bust in the process.
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