The White Skin Legacy!

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ionian islands were the only territories in Greece that could not be controlled by the Ottoman empire successfully. It wasn't that the group of islands was the epitome of independence; in fact, far from that, they were ruled quite incongruously by Venice, then a geographical power on its own. Greece, by itself too, post the golden era of the 4th century, has really never had a chance to truly be ruled by Greeks themselves, until the mid-1800s. Although the previous statement might be unjust to the true depth of Greece's history, the fact is that since the 4th century till the mid 1800s, the territory had either been ruled by various alien societies (from Romans to Ottomans) or had consistently faced attacks from hostile neighbours (from the Barbarian to the Slavic invasions). And almost every time, rather than being able to resolve its conflicts and issues on its own, Greece has either beseeched foreign powers for assistance, or has capitulated and succumbed to the attacks. Even the Ottoman removal from Greece occurred only after France, Russia and Great Britain intervened using their navies. Modern day Greece too lays its claim to the London Protocol of 1830 than any internally developed document. It wasn't therefore a surprise that a country that had no significant experience of ruling itself would go insolvent. And we are not even talking about the contemporary times. Greece filed for bankruptcy in 1893 and came under the full control of the International Financial Control authority, then one of the key financial regulators.

Which sensible nation would declare a war with the Ottomans – from whom they've just gotten free – only a handful of years after declaring bankruptcy? Well, Greece did that and much more. In 1897, Greeks attacked Turkey, got destroyed in return, and again turned to Russia, France and Great Britain to bail them out – which unfortunately the countries did. When Greece was a part of the Latin Monetary Union in the early 1900s, they had no qualms in fudging their accounts – and were kicked out when it was found out.

And so it continued, where the nation's culture became more immature through its legacy of being spoon fed and also through its almost nihilistic self-aggrandising behaviour, against the very nations that had built its country. Therefore, when Greece joined the Eurozone in 2001, most expected that the nation would, over the years, end up ridiculing not only itself but also the Union which welcomed it. One would say, that forecast was spot on! And people who believed otherwise, couldn't have been farther from the truth.

At the turn of the millennium, Greece was amongst the fastest growing Eurozone nations. Inflation hovered around 4.0 per cent, but was deemed controllable by most economic experts. So far so good? Yes, except for the fact that Athens had once again betrayed the world by fudging its accounts. The revised Greek budget data released in November 2004 revealed that the country  never had a budget deficit below 3.0 per cent since 1999. This blatantly violated basic EU rules. What followed will – in all probability become – one of the most referred case studies in global economic failure. A slew of events starting with the US debt crisis, a subsequent rise in national debt and austerity measures undertaken by the government, resulted in Greece declaring bankruptcy again in 2010. Initially, a bailout package of €110 billion seemed to be sufficient to take care of Athens' borrowing needs up to 2013 . However, prospects Greece returning to private markets became bleak when on June 19, 2011, the country demanded an additional €110 billion to insulate itself from defaulting on debt. And yet again, the Eurozone relented by releasing funds worth €109 billion along with some relaxations which included extending the repayment period to 15 years from the erstwhile seven years and reducing the interest rate on bailout funds to 3.5 per cent from 5 per cent. However, the austerity measures demanded in lieu of these relaxations only worsened the situation and in 2012, one more bailout worth €130 billion was agreed upon.

Now that the European Union has failed to bailout Greece post policy meetings last week, and the elections on 6th May have yielded inconclusive results, the exit of Athens from Eurozone seems to be inevitable. Talking to TSI, Costas Lapavitsas, an economist based with the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London says, “Greece's exit from the Eurozone is merely a formality now. It is imminent and unless an all-encompassing effort is put in, it can not be stopped. And mind you, contrary to the fashionable belief, this crisis has little to do with state incompetence. The primary factor in this is loss of competitiveness for Greece and other neighbouring nations, in most part because Germany has been reluctant to make its labour costs flexible for years now.” No doubt what is being termed as 'Grexit' will have a cascading effect on the rest of the Eurozone, but isn't it time that Greece be left out? After all, they have been given enough chances.

What is more interesting is the fact that EU leaders are once again restating their desire to retain Greece. In fact, Jose Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission, recently stated that “the EU will do all it takes to ensure that Greece remains a member of the Eurozone". This is nothing more than an attempt to sustain the 'white skin legacy'. When Africa as an entire continent can be allowed to fail, then why not Greece? It will only make the remaining economies more competitive.

If Greece has to be retained, then it should be on the condition that a Greek will not rule the country till bailouts are granted. The economy needs to be looked at as a corporation which needs a new management. If the Greeks agree, well and good. If not, then it's only fitting that the country be allowed to walk out of the Eurozone.