Greek Anger and Greece's survival | Greece

Greek Anger and Greece's survival
Andy Dabilis

Bloggers argue that life is overburdened for Greeks and foreign residents alike, while youth increasingly seek residence abroad

As Greece teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, the simmering resentment by workers, pensioners, the poor and youth for carrying the weight of the country's recovery seems to be boiling over.

The latest wage and pension cuts and tax increases -- including an emergency property tax enforced under threat of denying basic utilities -- prompted another national strike which many say are a culmination of two years of austerity measures.

Amid the violence on Athens' Syntagma Square, Greece's bloggers entered the debate about the chances of the country to survive.

Mike Mason notes the implications for foreigners who own property in Greece, people particularly from the UK that once fuelled investment.

"Property experts estimate it could cost up to 1,000 euro a year for Brits who have bought holiday homes on the islands. The new Greek property tax, introduced without notice, has sparked outrage among Greeks already hit hard by the government's austerity measures."

This spells bad news for "tens of thousands of Britons [who] have bought holiday homes in Greece in recent years as a relaxation in property buying laws has attracted a rising number of second-home owners."

Kat describes the difficulty of dealing with the many anti-austerity strikes where everyone joins from time to time at the cost of complete transportation shut down.

"The goal of strikes is to cause maximum inconvenience and pressure government officials or corporate executives, so strikes in Greece as in most countries are rarely announced more than a week in advance, and can happen spontaneously or change hourly," she said.

In reality, details about protests organisation and changes are publicised in Greece.

Dimitris Giannakopoulos argues the public has accepted the fact Greece has handed itself over to the troika for $152 billion in loans in return for punishing austerity measures.

"The country's security has a name: [the] euro. Without the euro, the country will be torn apart. Ergo, there is no other road to salvation other than the one the troika and our lenders dictate!" he said.

Giannakopoulos voices the widespread dissatisfaction with the "ultra-bankrupt government of socialists in tights and provincial air", one which insists the people should do anything to get payment fixes to avoid default.

"The crowd of regime followers acquiesce to this. Those in other words who re-established the client-state after the military junta so that society could live in security and they even more in security and plutocracy!"

Stavros Tasiopoulos explains that Greece is returning to the 1960s full speed ahead, a time when the young either emigrated or struggled to survive for the basics.

"Nowadays it seems we are heading steadily towards the deep blue sea where the dreams and hopes of the youth of Greece are replaced by continuous anxiety for survival in an atmosphere of alienation, fear and hatred for fellow human beings in their struggle for employment," he said.

As for Greece's youth, it is not uniform. "Every young person who does not want to co-sign his conviction can and must contest/claim their future beyond and against relieving/defusing political parties, government unions and every kind of pseudo-humanistic NGOs," he said

"Those who dare will sooner or later will be united in their agonies, hopes and dreams, claiming a life free of stagnant commercial and inhuman mentality and function that has been imposed on society," he concluded.

- Provided by Southeast European Times