Saturday, August 15, 2015

The Speech Tsipras Should Have Made.

There is a certain shame in the current situation of Greece and it rests squarely on the shoulders of Prime Minister Tsiapras.

The people of Greece had spoken, twice. First in electing the Syriza party to government and then in a snap referendum rejecting further Troika austerity.

He had the moment in history, he had the precedent, he had the votes. But rather than stand up to the bullies in Brussels and make them face the facts, he folded like a house of straw in a stiff breeze.

He could have, he should have, addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations:

"Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished delegates, honorable ambassadors. I come before you as the Prime Minister of Greece to present to you an appeal from the Greek people.

"As you all know my small country faces a crisis that threatens our livelihoods, our neighborhoods and our very lives. We have to make a choice between just which set of difficult and uncomfortable circumstances we wish to face.

"Do we betray the voters and plaster over a poisonous, unpayabe debt with even more unpayable debt and suffering?  Do we tolerate once again outside forces telling us once again that debt makes democracy irrelevant and we must live our lives in accordance with their demands? Or do we stand up, admit our mistakes, and there are many, take our lumps and govern ourselves in our own best interest? Isn't that what government is supposed to be about?

"Yes the previous governments in my country, given the opportunity to spend other peoples money, took advantage and dug a deep hole. A hole so deep that any light from the top is barely discernable.

"If I were standing here and telling you that Greece bears no responsibility for the mess it is in and should suffer no consequences for its actions you could and indeed should boo me off this stage.

"But the time has come for not just Greece, not just the European Union, but the entire world to face some difficult realities.  Firstly we have to recognise that there are powerful, vested interests that are strongly opposed to even articulating the problem, never mind presenting any broad based solutions, precisely because any solutions will entail greatly diminishing their power, wealth and unaccountable authority.

"The ugly little secret is that it is not just Greece that has made economic commitments well beyond its ability to generate the revenue to pay them. And it's not just the rest of the 'Southern Tier' of Europe that is so horribly over burdened with these unpayable debts; IT IS VIRTUALLY EVERY NATION ON THE PLANET!

"Greece takes great pride in being the historical birthplace of democracy. But we must aslo remember that the ancients of Greece had another tradition and lesson for the modern world.  Their world too underwent the turmoil and social instability brought about by the exploitation of the accumulation of unpayable debt.

"Today it is not just families and villages but entire nations that have been reduced to the penury of unpayable debt.  Just as in the time of Solon we need the wisdom to declare unpayable debt not just uncollectable but unjust and their contracts as void.

"If we as a people, sharing a common humanity and a common planet don't come to some means of correcting this great imbalance as civilized men, it will seek to rebalance itself in a spasm of violence that will draw the entire world into economic chaos and eventually war.

"Are those vested interests of whom I spoke really beyond such reasoning? Must they continue to accumulate more wealth and more power for the mere sake of accumulating more wealth and power beyond any measure ever seen in history?

"Sadly much of the political structure of the world has been usurped, purchaced by these very powers. It will take a united world of United Nations to convince them of the folly of continuing down the path that we are on. We ask not for their destruction but for their cooperation in building a world where hard work builds dignity and prosperity for all nations and peoples."

He could have made such a speech but he's either chicken shit or the victim of threats, blackmail and/or intimidation. His cowardice my have condemned us all.


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