Monday, June 29, 2015

No Sympathy From Greece's Neighbors



New York Times: Greece’s Troubles Attract Little Sympathy From Poorer Neighbors

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Throughout months of acrimonious haggling with creditors, Greece’s left-wing government has cast itself as the victim of an elitist financial and political order beholden to Europe’s stingy rich, notably Germans.

Some of the most resolute opponents of cutting Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza party any slack, however, have been Europe’s most deprived nations, places like Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest member, and Baltic States blighted by decades of Soviet-imposed penury.

“We are much poorer than the Greeks but we have performed reforms,” Rosen Plevneliev, the president of Bulgaria, a northern neighbor of Greece, said in an interview. “When you have a problem, you have to address it and not shift it to Brussels or onto somebody else,” he said, deriding Syriza’s complaints that Europe had let Greece down.

WNU Editor: In comparison to what I had to go through when the Russian financial crisis hit in the 1990s .... what Greece is going through does not illicit much sympathy from me. But I do feel for the pensioners and for those who due to no fault of their own are dependent on social assistance .... and were led to believe that the state would be there for them for life. Sadly .... everyone is now learning that this is not the case.

3 comments:

AAA said...

they all, excluding dependents (children/disabled), deserve what is now happening. this isn't something that just developed overnight, this happened over decades. they're just now getting what they've voted for.

the only thing left to do is 1)prevent this from escalating further and 2)other countries take this as a warning and get their debt under control. neither of which will happen

Hamilcar Barca said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hamilcar Barca said...

I live in Romania , and my country did have a long economic crash in the 90 to the 2000 ,just like Russian Federation crash ,there is a story here to be lear, but Grece a long time free democrats country how din t have a communism system, failed epic in recent years, while my poor country have made major cuts to survive az a country....whee and most of Europe blame greece government for they're on stupidity.....is not normal that a pensioner like my 83 grandma to have a pension of 61 euro per mounth (just like the lowest handicap help the same money 61 euro) and in Greece a average pensioner have like 800 euro per month... anyway to help a country that dont help for herself and keep begging like a gypsy for more and more....is a idiotic thing. i never seen such a lazy people in my life... when is to worm they don't work and close shops at 12 WTF ? The work in Greece is : Monday Wednesday and Saturday from 10 to 14 and Tuesday Thursday and Friday from 10 to 14 and they go home 3 hours and come back at work to 17 and leave at 21. On some island they work only in warm mouths (6 mounths)... and in winter they don t do nothing hibernate or something...lol. And the most annoying thing is the F.....s blame EU for the shit that they r politician have made in Greece .