A failed Nation..

Greeks are a peculiar nation with a mentality that is hard to understand not to say accept..They tend to accuse the state (the world is Greek is synonymous with an entity which is powerful, ever-present,alien,almost divine..) for everything that occurs to their lives as if they were incapable to run their lives the way they wished or at least try to make things better.They moan in the bus stops,public services,motorways,elevators,beaches..in virtually every place they can be,either for work or fun.Whenever they see something wrong,failing to logically explain what has caused it, they have already found a scapegoat to blame.The fact that in Greece the meaning of the word "civil society" is somenthing we ignore is not only pathetic but explainable in terms of massive psychology. The root of the problem lies to the way to learn to understand the state and our weakness to capture it's form,its mission and its role within the society. Its eventually our failure to seize what the "social contract" entails. The state's power and monopoly on legitimate violence had been trusted by us and can be taken back only by citizens.Generations of Greeks have been raised to think that the State is a bogeyman who lusts their wealth,a monster that can destroy them,a corrupted mechanism which is better to stay away from when it comes to taxation...Then again, ask all Greeks which is their favorite employer....In other words they are among the most state-centric Europeans when it comes to job opportunities, health care and education and the most liberals when it comes to taxation or control.

The attempt of the Greek conservative parliamentary majority to pass a new pension act is only a paradigm of the Greek schizophrenic conception of the State.In September 2007 almost 40 per cent of Greeks voted for the Conservative Party (ND) and trusted them with a second consecutive term in power. There was almost a universal consensus during the pre-election period,at least among the mainstream political parties, that the current system of pension and health care had reached its limits.Greek mothers were not bringing enough babies to life, too many old Greeks were filling the famous "cafeneia" playing backgammon and the Albanians were simply not enough to work for us.Typical labour market characteristics of a West European Country. I' am certain that if you asked a Greek if there was a issue that had to be tackled, he would straightly answered "yes". It is at this point that lies the treal problem. A Greek knows how to identify a problem when he sees it (he will even find one where no one else would...).However he does not know how to cope with it.And until he does,he prefers to let it deteriorate than face it.If there was any way for someone to measure the time spent to discuss the actual thing, the bill that will be passed by the parliamentary majority,he would conclude that very few know what is going on.Even government officials have been found to ignore the clauses of the act...We Greeks have once again lost the opportunity to expose some of our alleged maturity and discuss in peaceful conditions a matter that concerns us all. The voice of reason was lost in the marches..

Electricity cuts,tons of garbage congested in different parts of the Athens,people stretched to their limits by traffic jams are only part of my bus joyride to work. On the other hand i see the hope in the face of young people like me urging for better days to come.The next elections will be their time to be heard..