The insults that were heard during a football game against the prime minister’s mother. The “black” humour of the “tampered” classic photograph circulating on Facebook: the Old Man of Democracy, Georgios Papandreou, next to a young Andreas Papandreou, who touches his preadolescent son, George Papandreou, with paternal affection. And above it – thanks to Photoshop – the logo of a well-known condom producer and the slogan “Wear condoms to save Greece”. The signal for the systematic deconstruction of George Papandreou, given to the entire “system” ten days ago.
“George Papandreou is finished”: this is the obvious verdict of not only the establishment but also the entire world. Therefore, he is all of a sudden responsible for everything. Or is he? Objectively speaking, he is the lesser evil of all. To put it more harshly: George Papandreou has done a lot of damage due to his idleness and the incompetence of his administration at doing anything else apart from a purely decorative presence. However, nobody can blame him for financial scandals – neither that he was a part of them nor that he was aware of and tolerated them (contrary to all his predecessors).
You see, exaggeration is a bad thing: it pushes you towards rejecting what you initially wanted, adopted and did. All of a sudden, you end up not on the opposite bank of the river but on a middle ground, where you are all alone since all the others are divided into two opposite camps. This “land” is nobody’s land, the no man’s land of exile, completely different from the Wasteland of T.S. Elliot’s imagination. Not only does it include the wasteland, but it also incorporates another element: the desperate and irksome soberness and moderation of self-control, the refusal to indulge in anger and indignation, the awareness of co-responsibility.
Because in the case of the wasteland or barren land that Greece tends to become – literally and metaphorically – there is co-responsibility. And I don’t just mean the co-responsibility of the government and all the political forces. I mean a social co-responsibility: the co-responsibility of the majority of the people. What kind of measures can you take and what kind of reforms can you make in a country where there is no public transport because the workers are on strike? The same principle applies to the entire public sector, to the retired army officers who occupy the Ministry of National Defence, the truck drivers who block the national roads, the dock workers who block the ports, the pharmacists who close the pharmacies and the taxi drivers who stop working…
What measures can you take in a country where at the exact same moment the complete bankruptcy is averted and the troika finally arrives in Greece, its members cannot enter the ministries due to a strike of the public servants who disagree with austerity and reform measures? And who can you govern with when your ministers are exclusively concerned with…
…appeasing their clientele and the “powerful” of the land, appointing (Yes! Even now!) “their own people” and fighting with each other?
And what can you answer to the people who tell you “I don’t have anything to eat” – it might be true – but who never did anything in order to have something to eat? There is a category of Greeks who worked where they shouldn’t have worked if not for their “connection” and lived a life “full” of brand new appliances and gadgets, houses, country houses, summer holidays, long weekends, beauty salons and “pocket money” for their child’s nights out (the “child” is usually a 25-year-old donkey who has a master’s degree from London – it is a must – and waits for something to happen since no job is worthy of his or her qualifications and his or her dreams.
Exposed to the “people” and to the “plain citizens”, your anger at the apparently unfair and absurd (!) taxation, which seems to have been designed for tax evaders or in order to “punish” employment in the private sector (!), is watered down. Therefore, you go on with your life, working to pay for the essentials and – mainly – all the people who don’t work and fight for their right to sponsored laziness.
Because if George Papandreou were solely responsible, things would be much easier. However, all of the Greeks are responsible. And I’m not only talking about the past; I’m also talking about now, about the present. About the present moment.
I know what I’m talking about. I have just paid my taxes and extra taxes. I have just read on a blog that the former director of “Vima”, Pantelis Kapsis, might stand for parliament with PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement). I can see all around me a bunch of “clever” PASOK members buying luxurious automobiles and hanging out at the hottest hang-outs with the most beautiful companies – regardless of profession or money…
I don’t mean that George Papandreou is devoid of responsibility. He has to govern at last. Even now, at the ultimate moment. Whatever the reactions, he has to do it. The prime minister (nobody else is willing to do it) must take an detailed layout of all the public services, organizations and corporations of the narrower and wider public sector and start drawing “X”s. He must order a civil mobilization of all the employees who block the salvation of the country. As a last resort, he must send the police to arrest them. There is no other solution apart from the most extreme.
As for “constitutional” objections… he must follow Andreas Papandreou’s path! That’s what constitutionalists are for. To sidestep the objections with grace whenever it is absolutely necessary. At moments like the present one.
And he must tax the Church at last. The favourable attitude of the state towards the Church is a scandal. Use Michalis Stathopoulos and you will see how fast he will put the lavishly-living priests back in their place!
Whether George Papandreou will do what is needed depends on him. The final answer will be given in the next 15 days: this is the deadline given by the troika to the greek government to make the necessary reforms in exchange for the next installment.
In the meantime, the responsibility of the “plain citizens”, we the people as the Americans say, is to stop acting like the spoiled brats of divorced parents and resume our own responsibilities.
Because this country is not Nobody’s land. It belongs to us. We belong to her. (Since no other country is willing to adopt us!)
