Greece And Primary Surplus!

By: Veroniki Rontogianni

After being back to Greece for 6 months I have a lot of things to say many of which rise more questions!

We should supposedly celebrate the Primary Surplus that Greece has achieved but I can’t find any reason to do that!

Greece is one of Europe’s most expensive countries, even in the essential goods like electricity and food! It is at the same time one of the lowest salary countries a combination which makes it hard to survive! Why is that? I know that Greece doesn’t produce a lot but why is it that IKEA in Greece is the most expensive in Europe for example? The salaries are lower than Sweden, the taxes are about the same and it is full of people almost every day! The products are not produced in Europe, not in their majority anyway, so why is that?

People who come in to my house are saying that they haven’t been in a warm house for a long time! Of course I paid almost 400 euros for two months electricity in order not to freeze! There aren’t a lot of house blocks that use central heating nowadays! People who can spare money for heating use electricity powered devices in order to avoid using radiators since the oil price has increased almost up to a percentage of 70% within the last year. There were many cases where people lost their lives trying to keep themselves or their children warm. Suffocation by burning inappropriate material producing poisonous gases, indoors real fire that led to houses burned to the ground and many more similar examples.

One of the most interesting things is the people’s behavior in situations of such crisis. In times like these the inhibition that keeps the moral balance within us is not that strong and people are breaking out on “whoever” is in their way. On the other hand people have come closer and help one another! We don’t throw out food anymore but we hang it in a bag next to the garbage. This bag will disappear within the hour! In the project seeing other countries there will be a speaker, in the conference of 12^th of Mars, who will analyze a subject called “Moral Panic” which is relevant to this phenomenon and this is something that I’m looking forward to learn about! A video will be created and uploaded after the conference with subtitles and thus people can learn more about what’s happening!

My field may not be the economics but since it is a fact that there is food for everyone, and home for everyone there is a huge problem with the system when people are hungry, cold and homeless! And here rise some simple but well-aimed questions? Has the social welfare been neglected in order to proudly present national surpluses and “success stories” as declared by the Greek Prime Minister? Are unemployment, poverty and suicidal incidents increasing in a rapid rate? Are politicians that insensitive and care only for the big picture of this country and their polished chairs even if this means subjection to the moneylenders’ will?  Undoubtedly and sadly the answers are yes, yes and yes!

I think that, at one point we, as humans, have stopped valuing life and its true meaning, and have put wrong priorities first, like money!

As Greece is coming out of the crisis, as everyone says, people are suffering more and more, and  life becomes harder and harder! When is this going to stop?