By Emmanuel Bouhalakis
It would seem that "Der Spiegel" has taken up the titanic duty of launching a dirty propaganda against Greece. Its most recent cover features a coffin covered with the Greek flag and on top of it there is a frame of the "dead Euro", suggesting that the debts of Greece, an economy representing 2 percent of the European GDP will bring economic catastrophe to the entire European continent.
A few months ago, the main issue was the supposedly "inside" information that the Greek government was planning to abandon the Euro soon enough. Although high ranking EU officials denied such claims, the magazine kept taking interviews from Jean Claude Juncker and other officials repeating questions about Greece and whether the country would finally become insolvent.
It is hard to understand if this obsession with Greece reflects the sentiments of the average German citizen or it is merely a cheap way to stir emotions and sell more copies of their magazine. Someone needs to remind them that populism is the absolute contraindication in a crisis. And this type of journalism does not seem to be far from the ominous oracles of the Trojan princess Kassandra whom the god Apollo had cursed so that no one would pay attention to her prophecies.
It would be unethical for any EU official to deny that the Greek government and people have not made great sacrifices in salary and expenses cuts. The austerity packages have reduced consumption to a staggering degree and simply extremely few are in the mood of buying German cars and appliances any more. It's nothing against the German products. But if they can find Korean ones they will buy them because they are of great quality and excellent price. In other words, life style does not play a role in Greece any more so the Greeks will not accumulate more debts. They have learned their lesson which says that it is better to live with less and dignity than with more and scorn.
Also, it would be fair to expect a certain degree of solidarity in the EU. Der Spiegel needs to remind its readers that the German loans are loans and not gifts. Together with the expected determination from the Greek government to sell state assets and punish tax evasion, the countries that have lent money to Greece not only will take their money back but with an interest as well.
So, both the ideas that the Greeks live like lazy sheikhs and they will not return the borrowed money are simply not true and sensibly thinking individuals ought to understand that insulting a nation and calling it essentially the "black sheep" of Europe does nothing in preserving European unity. For, if another country happens to fall in the domino of debt, and then another, maybe Der Spiegel would have to consider returning to the Deutsche Mark and then the Era of nationalism could return to Europe once again. And nationalism meant wars in the past. I wonder what Germany could win from the rise of nationalism since the Germans already have bitter experience from it.
Thus, it is always good to know when to speak, what to say, and when not to speak, that is, to shut up.
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