Greek Gravy Boat Hits The Rocks

A couple of weeks ago, I likened the EU to an old, warm overcoat in winter; totally flea and vermin infested but to throw it off might lead to the big freeze. It is widely recognised now that Greece should never have joined the Eurozone and it will not do to blame the Greeks' use of Goldman Sachs for their entry into the quagmire. Any of the other Eurozone States should have seen with both eyes closed that Greece could not properly qualify. It was only the political insistence of having as many countries as possible within the zone that caused them to let Greece sneak in.

For seven years Greece has suffered austerity and crisis and nothing they can do while constrained by the euro will improve matters significantly. In the next seven years, there will be votes, there will be changes of government, there will be strictures, there will be orders from the EU that must be followed for bailout cash, yet that is what it will be - bailout - just enough to stop the ship of state sinking but never enough to get it underway again. In those seven more years, the ship, if still afloat, will not have moved forward. 

The Greek people on the decks of the Olympic, threw Captain Samaras overboard and appointed midshipman Tsipras to take the helm. He offered hope that he would steer a new course and the people believed him. But the new chief engineer, Varoufakis failed to restart the engines of commerce, without which the helmsman could do nothing but cry and twiddle the wheel. As the water laps at the gun-whales of the stricken ship, the people's belief in their early-promoted midshipman is evaporating fast. Heading slowly for the sinking ship is an EU pilot-cutter, waiting for the people to throw Syriza overboard en bloc, so that an EU appointee can take charge. 

Salvation will come for the stricken ship when the EU jettisons those people deemed a burden and expendable. Then and only then, with much cash injected for new engines, will the ship get underway. With luck and continued benevolence from its EU masters, the ship of state should dock safely in Piraeus circa 2022 with people on board who had abandoned all hope.

Tsipras should not have offered to re-float the ship of state on the back of EU funds and demands. Far better to seek a commission from Thor Heyerdahl and build a modern day
Kon-tiki raft, but named The New Drachma. With this he could rescue the bulk of his people and sail slowly but surely along a new course to better times. Better times? Nothing could be worse than the slow, painful drowning this once-great nation currently faces.

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