Αϊ χάσου ρε Μαϊλη

Στις ειδήσεις του MEGΑ, την Πέμπτη 29 Απρίλη, ο Μαϊλης του ΚΚΕ μας δήλωσε απερίφραστα ότι διαφωνεί με το Σύνταγμα!

Ο Μαϊλης και το ΚΚΕ βρίσκονται κατά τα φαινόμενα σε “επαναστατική” ετοιμότητα. Το ότι εκλέχτηκε πρόσφατα κυβέρνηση με σαρωτική πλειοψηφία δεν έχει ιδιαίτερη σημασία για τον αυτόκλητο αυτόν εργολάβο της εργατικής τάξης και θιασώτη της δικτατορίας του "προλεταριάτου" στα λόγια και της νομενκλατούρας του κόμματος στην πράξη.

Θα πρέπει βέβαια να ομολογήσει κανείς ότι, αναφορικά με την παρουσία και δράση του ΔΝΤ στη χώρα υπάρχουν πράγματι δυο απόψεις που είναι λογικά στέρεες και δεν είναι κακομοίρικες και γελοίες.

• Η μια (ΚΚΕ, Τσίπρας), που προτείνει την έφοδο στην πλουτοκρατία και τους έχοντες και κατέχοντες, και είναι βέβαιο ότι θα την επιχειρήσει το επόμενο διάστημα
  

• Η άλλη, που προτείνει έφοδο στο τεράστιο διεφθαρμένο και άχρηστο κράτος

Ο Μαίλης όμως είναι ηθικά εκτεθειμένος. Βαρύτατα.

Η ιδεολογία του παρότι είχε για 60 χρόνια το μισό πλανήτη κατέρρευσε σε μια νύχτα. Δεν έριξε ούτε μια, ούτε ΜΙΑ, πιστολιά. ΠΟΥΘΕΝΑ!!. Τόσο πολύ πιστεύανε αυτό που κάνανε. Οι αρχιξεφτίλες! Αυτό δε τον προβληματίζει καθόλου; Τέτοια ξεφτίλα ούτε οι Ναζί. Κάποιοι απ΄ αυτούς αυτοκτόνησαν, κάποιοι κάνανε μέχρι και αντάρτικο για λίγους μήνες, μέχρι να τους ξεβράσει η ιστορία στον ίδιο καλάθι που ξέβρασε και το σοβιετικό κομμουνισμό.

Ο απολογισμός τώρα. Μετά από 60 χρόνια κομμουνισμό γέμισε ο πλανήτης ξανθιές πουτάνες και βρωμερούς μαφιόζους, όλοι τους (οι μαφιόζοι και όχι οι πουτάνες) τέως κομμουνιστές, και σήμερα αρχικαπιταλιστές. Η Ελούντα και η Κύπρος είναι γεμάτη από δαύτους.

Ο κομμουνισμός του Μαϊλη ζει και στην Κίνα, ένα στυγνό καπιταλιστικό κράτος όπου η εργατιά πληρώνεται με 100 δολάρια το μήνα ενώ απ΄ την άλλη Κινέζοι φιγουράρουν πια στις πρώτες θέσεις των πλουσίων του πλανήτη. Για την ακρίβεια η πλουσιότερη γυναίκα του κόσμου είναι Κινέζα και φυσικά, μέλος του κόμματος και κομμουνίστρια!!! http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/worlds_richest.php

Μπράβο στη σύντροφο υπερ- δισεκατομμυριούχο!

Βεβαια ο Μαϊλης θα μας πει ότι αυτοί είναι προδότες, κ.λπ. Και γιατί βρε απολίθωμα-Μαϊλη θα πρέπει να δεχθούμε τη θεωρητική άρα άχρηστη άποψη περί κομμουνισμού που έχεις εσύ και μερικές χιλιάδες Έλληνες, και όχι την πρακτική άρα χρήσιμη για συμπεράσματα, κάτι δις. Κινέζων; Στη θεωρία προτιμώ τη θρησκεία που υπόσχεται παράδεισο στον Ουρανό και όχι στη ...Βουλγαρία.

Τέλος, κατά τoν Μαϊλη, ο κομμουνισμός ζει και στη Βόρεια Κορέα, το τρισβάρβαρο φασιστικό καθεστώς, όπου ο λαός πεθαίνει από την πείνα, την ανέχεια για να καλοπερνάει αυτό το παχύδερμο που κυβερνάει με την κτηνώδη παρέα του. Σημείωση: Ποτέ, κανένας, στην Ελλάδα δεν έκανε μια διαδήλωση γι' αυτή την κτηνωδία που λέγεται Βόρεια Κορέα.

Αϊ χάσου ρε Μαϊλη που διαφωνείς και με το Σύνταγμα.

Reaching the turning point

Greek governments have been for thirty years pushing debt on future generations, for reasons of an appalling consumption (Greece has the more per capita Porsche Carreras in the world), for the well being of themselves and their clientele and without creating any development prospect for the country whatsoever. Right or left, for thirty years they have been consistent in hiding from the people the significance of numbers, just hoping that they will have completed their personal life-cycle when the bill shows up.

Now, they are again maintaining the myth that “something will happen”. They carry on with the practice of an irresponsible borrowing and emerge victorious from EU summits that just confirmed that these absurd rates are their best option.

They should rather make the bold statement that their ridiculous 30 year policies have ruined the country. Financial and human capital is currently flowing out of the country at amazing rates. How long can they still afford to cheat? The “austerity” measures will only do for just a tiny little part of the burden of the excessive spreads.

It would be far better to ask for an apology, declare their incompetence and ask for the IMF to take short term control of the country. In the mid term, the diaspora of our country has extremely competent individuals, running the biggest commercial fleet of the world and thriving in many areas outside our occupied, by the incompetent and profligate public administration, country.

They will, hopefully, provide for the mid term solution.

About numbers (Part II, Politics)

Greek society is not in good terms with numbers. Only recently it realised that there is an over 300 billion Euro debt and that this year there are pending payments of about 40 billion. Very, very few know what the next year payments will be. Even more, few people realise the significance of what 300 billion may be like. Huge numbers, beyond the arithmetic that people usually engage with, in their daily lives, are not easy to grasp. If people, for instance were told that the market value of the National Bank of Greece is something like 10- 15 billion Euros, this would have provided a comparative benchmark; “our debt is 20- 25 times the value of our flagship corporation”. Similarly, if people knew that the yearly payments to the public sector employees is 30 billion Euros again, he could perceive the magnitude of the debt; it would be the money all public employees receive in 10 years.

So, few indisputable numbers are made available, and these are known and understood by the few. Is it because of the inherent difficulty for individuals to come in terms with numbers or because their political leaders have kept them in the blind for their own reasons? Or rather a, most probable, mix of the two? Of course, in the lack of numbers, adjectives and fairy tales abound. As a result, we have truly an abundance of myths, big words and metaphysical hopes in the country.

My purpose however here is not to discuss why people are not used to numbers. Rather to elaborate on those, lacking, numbers who could provide some insight on major economic phenomena in the country in the last thirty years. And would shed light on who has benefited and who has lost and especially how much. Only for the debt, we can be sure that the political parties between 1980 and 2010 put it on the safe shoulders of the teenagers of today and of tomorrow. This is a fact, the most certain verdict of history, and time will eliminate all defensive or self justifying myths to take the blame from the particular power holders of this period and shift it elsewhere, in or out the country.

But it was not only the debt that massively redistributed money, among generations in this case. There have been also other major efforts or practices that benefit some to the expense of others and the society at large. Where the scale of the crime has not been measured.

Three examples of what I consider among the most unfair and greed driven practices, that resulted to major redistribution on money.

First, the black economy. Huge revenues that are not traced, not taxed but felt around us, in the glitz of the life of not a few Greeks. Who, by the way, are the globally best market of the super posh car brand Porsche (see sales statistics of the car maker). Can this be about productivity? Of course not!

How big is the black economy, and who are those who mainly benefit? Is it just 30% as rough statistics say of far higher as lots of us feel.

In any case, those who benefit from black economy, do so to the expense of public tax revenues. Greece has truly not been able to make any wise use of these revenues. The quality of services, the corruption and the bureaucracy is third world and the cost of services higher than first world. So, lots of people. living in the white economy, are eventually and justly not so much concerned, if some segments of society engage in black transactions. Transferring funds to a such an incompetent state appears to be no real issue for them. For sure, they have a point..

More sinister than the black economy, in terms of creating social injustice and an uncompetitive economy, has been the structure of the public sector itself. The public in Greece has roughly two parts; the social part (health, education, administration, etc.) and the entrepreneurial part, i.e., public companies, doing business or pretending to do so. This, latter one, has succeeded in securing extremely high earnings to its employees. People working in the trains, in the metro service (old part), in the electricity corporation, the telecoms and Olympic airways (until recently) enjoyed, and still enjoy, earnings often many times more their colleagues of the "social" public sector. Not to mention of course the wages in the second class, private, sector. Just to give an idea. There is still no University professor in Greece matching the average earnings of an employee (typically including drivers, cleaners, ticket clerks, supervisors, etc.) of HSAP (old part of the metro system), where the average monthly earnings amount to ~7000E (Kathimerini, 14 March). Even if the University brought in some Nobel holder he would be making far less than the average worker at HSAP!! Just to remind. Most of these public companies are totally uncompetitive and living in deep red for many years now. Whenever the state found the muscle to shut down any of them it had to pay out massive compensation plans to avoid protests (in Athens it only takes 100- 200 people to destabilize the whole city). Plans, that, by the way, no private sector employee could ever dream of.

The qualitative aspects of this weird phenomenon are known and are indisputable. Greek administration, as of early 80s, massively strengthened the political power and the financial earnings of these organisations, collectively knows as DEKO. The political system created space for its many friends and political clients under the most favourable conditions and the simple commitment to share the profit. Contrary to what is happening today, a lot of cheap money was easily pouring in from the EU and the International funds at those easy years and had to be managed timely and effectively.

The package was nowhere to be found, east or west; huge earnings, no work, infinite possibilities for engaging in corrupt transactions with the private sector clients. And atop of all, the safe haven of the “public” and the pseudo-mission of serving the public interest. A completely vicious set-up.

The first victim was the country itself. Not only because it took on its back the financing of this huge ballast but also because this destroyed any chance that the private sector would emerge in the international markets with any notable success. Huge, public, fat and corrupt clients, as the 80's telecoms (OTE) were the best show in town for Mr. Kokkalis and his technology ventures of the time. Why risk in the international markets if you can have such a client? Buy yourself a football team to have some fanatics ready to sacrifice, in case something goes wrong, and get on with the easy business. Short term vision, as it turned out to be? Maybe. Life is short term after all

The uncompetitive economy was built on this rotten substrate. This, as an impact was far worse, than the financial sustaining of all this fat.

Socially, the injustice of having such large privileges in the entrepreneurial part of the public sector was paramount. Towards both the social, public sector, as well as the private sector employees and workers. Now, why this dramatic social injustice escaped all notice of the Left is just evidence of its consistent extra-terrestrial habits. Even if somebody gets 7000E a month to engage in personal and corrupt transactions with the private sector, in the mind of the Greek Left, he still qualifies as a worker and should be granted all possible solidarity.

However clear the roll out of the process, we dramatically lack any arithmetic approach. How many, how much, how long? Questions left unanswered. Most likely, nobody will even learn the size and all details of this crime.

Last, the stock market scandal of the turn of the century. When hundreds of thousands of micro investors, encouraged by the political system, lost their money, in search of extreme and unlikely paybacks. This was definetely an instance of a massive transfer of money from the poor to the rich. However, how many billions exactly changed hands, and in exactly which directions, will remain a mystery. As long as we lack such numbers we can only be speculative.

Society would benefit much from arithmetic analyses of such phenomena. And a lot of people, would no longer be able to hide behind missing numbers.

About numbers (Part I, Science)

I read, recently, an excellent book. Or, to be accurate, I am in the process of reading it. I haven't yet reached the conclusions section; so its not the opinions raised or the conclusions reached by the author that I find compelling; its just the methodology. I would strongly recommend this book to any person even remotely interested in modern environmental issues and global change, in general, and in renewable energy in particular.

The book is entitled “Sustainable Energy — without the hot air” and has been written by David JC MacKay, professor at Cambridge. You can buy it at Amazon for twenty Euros, you can freely download from the web at www.withouthotair.com.

What is special about this book is that it is about numbers. In the preface, the author himself endorses “Numbers not adjectives”. This is that drives the whole analysis. Numbers in science can be very complex. The author, a technology professor himself, fully appreciates this difficulty. The challenge he embarks upon is to explain in simple words what we can expect from renewable energy. He religiously respects the mandates of science and common sense. All the scientific complexity is however addressed in the annexes; the main text can be followed by almost every person with a grammar school level of mathematics. For those seeking to understand the full complexity of the issues, details are presented in the annex.

The author, step by step, builds two stacks; that of our energy needs (demand) and that of what renewable energy can supply to us, under assumptions of a true, massive, exploitation of these, many, technologies (supply). Again, I haven't yet reached the point where the result is disclosed; which stack is higher and how much. For the moment I am enjoying the extraordinary style of the book; what I would epitomize as a rare example of “true science made simple”.

Renewable technology is strongly debated. There are all sort of views around. All the way from “the ultimate solution” down to a “silly romantic nonsense”. All views have typically serious people among their ranks. Many motives may drive this diversity; wishful beliefs, economic interests, psychological needs to condemn or to praise, and many more.

In retrospect, when reading this book, I realized the practical impact such books can have. Because of their powerful approach, based on numbers, which respect science, they can restrict this vast range of views. At least, for the vast majority of good willed people. Who put truth above selfish interests or strong inner psychological drives, including religion.

In other words, we may have so many views about renewable energy because such, solid and number based approaches, have not yet become mainstream. Of course, even in science there are errors, there are limits of confidence. In real life, there is hardly ever one solution only. Rather a spectrum of possible solutions. However only numbers can draw the borders between science and superstition or meta- science approaches. Only numbers can provide for hypothesis assessments, can assign probabilities to them, can restrict the spectrum of potential truth that, without science, will easily expand from heaven to hell.

This book will help realize or recall the true power of numbers.

The question now is: why have such rigorous, number-based, approaches appeared so late. This debate on renewable technology is ongoing for 20-30 years. Why did it take so much time?

Difficult to say. Is it manipulation by specific economic interests? Lots of people see conspiracies everywhere, especially when economic interests are at stake. I sort of reject this conspiracy scenaria. I don't think that any economic interest can manipulate western type democracies.

Answers are often simple. I would say that I tend to believe that such approaches take so much time to appear in the literature, because at the end it may simply be extraordinarily difficult to be both a true scientist, understanding the full complexity of numbers and, at the same moment, a person able and willing to report on this complexity is a way understandable by the broader audiences.

This is the rare triple skill of Professor McKay. He commands the science in its full broadness and complexity and has no intention to use political and public appealing and flattering nonsense as cheap substitutes. Then he has the ability to communicate this complexity to the people. And finally, he is not the person that will be manipulated by any economic interest; even more, he has the will to push forward, driven by the moral of reporting important scientific truths for the benefit of society.

Sadly, there are not many people, of this caliber and integrity, around.

(to be continued...)

A 1000 capitalists

Mr. Papandreou represents the best chance for Greece to manage the return of the country to a rational financial management, based on principles applicable everywhere in the world, with few exceptions (North Korea, etc.) . Mr Papandreou, when abroad, sends out an image of a charismatic, a confident and prudent person. This has several decades to be the case. Pleasant and unexpected surprise.

May not be enough however. In Greece key people in his government are sending out a different image; an image painted with the notorious colors of irony, audacity and mythology. Mr. Pagalos, a top ranking political figure reminded Germany about the Nazi crimes (!) as if the current situation has anything to do with the Nazis. Mr Papoutsis, typical populist figure, vented his anger against the EC institutions, holding them responsible (!!) in case the IMF turns out to be the only solution for Greece. This irrational behavior, where the cause – effect relationship is completely disregarded and a number of absurd and irrelevant facts are called upon, is the typical behavior of small and spoiled children.

The reason we have reached this point has of course nothing to do with Nazis, Turks, Roman legions or any other devastation the country experienced in its long history. It is much more simple than this: irresponsible and selfish management of the state, by all governments, with insignificant exceptions, all along the period 1981- 2009. Something from which large segments of the society benefited, (and not just a few rich as the mythology of the Left claims) for no obvious reason and to the expense of the future generations, starting from the current one, who must now give back the billions that the prime minister (Papandreou senior) publicly urged his Minister of Finance to give out to the people in the 80s.

Unfortunately it more and more appears that the country cannot be managed by its own. The measures launched will have little effect; a second round will most likely create uncontrollable social unrest as large segments of the society still believe the unbelievable: that all this is because 1000 capitalists have had it all! So if they give it back, everything will be more or less ok. As above, small and spoiled children always put the blame somewhere else. If such nonsense is still mainstream in the Greek society, there is little chance that we will ever be able to find a solution ourselves.

Given the inability of the domestic political forces to provide a solution, given that the EU institutions appear inexperienced and unwilling to get Greece back on track the country has only one solution to stop paying out 7% rates to, by definition, keen and greedy international funds; The IMF.

The idea that Greeks have about the IMF is again hampered by mythological approaches where thirsty vampires will be called in by the 1000 capitalists to devastate the people. Mythology aside, there are aspects of the IMF role that will be very bad and very unjust. Unfortunately it will not be possible for the IMF to draw the line between those large parts of the public or private sector that are parasitic, and those which are dying out of hard work. Because, yes, there are also such people. Dying out of hard work. There are quite a few of them, we have seen them here and there. We were surprised, perhaps we felt a bit uncomfortable. So, yes they exist!

The IMF does not have the expertise nor the time to carry out surgical interventions; this was our job, this, only we could do. For 30 years we avoided the discussion of who works and who not. In the 80s, "productivity", "entrepreneurship", “competitiveness”, "private" were all damned words. They were considered as tricks of the 1000 capitalists. To realize how fake and hypocritical and complex, rather than ideology, based was all this, you need only realize that there is hardly any country in the world with less “public” space than Greece. Private was bad only with reference to the 1000 capitalists; all the rest, “workers”, were free to occupy pavements, coasts, beaches, gardens, squares, entrances, pedestrian routes, etc. with their cars, motorcycles, chairs, tables, beds, etc.

What we did not do in 30 years let us not expect that the IMF will do it in 30 days. There will be carpet bombing solutions, on just and unjust alike. This is what is ultimately unfair. The current/ coming generations are the first victim; the honest, the humble, the conscious people who made little noise and a lot of work, who left their trace from where they serviced, will, soon, be the second one. I would say that many among them will be immigrants; workers on the fields, on construction platforms, in factories, in our houses. Workers who could not afford joking about the 1000 capitalists; workers who needed to work day and night. Workers, who, what an irony, have so much more in common with the Chicago, true, workers who fell under the police bullets in a, true, demonstration many years ago.

They will now be most certain be the first the fall under the IMF bombs. Unbelievable injustice; unborn children to be born in a mountain of debt created by their parents and grandparents; poor and responsible workers to experience the IMF bombs more than anyone else. And... the 1000 capitalists to escape unscathed!

If only the bombs could also kill this myth!

Γιατί δολοφονήθηκε ο Καποδίστριας;

"Εφ´ όσον τα ιδιαίτερα εισοδήματά μου αρκούν διά να ζήσω, αρνούμαι να εγγίσω μέχρι και του οβολού τα δημόσια χρήματα, ενώ ευρισκόμεθα εις το μέσον ερειπίων και ανθρώπων βυθισμένων εις εσχάτην πενίαν"

"Eλπίζω ότι όσοι εξ´ υμών συμμετάσχουν εις την Κυβέρνησιν θέλουν γνωρίσει μεθ´ εμού ότι εις τας παρούσας περιπτώσεις, όσοι ευρίσκονται εις δημόσια υπουργήματα δεν είναι δυνατόν να λαμβάνουν μισθούς αναλόγως με τον βαθμό του υψηλού υπουργήματός των και με τας εκδουλεύσεις των, αλλ´ ότι οι μισθοί ούτοι πρέπει να αναλογούν ακριβώς με τα χρηματικά μέσα, τα οποία έχει η Κυβέρνησις εις την εξουσίαν της".

Ιωάννης Καποδίστριας, πρώτος Κυβερνήτης της Ελλάδας, προς τη Δ´ Εθνοσυνέλευση

The scope of corruption in Greece

The recently elected prime minister in Greece, Mr. Papandreou, has declared war on corruption. A welcome declaration that has however been made by many past administrations already, with zero success. Nice to hear again; not much optimism however allowed.

I will present below a corruption incident from own experience. To use it as a basis for some thoughts on corruption. It may therefore not be typical. I believe it should seen as a rather extreme case. Even as such, one can easily realise the waste of EC money in Greece for ridiculous projects, set up for the sole purpose of distributing money among executives of the public and private sector alike.

Some ten years ago, a public sector organisation in Greece tendered a study for the design of an industrial project it was, supposedly, planning to implement. The very statement that a paper cultured public institution will implement an industrial project can only bring laughter. The project should have never been allowed on this fact alone.

The tender came out, something like 180 KE, for the business planning of the particular industrial investment. The two main corrupt executives of the organisation found a consulting company and asked them to set up a fake evaluation that would award the contract to some company they would control. The consultant company could not undertake the project on its own because at the same moment it was implementing another industrial investment (!) of the same organisation (!!). A second award would stir suspicion in the market and should better be avoided. So, the consultant set up an evaluation at its own premises (!!!) and selected another, friendly consulting company, to do the job. The maths were simple. The corrupt officials would take half the money, i.e., 90 KE. The first consultant would take 45KE for carrying out the evaluation on behalf of the public institution. The second, the winning, consultant would take the 45KE to actually do the job. This latter consultant had also no idea what the whole thing was about. So he hired some expert in the area (myself), paid him 13KE to do the job and write down a few reports and present them as project deliverables.

The figures are absolutely accurate as, at that moment, I had the opportunity to monitor the exercise in all its steps.

Nothing was ever implemented; the 180KE was wasted and a number of individuals, two public officials and two private consulting companies profited from doing just nothing. A lot of people in the tendering organisation and in its supervising authority knew what was going on. Some were good willed, ethical people. Nobody ever reacted.

The above arithmetic may be extreme. A value of just zero was created out of this project. Overall the use of the EU structural funds may score a bit higher in Greece. For example, in the late 90s, when both Greece and Cyprus where doing a lot of roadworks, you only need take a cursory look on the budget figures on the large signs of the, under construction, motorways. 4-5 ME per km in Greece, less than 2 ME per km in Cyprus. For an identical terrain. Nowadays, we also realise that the motorway pavement quality in Cyprus if far better that the respective Greek. What does the large, cost, difference make up to? Corruption, ignorance and bureaucracy that most of the times co-exist.

One should not restrict to the above, direct arithmetic, of corruption. The impact of the indirect impact is an even bigger problem. The two consulting companies, I mentioned above, are managed by competent people and their staff is also competent. Among the best I ever met in the country. When operating in a country where the extra-fat public sector stinks of incompetence, bureaucracy and corruption, instead of developing real competitive skills they spend their time in business as the above. This is not to say that they do not bear ethical responsibility. Of course they do. What however they also do, is to undermine their long term competitiveness.

In a macro scale, along these lines of practice, we ended up with Mr. Kokkalis, a major local entrepreneur and provider of the public sector, after returning from East Germany, where he grew up. Mr Kokkalis attracted in the 80s the best of the Greek human capital with his promises of creating a high-tech hub in the SE Europe. A promise that never came true. The only business that really turned out successful was his lottery business.

Compare Mr. Kokkalis with Mr. Onasis, who operated and excelled in the 60s in the fierce competitive environment of an already global shipping industry. Mr. Onasis left a trace on the Greek society; Mr. Kokkalis will leave none. His legacy will be washed away in a few decades from now. A memory of “the wasteful 80s” will only remain. Mr. Onasis is still here. The Greek shipping industry is the first in the world, and he was a major contributor of this achievement. Because the leaders of the shipping business were always in the frontline; they were not shuffling around easy EC funds, put on the table by corrupt public employees and channelled, at the end, to posh houses, luxury cars and expensive football players, while generating no social value at all.

Mr. Papandreou has a difficult task ahead. Because all this decay is now taken as the norm in the society at large. However combating corruption is not just an ethical issue; it is first and foremost the only way to create conditions for the Greek economy to excel in some market niches.

Without this, the country is doomed. Running after tax evasion will lead nowhere. The state is completely discredited. Mr. Marinos a top political anlayst in the country called the state "occupation army". If it is really so, Mr. Papandreou should only expect bold resistance to any plans to raise taxes. People will react in all possible ways to pay taxes to the state. To this state.

Looking to tax raising for the solution will result to the Greek game known as "kolokithia". Everybody will point the finger at someone else. The failure of the state ever since the 80s, will however, soon be difficult to hide any more. The yearly deficit amounts at three times the market value of the National Bank of Greece (NBG). We need to sell three NBGs every year, not, of course, to get out of the red (debt) but just not to go deeper in it (deficit)! What ordinary people say, that the banks should pay the price of this failure may have, from an ethical point of view, some well justified reasons but, given the above arithmetic, is just no solution. Even if in some magic and utterly unrealistic way the state sold all the banking system, public and private alike, that would just grant it a few more years before total collapse. Unfortunately the current standards of living of Greeks, of most Greeks and not just the banks is not sustainable, given the productivity of the country which can only compete with second class African states. This is the true issue; and truth will very soon knock on our door.

To communicate this message to society is no easy task. Especially given the utterly ridiculous and old fashioned Right wing parties in Greece, as well as the dominant irresponsible mythology of the Left, according to which it is just a matter of taxing the bad rich guys to solve the problem.

Without a new development model the country is doomed. It is so simple. And because we cannot sell the whole banking system to get ourselves a few more easy going years, we will come face to face with the truth in a matter of months.

The new development model may be green or may be any other colour you like. This is a completely secondary issue. The real keyword of this new model will have to be: dramatically less and dramatically more efficient state; whatever is out of the core state role, as perceived everywhere in the developed world (regulation and policy making, education, defence, health) needs to be immediately scrapped. The state has dramatically failed at all these areas of its true jurisdiction. It is a scandal that it remains keen on carrying out business activities! For reasons now obvious to the most naïve.

Society has already credited Mr. Papandreou at the “aesthetic” level; his key administrators seem knowledgeable, young, human and competent people. Which was unfortunately not the case during the sinister period of his predecessor, Mr. Karamanlis.

His determination for the unconditional war he has promised on corruption, as a first step to a re-engineered state, serving the citizen and not itself, remains now to be seen. In a very limited period of time, left to us to engineer the solution ourselves and not delegate it to the IMF and other foreign bodies, ready to take action on our behalf.