The Guardian: Was this humiliation of Greeks really necessary?

Helena Smith: It will take years for my adopted country to get over this crisis. Its people have faced the prospect of overnight impoverishment and wept at the indignity

When it comes down to religion, manhood and pride, there is no room for discussion or compromise. The whole Greek crisis is about mismanagement and misplaced trust – both in Greece and abroad. So everybody should get off their high horses, stop waving around their manhood and put their pants on and start fixing things and working towards improvement, instead of endless grandstanding. Stop striking and get things working. Guess what will give you the only money you can ever expect to earn: strikes or tourists? Guess what scares tourists more than anything else? Strikes. So get over your humiliation and start living like the rest of Europe. It’s less entertaining than every day heroism, but it puts food in your plate, every day.

 Chess pieces depicting Greek gods and Spartan soldiers in a shop in Athens. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters
Chess pieces depicting Greek gods and Spartan soldiers in a shop in Athens. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters

 

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