As someone who is active in local government in Victoria with the RSL, in politics, and in Hellenic community matters, I tend to travel a lot and meet with a diverse range of people. One common theme for the past year has been for the ignorant, – even within our own community – to automatically and readily bag “Greeks in Greece”.
Yet, for those with any measured level of knowledge and understanding, the problems faced in the Hellenic Republic are complex and historical.
Do not forget that freedom from oppression only came about less than 200 years ago for a large part of the nation and for others – Thessaloniki gained freedom in 1912, Epirus in 1913 and some of our islands many years later. Thrace still has Turkish occupation over half the land.
In the meantime the Turks plundered, looted and stole anything of value without any interference by the so called superpowers of Europe – Germany, France, Italy and Britain.
And yet these same superpowers interfered in Hellenic national politics, government, trade and enterprise for many decades and controlled whatever they felt added to their own wealth or which threatened them economically.
My maternal grandfather and my mother were both born in the same house, but in two different countries. Churchill and his superpower ‘mates’ took a large part of north west Hellas (Greece for those who do not know better) to create the artificial state of Albania. That regime then stole everything of value owned by the Hellenic population and subjugated the people for decades.
They banned the language and tortured people who spoke Greek or who wanted to pray Orthodox.
Then came WW2 and I could easily list all of the many quotes from Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill and even from Hitler himself, who stated that it was the amazing strength of character and bravery of the Hellenic people that stopped Germany in its tracks.
Thanks to peasants, villagers, farmers and people of all ages, Hitler’s advance on Russia was slowed down until winter came and his march onto Britain halted while the British were able to prepare an adequate defence, including massive support from Aussies.
The Greek people destroyed Hitler’s paratroops and fought the best equipped and best trained military machine then on the planet.
In retaliation, whole villages were wiped out by the German invaders. 14 per cent of the population is known to have been killed, although the lack of records in many poorer rural areas could make that number considerably higher. Many more were seriously injured.
Infrastructure was totally destroyed – factories blown up, roads decimated, hospitals and schools wiped off the map, banks emptied of their money and the nation left effectively with nothing.
After the war few countries gave the Greek nation any real help to rebuild. But worse, in many ways, international legal tribunals ordered Germany to pay reparations for their destruction and thefts. Germany paid every country and added Spain and Portugal for which there was no requirement to repay.
And yet they have to this day ignored their legal and moral obligation to repay Hellas. A sum now reported by some to be well over one trillion euros.
Quite likely, the Germans are still angry with how the amazing people of the small Hellenic nation stopped them from conquering the world.
Since that time a host of other factors have come into play to damage the Hellenic national economy.
Wealthy Greeks refused to pay their fair share of taxes and so many of the wealthiest moved overseas. Do not forget that the major shipping companies in the world are all owned by those who still claim to be Greek, but who do little if anything for the nation and certainly who do a Kerry Packer and a Twiggy Forrest, and go out of their way to avoid paying one cent of fair taxation.
But a large part of the general population have copied them, while remaining in the nation (or many others living abroad as in Australia and owning rental properties in Ellada) – refusing to pay taxes and yet expecting, nay demanding all sorts of public benefits, pensions and the like.
Taxation avoidance has become something of an art form. Have you seen the countless buildings uncompleted and yet with people living or working inside? That is because once they are finished the government must receive building completion taxes.
Have you heard about those claiming pensions for relatives long since deceased?
There is a long list of such “activities” but none that are not being enacted in Australia and other nations.
And where many Australians complain about being over governed, why are there communities across the nation with populations equivalent to ones in Australia and yet with three times as many local government councillors? Why are there more politicians per head of population than in most other democratic nations?
And being paid while their municipal staff and teachers are not?
Why is their public service the largest employer in the nation? Vast numbers are paid to sit on their rear ends reading books or talking on mobile phones to friends across the room of a small museum instead of guiding and advising the tourists whose very dollars are crucial to economic prosperity.
In Australia the Leader of the Opposition Mr Abbott complains about 6000 illegal migrants coming in by boats. Yet the Hellenic nation is receiving 94 per cent of all refugees entering Europe, according to United nations figures. Receiving more illegal ‘entrants’ in a week than Australia sees in a year.
Now amounting to over 10 per cent of the population.
These people are bringing an upsurge in a long list of crimes plus demands on the poverty stricken Hellenic nation to care, feed and clothe them while Europe seeks to avoid helping with this overwhelming catastrophe.
There are robberies, murders, assaults at one end through to interrupting trade ships and down to “simply” harassing tourists for hand outs at the other end.
Another verbal insult being hurled around is that the Greeks are lazy, but that is true only in an extreme minority just as you would find in other countries. Indeed, the OECD has Greeks working harder and longer than Germans and many others.
Certainly my own travels across the nation just over a year ago, and my son’s more recently, have proven to us that most of the population works, but that they stop because they do not have the money to keep going.
Like my cousins in Ioannina – still working as teachers despite being unpaid for five months, and still receiving demands for registrations and certifications from the same government who has not paid them.
There is the fact that the superpowers, joined by the USA, still interfere with the Hellenic nation and there is no better example than in how they continuously conspired to prevent the Hellenes from receiving revenues from the vast undersea oil deposits in the Aegean Sea.
Tourism accounts for some 17 per cent of the Hellenic national economy, but if you look closely as you travel around and through the nation, you soon realise that there is untapped wealth that could easily see tourism double, such is the natural wealth of their flora and fauna and the ancient marvels that make up the nation.
There are beaches beyond imagination. Waters so clear that you can see everything more than 40 feet down. Natural scenery that stuns. An environment that leaves Italy, France and Spain behind and yet which is as untapped as the thousands of small islands that could be leased to become private tourist meccas, free from paparazzi, for the mega wealthy.
And, of course there was that major ‘tourism blunder’ called the 2004 Athens Olympics. The nation was well on the way to overcoming the national debt when powerful individuals keen to pursue their own fame and glory pursued a world class event that would see the economy plunge significantly further into debt.
The nation was never prepared for the enormous financial costs of hosting such a world class competition and yet the roots of the then future economic blow out over those Games could be seen at the Sydney Olympics. Greek officials spending money, living the high life and wasting money when the bid was already secured.
There is so much that can be said about why the Hellenic nation has developed such a severe economic crisis and what could be done to overcome it. But to accuse the people of being lazy or corrupt is to suggest that the rest of the world’s population are perfect and to deny the many intricate issues that are playing at this time.
The Hellenic people are resilient and resourceful and they will rise out of this pain and become a stronger nation.
History proves that to be a fact.