Greece - a country in ruins

The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion

So now we have it - the Greeks have voted no in their referendum and the pundits don't know what's going to happen next.  We live in interesting times...

A few weeks ago we went to Greece for a holiday, spending a couple of nights in Athens and then ten days on the island of Milos in the Cyclades.  At that stage the ATMs were operating without restriction, so the requirement for cash everywhere, including the carhire company, wasn't overly inconvenient.  We had an excellent time, and returned relaxed.

But what the trip brought back was my memory of dealing with Greek shipowners in the days when I did shipping finance law.  I have some sympathy with Christine Lagarde's comment about needing adults in the room when it comes to discussions about Greek debt, but I'm afraid she's barking up the wrong tree.  The Greeks aren't children, they're adults who are different.  The methodical, rational approach of northern Europeans is, from my experience, entirely alien to them.

The Greek conundrum we are now faced with - a eurozone country that refuses to comply with eurozone requirements, and no legal route for exit - is a classic instance of "I wouldn't have started from here".  The Greeks should never have joined the eurozone in the first place.  Once in it, they should have tackled some of the structural problems - corruption, a bloated civil service, an excessive defence budget.  But the northern Europeans have to share some of the blame for the mess: everyone now seems to admit that the figures produced by the Greeks on entering the euro were dodgy, but nobody explains why they weren't scrutinised with the same rigour as those now being put up by Mr Tsipras.  Nobody seems to have suggested to the Greek government five or ten years ago that they should perhaps start limiting their borrowing.  More recently, the attempt by the Commission to hold back publication of the IMF paper showing that the level of Greek debt is already unsustainable and will become more so if the troika's demands are met seems a particularly squalid bit of manoeuvring. 

My own belief is that our view of the Greek mentality is still influenced by the legacy of Plato and Aristotle - in other words, we think of the Greeks as having the same mental discipline as the philosophers who flourished two thousand years or so ago.  But the truth is that they are more Levantine than European, loving a debate and a bargain and some drama in their daily life.  

Mr. Tsipras seems to be bearing up well in the middle of it all.  If I were him I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.  But then I'm not Greek.

Antony Mair

Sunset at Sounion