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A suffering Greek family
The Giraud-Korobili family in front of their bookshelf at their home in Kifissia. Left to right: Roula Korobili, Guy Giraud, Achilleas Giraud, Alkistis Giraud.
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One of many books written by Guy Giraud, father of Achilleas Giraud. Achilleas's father was a French military officer who moved to Greece after World War II. He married a Greek woman, learned Greek fluently and became a journalist, radio presenter and author.
Guy Giraud, 19, is named after his grandfather. Here he is at a computer in the family's kitchen.
Kai Ryssdal: When we talked to Lambrini Cain this afternoon, she had her priest with her, Father Anthony Salzman. Greek Orthodox. And he said something almost in passing that's a perfect set up for this next story.
Anthony Salzman: My son, he's studying in Greece. And he's at the university and he has an app and on the app it'll tell you who's on strike that week. This week it's the power company, this week it's the train.
Austerity budgets are getting Greece billions of dollars in bailouts. But more than a year of spending cuts and tax hikes and riots and strikes have stalled the already-weak economy. And the middle class is being slowly being strangled. From Athens, Greece Joanna Kakissis has our story.
Joanna Kakissis: Achilleas Giraud is serving psarosoupa -- Greek fish soup -- to his family. He ladles the lemony cod, carrots and potatoes into bowls for his wife and teenage kids, who sit at the small kitchen table.
Achilleas is 53. He has a degree in economics. And these days, cooking for his family is one of the few pleasures he has. It's been a year since he was laid off from his real estate job. And though he sent out 500 resumes, the only work he could find was weeding the parks here in Kifissia, the leafy and wealthy Athens suburb where his family has lived for years.
Achilleas Giraud: I was cleaning a little park when a friend of mine saw me. "I don't believe it," he said. "What are you doing here?" Because if you once had a top job and status in life and suddenly your friends see you with a rake cleaning a park in the nice neighborhood where you live, they think it's weird. Some people can't do do it.
Achilleas's wife, Roula Korobili, washes the dishes after they eat. She's 55. She used to work as a secretary but her company was struggling so it forced her to retire early. The city of Kifissia hasn't paid her husband for months so the family lives off the $1,000 monthly pension she gets. It's nowhere near enough. Their monthly mortgage alone is nearly $2,500.
Roula Korobili: We've been here for five years. We took out a loan to buy the house. After my husband and I lost our jobs, we couldn't keep up with payments. The bank forgave us for awhile but not anymore. It wants its money or it wants the house. So we're planning to either sell it or give it up and move to an old house my parents used to own.
Alkistis is the couple's 15-year-old daughter. She's blond and outgoing and wants to be a comedy actress. She says her parents were never big spenders. And she doesn't mind living on fish soup and not getting new clothes. But having to give up the neighborhood she grew up in? Well, that's another story.
Alkistis Giraud: I'm really sad to leave because I'm used to it here. I just ride my bike for a few minutes to see my friends. My best friend Eleftheria is a two-minute walk away. Now I'll have to ride buses for 45 minutes to see her.
Strumming on the guitar is Alkistis' brother Guy. He's 19. Tonight, he's playing "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who and he says he finds some escape in music. But he fears he may soon be forced to escape Greece altogether -- that there won't be any work here for at least another 10 years. And he says Greeks should have seen this crisis coming.
Guy Giraud: The politicians are to blame for sure but so are older generations. They were doing fine and they didn't want to accept that things were going downhill. They didn't care and they didn't think about the future -- about our future. That attitude ruined Greece.
As his parents look on, they don't argue with him. But his mother has tears in her eyes.
In Athens, I'm Joanna Kakissis for Marketplace.
@Klaus Kastner, well said.
Anaekwe Everistus Nnamdi
www.marketreportportal.com
Greece should return to growth in 2014, Mr. Reichenbach (Head of the EU Task Force in Greece) said. Perhaps that made some people feel good. Excuse me; feel good?
Another at least 2 years of economic decline? Put differently: another at least 24 months of a development which has already tested social peace quite noticeably every month? By the way, growth after 5 years of decline is not growth; it is only the beginning of getting back to where one already was before.
Now if that is not a final call that something needs to be done urgently to revive a dead economy, then I don’t know what is. Or does anyone really believe that social peace can survive another 24 months the experiences of the last 24 months?
A well-known international consulting firm published a report which suggests how 500.000 new jobs could be created over the next 10 years. Over 100 specific projects are identified. What should be done?
Well, first of all – read the report! Secondly, take the first 10 projects, implement them in 2012 and create 50.000 new jobs next year. Any further questions?
Yes; who should finance this? Well, certainly not the government because government money tends to end up in the wrong pockets (and the government has no money anyway). Private money should finance it! But who would invest in Greece these days?
Any investor will invest in Greece if he is offered an interesting project, a security for his investment and a competitive business framework. Can this be done quickly in the whole country?
No, it cannot! But it could be done very quickly in selected parts of the country. The Chinese didn’t want to throw out communism but they also saw that without some capitalism they would never get their feet on the ground. So they started with selected Free Trade Zones. Why not learn a bit from the Chinese?
So the recipe is quite simple: take the first 10 projects for 2012; structure them professionally and invite bids from investors; define zones where investors are offered all the security, economic framework and profit potential which they desire --- and get started!
