Greek Debt Audit's Coordinator Accuses Criminal Debt System

Article published in Cafebabel

Greek tragedy. Andrea_44 © Flickr 

The situation in Greece is calamitous. Draghi has dictated the closing of all banks, restricting people to withdrawals of 60€ per day from the ATMs. How far will the Greek crisis go? The mainstream media has been flooding our news feed with the same discourse over and over again: Will there be reforms? Will Greece pay its debt? But what do we really know about what is happening in Greece? 

Outcomes of the Greek Debt 

Auditor Brazilian Maria Lucia Fattorelli is the coordinator of the Greek Debt Audit, whose outcomes she has presented in the Hellenic Parliament early in July. This technical and detailed description of the debt system’s modus operandi is a must see in order to widen our perspective and therefore our own conclusions about what is really happening behind this massive debt. The first point to note is that the set of agreements was not an initiative of the Greek government. "It was an initiative of the Troika and the benefits reverted to the organisms that constitute it,” said Fattorelli. 

Moreover, the conclusions from the audit show that all contracts analysed are attached to the memos and within an attachment they found another agreement. The mechanism found in the Bilateral Agreement was hidden in one of its annexes where it was another agreement. Fatorelli claims that through this mechanism, the money borrowed from bilateral creditors did not go to Greece; instead, abusive costs were transferred to the Hellenic country. 

The revelation of this mechanism tears down the utterance that the taxpayers of other European countries would be funding Greece. “We must submit a report. It is an instrument, not an opinion. Once made available, it is the responsibility of the government and society to know how to use it to change the situation of the country and its relations with creditors,” alerted Fattorelli. Many wonder why we haven't seen this information on the mainstream media. Shouldn’t this be public knowledge? 

Behind Fattorelli’s audit on the Greek debt, there are three main players at stake: The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

The EFSF was created as a temporary crisis resolution mechanism by the Euro zone Member States in June 2010. However, some voices like Fattorelli claim that the IMF imposed the creation of the EFSF, turning this new mechanism into a disguised money laundering facility. The EFSF has already provided financial aid to Portugal, Greece and Ireland. A permanent rescue mechanism was also created in October 2012, the ESM. The ESM acts currently as the unique instrument responding to new requests for financial assistance by the Eurozone. So far, it has provided loans to Spain and Cyprus. 

During an event to promote support for the Greek people in Portugal, Francisco Louçā, coordinator of the Left Bloc party, has said that a “new order in which there is no space for either contracts or solidarity” has been created in Europe. To be true and proven that the entire debt system is a big scheme, dictating an ultimatum to Greece, is the absolute proof of how the world elite is working on shrinking human rights and dignity of life. Let us keep in mind that a bailout with the same features and conditions, massive austerity and the downfall of social rights, is now being paid back to its creditors, from Ireland, Portugal and Spain… 

The Greek Tragedy 

Luckily, we are living in a democracy, at least that is what all Europeans believe, and even though the Greek people might be under a terrible financial dictatorship, they were recently able to vote on a referendum where most Greeks admittedly manifested interest in leaving the Eurozone. Sunday, the so-called “Ultimate Summit” decided whether the creditors extended financial aid to Greece or not. As expected, Eurozone leaders reached an agreement over a new Greek bailout, which is still under discussion about its conditions. However, German Finance Minister Schäuble as well as Angela Merkel will put a short leash on Greece. 

What we are witnessing currently is a political struggle between the Greek Government and the “European government.” Along came a societal struggle and different stances have been formed throughout the EU. In one side, we see numerous protests across Europe trying to appeal to the suffering that the Greek people is enduring now and likely even more in the future. On the other side, we see a faction condemning Greece for its fiscal irresponsibility and many years of living like kings. This group claims that Greece should leave the Eurozone since they don’t want to pay more taxes because of the laziness of the Greek people. But is this really the truth? When we live in a democratic society, we have to face and respect other people’s opinions… 

A look back into Greek’s political history 

Despite of a big percentage of the European population being well aware of the tyrannical procedure of the banking system, in the Greek case, we have to take into consideration that, compared to many other European nations, they have been slightly more irresponsible when dealing with their public finances. 

When it comes to Politics, Modern Greece has always been an unstable country. It is important to rewind the tape in order to better understand the Greek crisis. In 1967, with support from the United States, Greece saw the installation of a dictatorship, which only ended in 1974. Considering that for half a century Greece hasn’t closed its budget (!), we must assume that there was an enormous governance problem inside the country. Along with an extreme badly management of Greek public accounts there is a powerful banking synchronization that has been destabilizing the whole Eurozone as well. 

For example, if we look at fractional-reserve banking, a very common banking policy and the current form of banking practiced in most countries worldwide, we can have a small idea of how banks play with our money generating debt — a huge irresponsible financial policy. The process is very simple: for instance, if you put 1 euro in the bank, 50 euros will automatically be assumed as ready to be lent, depending on the reserves of the bank. This system is clearly not sustainable on a large scale. 

The economic imperialism that has now blown-back to the United States and Europe has been evolving for decades and can be directly traced to the end of World War II, to the birth of the CIA, the IMF and the World Bank. “The stock market and economy have become weapons of mass oppression manipulated by an imperial banking cartel to impose order and exploit the masses. This crisis boldly represents the manifest evolution of the fascist spirit reasserting itself as the dominant ideology,” wrote David DeGraw in Global Research. 

Conclusions 

It is always difficult to make a reasonable judgment on the Greek crisis as many factors are at stake and we cannot take for granted that we know everything of this complex tragedy. 

It seems to be that an agreement will take place very soon and therefore Greece will remain in the Eurozone. The conditions of this agreement are yet to be known, but we already know that many of Syriza’s promises during the campaign period went downhill. Instead of getting rid of the debt, the Greeks will now pay more taxes, the VAT on restaurants will go up, and pensions will diminish. This is a recipe for disaster. If Greece wants to rise from the ashes and save the country from a likely default, it must open up, attract external investors, encourage internal investors and reduce the huge amount of bureaucracy that is constantly obstructing any attempt of progress. This is the only way of generating wealth in a country that has nothing to offer, besides tourism and high quality olive oil. 

Above all, one must have respect towards the Greek people, the cradle of democracy. Youth and the elderly do not have to pay for the mistakes of past governments, and the global banking cartel must be stopped. But, by whom? Are we really living in a democracy?

It Smells Like World War III

Article published in Cafebabel

Heavy shelling to Islamic States militants in Mosul. Neal Bhai © Flickr

The “cold war” atmosphere is spreading across the West and the East while we witness deep changes in Europe. The economic crisis, which unleashed the downfall of many sovereign states in Europe contributing to the rise of populist and far-extreme parties along with the civil war in Syria, has changed the political and international world scenario. 

On the 5th February, the British paper The Telegraph published “Putin could attack Baltic states warns former Nato chief”. According to Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Putin’s excessive ambition could lead to a Russian attack over Eastern Europe. 

On the 6th February, the European EUObserver wrote “Nato to open facilities on Russia's doorstep”. The list includes bases in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania as well as a “training center” in Georgia. The aim is to create a defensive line between Eastern Europe and Russia. At this point, it is important to look back at history and see how the mainstream media have influenced the conflicts and wars from the past with terror campaigns in order to prepare the population. My humble opinion tells me that this looks openly like a defense maneuver. But let us move on. 

Syrian Civil War 

Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, in 2011, little was done by the international community to stop the slaughter besides sanctions and diplomatic warnings. In the beginning, the UK was in favour of an international military intervention, while France and Germany were against it. Later, prime minister David Cameron changed his mind, after considering the hypotheses of an Islamic revolutionary army as a result. As for the United States, Obama was always against ground intervention, bearing in mind Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the American leader has adopted a different stance trying the diplomatic way, even after being proven the use of chemical weapons in Syria. 

On the leaked “Syria Files” from Wikileaks, we can read a political communication from US Brown Lloyd James, a powerful global strategic communication enterprise, dated May 2011, to Fares Kalla, a consultant inside the Private Office of the First Lady, expressing that “it is clear from US government pronouncements since the beginning of the public demonstrations in Syria that the Obama Administration wants the leadership in Syria to survive. Unlike its response to demonstrations in some other countries in the region, there have been no US demands for regime change in Syria nor any calls for military intervention. Criticism has been relatively muted and punitive sanctions - by not being aimed directly at President Assad - have been intended more as a caution than as an instrument to hurt the leadership.” 

Diplomacy. Maxime Bonzi © Flickr 

I am not apologist of military interventions in sovereign countries and I am against all forms of attempt to “colonize” independent yet fragile and unstable countries. International cooperation should be regardless of any kind of reward. I saw the international coalition against ISIS as a good attempt of trying to eradicate the extremist fanatic Islamic group, but we can’t help thinking of all the side effects caused by the airstrikes. Nevertheless, it has been shown that the air coalition has not been very effective. 

But something has changed recently. After the atrocious killing of the Jordanian pilot by ISIS, Jordanian air forces are repeatedly striking the Islamic State’s targets determined to eliminate the self-proclaimed caliphate and revenge its citizen. After being criticized of doing little to stop the Islamic State threat, the United Kingdom is about to send 2,000 special forces to help Jordan in this fight against ISIS. 

Divided European Union 

Meanwhile, we see a feeble Europe, we see a European Union not so united anymore, with Greece as the number one country who decided to shake up the Union a little bit. After extreme-left Syriza’s won the elections and since then pursued the end of the austerity, the South of Europe, hopeful of a debt release, are raising their voices against Germany, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission, determined to block Greece’s attempt of reducing the debt. This led us to the recent approximation between Greek prime minister Tsipras and Russian president Vladimir Putin. 

The Eastern Block 

Putin has shown interest in collaborating with Greece after inviting Tsipras for a ceremony in Moscow on the 9th of May. In fact, the international community was caught by surprise after Tsipras’ victory had announced Greece’s objection on sanctioning Russia, but after all, Greece has decided to accept the EU’s statement regarding the sanctions towards Russia. Greek finance minister said “the problem was that he [Tsipras], and the new Greek government, were never asked [about the statement]!". 

We also see an authoritarian and repressive Hungarian government closer and closer to Russia. It is important to highlight that Greece, Hungary and Turkey are NATO members, with the latter having the 8th most powerful military army in the world (Russia occupies 2nd place in the ranking). 

But the pro-Russian block had another sudden ally after Cyprus president, Nikos Anastasiadis, had offered Russia Cyprian territory to implement military bases. Cyprus is a member state of the European Union, however, its president has been very clear against further sanctions towards Russia due to the Ukrainian conflict. Thus, we see an apprehensive United States towards Iran, trying to influence public opinion on how dangerous a country can be with WMD (remember Iraq?). Putin’s Russia knows he can count on both Saudi Arabia and China. 

Conclusions 

When speaking about international relations we can only formulate ideas based on our interpretation of the facts. Nothing is certain and what is today might not be tomorrow. But one thing is guaranteed on the current political and international scenario: we are assisting to a world division shaped by different interests and ideologies, but above all by the desire of world dominance. The United States are losing their characteristic superpower tag and Russia is emerging and making new friends. For the moment the European Union is battling to preserve peace, not only in Europe but across borders, yet the “economic war” imposed on its citizens has also contributed to the debate on whether Europe is good or not. I’m convinced we will witness big changes worldwide in the coming future.

European Union Has Its Eyes On Greece

Article published in Cafebabel

Protestors in Greece, 2012. Josefcramer.com © Flickr

In two weeks, Greece’s trajectory might see a deep change in its modus operandi. With the left-wing party Syriza promising a debt renegotiation, the future of Europe might be unveiled on January 25th. 

After three unsuccessful voting rounds for presidential elections, Greece was pushed to parliamentary elections to be held on January 25th. Opinion polls show a victory by the left-wing party Syriza, known for its radicalism and anti-austerity ideology. Alexis Tsipras, Syriza’s leader, has already manifested his intention of wiping out part of the Greek debt as well as cancelling the terms of the bailout imposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. "With the will of our people, in a few days bailouts tied to austerity will be a thing of the past," said Tsipras. However, the future is uncertain with Samara’s Conservative New Democracy gaining more prominence. This political pandemonium in Greece is worrying the financial markets, but Alex Tsipras has promised to keep Greece in the euro and renegotiate the debt instead of completely ignoring it. 

According to the latest polls, Syriza is leading the elections followed by the centre-right New Democracy. The communist KKE ranks third and the centre-left To Potami fourth. The extreme far-right Golden Dawn is ahead of PASOK, the centre-left coalition partner. The great new (or recent trend of the countries affected by the crisis) was the creation of a new political party, the Movement of Democratic Socialists, by former Prime Minister George Papandreou. This new bloc deserves some consideration as it might steal votes from both the weak PASOK and feared Syriza. Nevertheless, there’s always the possibility of governmental coalitions and there’s nothing that we can do but speculate while waiting for the elections’ outcomes. 

 Alexis Tsipras. Bulge-Luver © Flickr 

Europe is clearly apprehensive and different stances towards Greece are taking shape. The European left is supporting Greece and the end of austerity measures. Submissive countries reporting to autocratic entities is not the desired scenario for the leftists, let alone for the other Southern countries affected by this attack to their sovereignty such as Portugal, Spain and Cyprus. On the one hand, if Syriza succeeds, this could be the beginning of an economic and financial renegotiation, potentially unlocking Greece's deflated economy. On the other hand, the fear of an increased and cumulative debt has risen with the apprehension of what will happen if Greece doesn’t pay. Will it become the responsibility of other European states? 

Let us go back in History and recall the London Debts Agreements in 1953, a political treaty enabling Germany to re-enter the markets and to evolve as a nation after the catastrophic consequences of World War II. Greece was involved in this renegotiation, which provided Germany serious debt relief and eventually, allowed the country to prosper again. This is Alexis Tsipras' idea for the future of Greece and Europe. If history is cyclic, why not repeat the good deeds instead of only disasters and crisis?