Ton van Zutphen about a non-sense
comparison between SYRIA and GREECE…both countries going down the drain……STRAY CATS and FAT CATS
Here is some information…not all
of it accurate in numbers but close and at least plausible. Followed by a few
provocative and certainly debatable statements and conclusions. Get the
picture? Is my note out of whack? Crazy stuff…..? Please no hate-mail to me!
·
5 years of continuous war / over 275.000 Syrians
killed
·
Everybody fighting the Assad regime and many
armed opposition groups fight each other; most large cities turning into rubble;
unique historical monuments destroyed
·
21 million people affected…the WHOLE country;
everybody in it
·
5 million people chose to become a refugee and
left the country
·
Implosion on all fronts: infrastructure, socio
economic situation, productivity and services
·
Education of >80% of children and students
has come to a standstill
·
Life expectation of the average Syrian has
dropped by 20 years over the past 5 years
·
NO peace initiative whatsoever going on or being
prepared
·
For 2015 the UN requests 4.5 billion USD in aid ….only
40% may materialise by December
·
AND I could go on and on……
What about Fat Cat - Greece….
·
Since it joined the EU in 1981 Greece built up a
track record of non-transparency on subsidies,
and finance assistance
·
A regime of non-compliance on fiscal revenues
and informal market economy; most farmers never paid any income tax
·
Generous pensioning off employees at 60 years young
·
VAT levels have remained low and are non-existent
on the tourist islands
·
Rumour says that the largest internal tax revenue
for the government comes from the betting industry
·
11 million people in Greece…and it contributes
to perhaps 2% of the total gross productivity in the EU…it really is a micky
mouse economy: small and irrelevant in the EU
·
For >5 years on a support infuse by the EU
patrons in Brussels/Strasbourg
·
The man in the street lost track of how many
hundreds of billion euros went to Greece
·
Debts are mostly rescheduled and in part ‘forgiven’;
outstanding reimbursements are likely not to be paid back; Greece asks today
for a new subsidy of over 70 billion euros
·
AND I could go on and on…
--------------------------------------------------------------
Readers…..what does this tell us…first
of all that I am biased because I am head over heels involved professionally in
the Syria Crisis.
But when we all take a step back,
think, even reflect deeply…. some of us are possibly realising that something
is going astray here!
In terms of severity, size,
numbers of people affected, future potential, violence, governance…etc…there is
no comparison between the countries….but where is the priority for the world to
turn to?
Is the Cause of Greece still correct
after so many years of reduced subsidies coupled with continuing loans…that
fair enough, caused moderate hardship for approx. 25%, perhaps now 35% of the population?
Whatsoever this is nothing to compare with what the Syrians are going through!
Does apply what Abraham Lincoln
rightly said ‘To Support a Cause that is Morally Wrong can Never be Politically
Correct’?
Now do get me right…Greece needs
some support; has in fact already and ALWAYS received it…but this
dilly-dallying with the EU/IMF/ECB has to stop. Very few EU taxpayers and the
average citizen without a face, nor voice, can agree with yet another injection
of possible 70 billion euros….whereas in 2015 only a few billion euros will
find their way to the needed inside Syria and the countries like Jordan,
Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq (these host over 4.5 million Syrian refugees).
Grosso modo, two systems are
failing…the UN with the world’s aid machinery and the EU with other financial
institutions that keep propping up countries for partly political and
institutional reasons.
Gaziantep, Anatolia, Turkey with
kind regards from Ton / 11th July 2015
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