Gippì
Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2013
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Italian
- Home Country
- Italy
- Current Location
- Italy
Hello everyone. I took an article in the New York Times as a starting point to write a short essay about the economic plight of Greece and its likely outcome. I would like to know what you think about it.
People still haunt the bars, revellers keep on hanging out and going to clubs and tourists still flock the country. But, underneath this mask of normality, lies an unpleasant truth: Greece is now coming apart. In the halcyon days, the stream of public money concealed some of the problems. Today, the country is in the throes of an economic crisis that has lasted for five years now. This is the upshot of the austerity measures the so-called troika of international lenders has dictated to Greece’s government. What’s more, the new taxes levied on an already worn out population and paired with catastrophic spending cuts have brought on the unravelling of the bonds of civility.
All Greece seems to be at variance. Political disorders are widespread, with members of the neo-Nazi Golden Down party violently clashing with leftists and immigrants, while the police turn a blind eye or even covertly approve of their crimes. Politicians call one another names in Parliament, while many of them find themselves implicated in corruption and wrongdoing scandals. But they are not the only one to swear at each other. The young are at odds with the old. The unemployed hate those who still have a job. The haves are confronted with the have-nots.
And there is no end in sight for the Greek plight. The European Union is not likely to shift to a looser stance on Greece’s public debt anytime soon. That being the case, we might be coming up against a disastrous scenario. Perhaps, a civil war will break out in Greece and, to be sure, harsher clashes are brewing now too. This is unpalatable to say, but we may be facing up to a full-blown war in the foreseeable future.
People still haunt the bars, revellers keep on hanging out and going to clubs and tourists still flock the country. But, underneath this mask of normality, lies an unpleasant truth: Greece is now coming apart. In the halcyon days, the stream of public money concealed some of the problems. Today, the country is in the throes of an economic crisis that has lasted for five years now. This is the upshot of the austerity measures the so-called troika of international lenders has dictated to Greece’s government. What’s more, the new taxes levied on an already worn out population and paired with catastrophic spending cuts have brought on the unravelling of the bonds of civility.
All Greece seems to be at variance. Political disorders are widespread, with members of the neo-Nazi Golden Down party violently clashing with leftists and immigrants, while the police turn a blind eye or even covertly approve of their crimes. Politicians call one another names in Parliament, while many of them find themselves implicated in corruption and wrongdoing scandals. But they are not the only one to swear at each other. The young are at odds with the old. The unemployed hate those who still have a job. The haves are confronted with the have-nots.
And there is no end in sight for the Greek plight. The European Union is not likely to shift to a looser stance on Greece’s public debt anytime soon. That being the case, we might be coming up against a disastrous scenario. Perhaps, a civil war will break out in Greece and, to be sure, harsher clashes are brewing now too. This is unpalatable to say, but we may be facing up to a full-blown war in the foreseeable future.