WhirledView

Elections moods in the German heartland and Greek megalopolis

By Lois Woestman, Guest Contributor

Dr. Lois Woestman, both a Greek and US citizen, is an External Funding Officer at the University of Marburg, Germany and an independent research/policy advice consultant for UN and international non-governmental agencies.

There was a hole in the clouds as I biked along the Lahn river Monday, the day after elections were held here in Germany. Like a wormhole, the sky-eye transported my mind back to Athens of a bit over a year ago, when feelings were running high as Greeks were deciding whether or not to remain in the Euro. The German elections, at least as they appeared from my ground’s eye perspective in its heartland, could not have been more different.

Greece stayed in the Euro. And the eyes of many Greeks – as of many southern Europeans - turned toward France and Germany, to see what the next step would be. Hopes of some growth policies being added alongside austerity ones arose as France elected socialist PM Hollande. And rumor had it that Germany might elect a new PM of similar political leanings in its September 2013 elections, increasing the chances of such an important shift in European approach to the crisis. The results of last Sunday’s elections did not fulfill these hopes.

At federal level, Angela Merkel’s right-center CDU party increased its share of the vote, almost obtaining an absolute majority. The CDU here in state Hessen - where I live near Frankfurt, the Wall Street of Germany - also increased its share of the vote. The FDP, the CDU’s libertarian coalition partner, did not obtain the 5% required to remain in the federal parliament, though it barely managed to remain in the state Hessen government. Though its second worst showing since WWII, left-center SPD also increased its share of the vote, but not enough to surpass the CDU. Both federal and local SPD leaders rejected the possibility of forming a “red-red-green” – SPD-Left-Green - coalition. Which has left the CDU the challenge of forming a coalition with either the SPD, Link or Green parties.

Why? 

Why were most of my neighbors and colleagues here in the German heartland so blasé about the elections? Why did they cast their vote for a euro policy – a Europe - so far from that southern Europeans had been hoping for?  

One reason appears to be a desire for political predictability, and realted disenchantment with the SPD. “Peer Steinbrueck is too loud, too unpredictable. He lies, and is corrupt. His promises cannot be trusted” argued Frank, a university researcher. For Frank, it appeared difficult to disentangle perceptions of Mr. Steinbrueck’s political style from SPD history. “It is more than that,” Frank went on. “We just settled down here in Germany, you know. It was the SPD that began the destruction of our health care system by introducing private health insurance, not the CDU. The SPD cannot be trusted to be what they once were, so I cannot vote for them. And, as someone born and raised in East Germany, you could not honestly expect me to vote for the Left, now could you?”

Dave Brubeck's Legacy: Jazz Makes an Impact

By Wendi Maxwell, Guest Contributor

Wendi Maxwell, jazz vocalist and band leader, performs regularly in Northern California with her own Tres Hot Jazz Band, singing straight-ahead jazz, up-tempo swing and vocalese, sambas and ballads. You can visit her website at www.wendimaxwell.com.

The flags were at half-mast on Dave Brubeck Way. Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist, composer, and worldwide ambassador of peace, died in mid-December, one day before his 92^nd birthday. Here in Stockton, home of the Brubeck Institute, we mourned Dave’s spirit of improvisation and innovation.

 Dave was featured in the 1950s on the cover of Time magazine. His ground-breaking album “Take Five” remains one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time. His poly-tempo, poly-rhythmic compositions caused audiences to listen to jazz in an entirely new way, leaving behind standard time signatures and rhythms, and causing new musicians of all genres to find ways to break free of the habits of centuries of Western music.

In our poverty-stricken town, Dave’s impact was more immediate and more personal. A graduate of the University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music, Dave endowed the university with one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections from a contemporary musician, establishing the Brubeck Institute. The archives hold correspondence, legal and business documents, recordings, manuscripts, photographs, and printed programs. But more than papers, the Institute supports active jazz performance ranging from students to world-class professionals.

I had the opportunity to meet Dave a couple of times. He was a tall, distinguished gentleman with a ready smile and twinkling eyes. When he played on stage with young musicians, he beamed love and support their way. People who met him felt he was a personal friend, even after only a couple of sentences. Those of us in the jazz community heard “Take Five” (or sang or played “Take Five”) so many times that we joked it should be the local ringtone…

The emergence of the Brubeck Institute brought local jazz into focus. Our blue-collar town of 300,000 currently boasts jazz performances and jams five nights a week. Nowadays, when a local group looks for music for a fundraising event, jazz is often the first place they turn. For a community reeling from years of financial hardship, music is solace to everyone.

Improvisation and innovation are the hallmarks of jazz, and individuals and groups across our town find themselves in the midst of innovation and improvisation at all levels. Neighborhoods and the community as a whole are banding together in unprecedented ways. I have to believe that Dave would applaud the creativity and spontaneity that’s emerging around town as we tackle some really tough problems. Maybe having jazz as the sound track of our community life is helping us come together, trust each other, and find new ways to get along.

 

Eight Murders and a World Series - Stockton in Crisis

By Wendi Maxwell, Guest Contributor

Wendi Maxwell brings personal insight and occasional stories from California, particularly the strange world of California politics and the new left. Maxwell is a former policy maker for California adult literacy projects

A few nights ago I locked my house up tight, turned on all the lights inside and outside, and settled in to watch the Giants clinch a trip to the World Series. Why all the lights? Why all the paranoia? My city had just experienced eight murders in one weekend, one of them only moments ago, a few blocks from my house. For the first time, I was scared. (Photo above left:  "Stockton in Crisis")

A few days earlier police arrested an armed man in front of my neighbor’s house, and made sweeps through our entire neighborhood – guns drawn – looking for his accomplices. (They had committed crimes elsewhere and escaped on foot, running through the neighborhoods till they were finally caught in our area.) This is what looming bankruptcy looks like – a police force one third its recommended size filled with officers with less than one year experience, a town on the crossroads of the Mexican drug trade with an employment rate still at a stubborn 13 percent.

People ask what it’s like living in a bankrupt city. It’s scary. But it’s also surprisingly glorious seeing the way people come together and the things we can accomplish outside of government. Scary and glorious. Just like eight murders and a World Series. (Photo left:  "Bankrupt")

You may have heard of my hometown of Stockton CA. We made worldwide headlines a couple of years ago as the first American city to experience the foreclosure crisis, although our foreclosure ranking has since dropped from worst in the US to second or third place, where it stubbornly remains. Now to cap it off, we’re the largest city in the US (at just shy of 300,000 residents) to declare bankruptcy. Sacramento, the state capital and neighbor just 45 miles away, routinely refers to us as “Stockton in Crisis.” It’s as good a phrase as any, but I sure feel beat up. The economic recovery is not visible from here. Does the state send any help? Not really.

City government tries its best to deal with bankruptcy, crime, and a deluge of prisoners transferred from the state to the cities. (The state passed a law transferring “less violent” criminals from state jurisdiction and returning them to their home counties. They estimated transferring fewer than 400 parolees to our county. The actual transfer was over 1700. We can’t handle this many. When they reoffend, we have no jail beds to house them.) California Highway Patrol and the FBI send occasional help. Last spring we asked for help from the Highway Patrol and were turned down. This week, after the eight-murder weekend, they’ve agreed to help.

Life here feels pretty normal most of the time. Parts of our city are gorgeous, and parts are run down. Being bankrupt hasn’t changed what we look like, although it’s changing how we act.  But I get solicitous email from well-meaning friends asking how I’m feeling, what happened to the city, why we haven’t fixed these problems, and finally, whether we’re leaving town. The answers are: I’m feeling stressed, what happened is complicated, we’re doing all kinds of things to fix problems, and no, I’m not abandoning my community. (I couldn’t afford to relocate even if I wanted to. The value of my house has dropped $600,000.)

Surprisingly while conversations about the financial crisis spring up all over town, we continue to argue about the same things everybody else does – the presidential election, the economy, wars, potholes, trees with mistletoe, stolen bikes, problems with schools, overcrowded and underfunded colleges, and CRIME.

Crime’s the biggest topic in our town. Our homicide rate has skyrocketed. Three years ago we had 30 homicides in one year and we thought it was bad. Now, in October 2012, we’ve hit 62 and things show no sign of slowing down.  We’re now listed as the 8^th most violent city in the US. (Stockton CA is the only city that has to have a state shown behind its name because nobody knows where we are.)

What’s perhaps most shocking is that crime and murders occur all over town, even in areas considered “safe”. Four of the eight-weekend murders occurred during the afternoon, all over the city. A month ago, a man was killed walking in the park in the afternoon right by the fire station. Thieves wanted the gold chain around his neck. There are no safe neighborhoods any more.

But Stocktonians are a resilient bunch. We’ve hit rock-bottom and we’re fighting back. When our no-kill animal shelter was threatened with eviction this spring, local musicians raised $22,000 in three days to keep the shelter open. National Night Out saw neighbors coming together all over the city. There’s a “Take Back the Park” night scheduled for November (in the dark!) in one of our toughest neighborhoods. Volunteers work with Love Our Stockton on cleanup efforts, a Dear Stockton project documents messages of love directed to our city, new murals complement charter schools who’ve brought thousands of kids downtown. Old fashioned barn-raisings have nothing on the amount of local volunteer effort going into our city right now. People open their pocketbooks as never before. Unfortunately we just don’t have a lot to give right now, but we do what we can. (Photo left:  "Dear Stockton Mural")

Churches and Faith Based Organizations are some of the most active participants in trying to take back our city. They work with neighborhoods, community centers, families, former gang leaders, and anyone who’ll listen. One of their main goals is to change a street culture that says giving information to the police is snitching.

We started an active neighborhood watch group in my area a couple of years ago. We live in the center of town, near a large park, so there’s a lot of traffic along our streets, even though it feels relatively surburban with large lots, lawns and trees. When we started, the “ain’t it awful” feeling was pervasive. Neighbors distrusted anyone on the street (unfamiliar cars, young people on skateboards or bicycles, people with backpacks), and there were lots of problems with people drinking and partying in the park, as well as homeless people living in the bushes. We had a rash of home burglaries that certainly didn’t help the mood. The park benches and tables and bathroom were tagged almost daily, and the concrete wall over our bridge was a patchwork of tagging and splotched mismatched paint covering the tags.

We asked for help from the police. They taught us how to differentiate emergency and non emergency police calls, and we’re now diligent about reporting activity in our neighborhood. We started what the police call “park patrols” and what we call “walking the dog with a friend.” The city gave us paint, and now we paint and repaint the benches and tables. This summer, we painted the bridge (and the neighboring walls), and have had only three instances of tagging – all of which we repainted the day they were found. (Photo left:  "Painting the Bridge)

Most importantly, we’ve become friends with all our neighbors. (Even the ones who want to shoot people.) We have potluck events every couple of months – the most recent was a “porch watch” with wine, homegrown tomatoes, fresh caught salmon, chimichangas, and kids running all over. I think the crime rate in our immediate neighborhood has decreased. Certainly we haven’t had any burglaries for a couple of months, and the last ones were thefts from yards rather than house break-ins. But most importantly, we now view our neighborhood as a good place to live, a vibrant community that experiences some occasional crime, rather than a crime-ridden neighborhood in which we feel trapped.

The city is doing its best, and there are areas where the city and community work together. But in general, we’ve realized that government – whether local, state, or federal – is not going to be able to help us. We’ve got to fix this mess ourselves.

It’s an interesting emotional dichotomy. There are so many positive things going on right now that it’s exciting and hopeful. On the other hand, the likelihood of any of them “fixing” the problem is small, and that’s depressing. It’s back to the emotional roller-coaster of eight murders and a World Series. We’re learning to adjust to a new normal of increased personal responsibility paired with decreased expectations. If we didn’t know how bad off we are, it could be a really exciting time. (Photo right: "Dear Stockton Mural")

MY SUMMER VACATION

By Wendi Maxwell, Guest Contributor

Wendi Maxwell brings personal insight and occasional stories from California, particularly the strange world of California politics and the new left. Maxwell is a former policy maker for California adult literacy projects

Let’s face it. I went to Europe looking for trouble.

This past year, I’ve followed the adventures of Occupy Oakland with great interest. I thought our vacation to Germany this summer might provide me with other examples of grassroots demonstrations. Europe had been simmering with demonstrations against ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) for months now. Perhaps I could find a demonstration while I was in Berlin.

Berlin did indeed bring me a street demonstration on the famous Unter Den Linden. A small crowd of demonstrators with costumes, drums, and signs gathered outside an expensive marble-clad business tower. Across the street, police watched with amusement. This was not the big blac block mob I had wanted, but I thought I’d check it out anyway.

“Guten tag! English anyone?”, I called out.  It turned out the demonstrators were a mixture of Germans, Americans, Greeks, and Spaniards. Everyone spoke English. What were they demonstrating? The corporatization of art, as exemplified by a gallery show underwritten by Deutsche Bank. The demonstrators were upset. Not only did artists have to pay their way in, but there were no free admissions for anyone – even for students. The German demonstrators in particular were incensed that no one was providing them with subsidies for their art. (In Berlin, they take their art seriously.) (Photo by Wendi Maxwell, June 2012 above: Berlin Protester).

I approached one demonstrator with a cardboard sign on a stick. “I write about Occupy Oakland. Can I take your picture? Can I write about you?” “Occupy Oakland?” came the response – “Man they’re hard core.”

“Yeah” I said. “Did you know that if you had that sign in Oakland, with a stick holding it up, you’d be arrested for carrying a weapon? And possibly beaten with your own stick?”

“Well,” mused the demonstrator, “these police don’t take us very seriously. There’s only five of them and they’re pretty relaxed.” And on travelling further down the street I realized that the police were not really there because of the demonstration. They were there because St. Hedwig’s Berlin Cathedral was celebrating the Mass of Corpus Christi and hundreds of clerics were processing through a parallel boulevard. The police were there for the Church, not for Art. (Photo by Wendi Maxwell, June 2012 above: Protester with a weapon).

A couple of days later we were in Dresden and ran across flyers advertising a Pirate Party mass demonstration against ACTA. Aha! Here was the demonstration I had looked for in Berlin. 

We went to the square at noon, but found it full of guitar-strumming evangelicals dancing and serving free curry lunch. Eventually I located two protestors – one with a bullhorn, and one with a sign, again on a stick. A block away I located another two demonstrators and directed them toward the first ones. No further demonstrators emerged. I did get a chance to learn about ACTA though… (ACTA sought to establish laws governing piracy of goods and the Internet. It was later defeated in the European Parliament.)(Photo left by Wendi Maxwell, June 2012: ACTA Protesters in Dresden).

After the Battle: Winning Back Hearts and Minds

By Guest Contributor Thomas Preece

Tom Preece is a combat veteran and veterans advocate, a thirty year VA retiree, and author of The Last Lost Warrior a forthcoming novel based on his Vietnam and post-Vietnam experiences.

The American military is in a war with itself, and US society can't afford it.  Fewer soldiers have been killed in combat in the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts than have killed themselves.  Army suicides are said to have grown 80 percent since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

Secretary Leon Panetta recently announced visionary goals for reducing the suicide rates. Let’s hope he succeeds.

On Friday, July 13, 2012 The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (IMNA) published its initial assessment of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military and veteran populations.  The assessment was prepared as part of a contract with the Department of Defense.  A free PDF copy of the report is available here.

The report contains a startlingly broad spectrum of assessments, treatments, and treatment facilities.  It’s clear that the US medical community is still struggling to understand the best practices for treatment of this disease.  The IMNA assessment was “a comprehensive review and synthesis of the available literature and data on the prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of PTSD in military and veteran populations.” The scope of the problem is immense.

In 2010 the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reported treating 438,091 veterans with PTSD.  That number excludes those vets who are no longer in treatment or not diagnosed.  Studies of PTSD estimate that that 13 to 20 percent of the troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from the disorder, but less than half are identified and receive treatment. 

Most of the IMNA recommendations concern modalities of treatment or research.  I was startled by their most specific recommendation, “PTSD screening should be conducted at least once a year when primary care providers see service members at DoD military treatment facilities or at any TRICARE provider locations, as is currently done when veterans are seen in the VA.”

There are three major VA divisions: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA), The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), and National Cemetery Administration (NCA). 

I'm sensitive about the differences because members of the public, and indeed even Congressional staff, often fail to make the distinction, expecting service or response from the wrong part of the department.  Nobody would expect the NCA to provide health care, and I can assure you – VBA - where I worked for almost 30 years doesn't screen for PTSD, but it does review and grant compensation claims.

Annual screening is a fine idea, but in my experience this suggests the weakness of this kind of survey.  INMA did query the VA and included the Department’s response in their report.  VA apparently told the INMA researchers that veterans were screened annually at VHA facilities.

Huh?  I'm a patient at a VHA facility. 

If they've screened me for PTSD, I haven't noticed it.  Perhaps there were brief questions by my doctor, but since I don't recall them they couldn't have amounted to much.

In all fairness to INMA this was only phase one of their work.  Follow up continues.  They will continue to review the new literature and have already scheduled visits to Army and VA facilities.

If you haven’t read Gail Sheehy's July 5 USA Today article about a new treatment pioneered at Ft. Carson, Colorado here’s the gist:

At Ft. Carson, where a spate of military suicides occurred as recently as 2007, the military has been working to reduce the stigma of stress and to provide immediate intervention to those in danger of suffering from it.  That means really immediate intervention.   At the suggestion of the psychiatric staff at Ft. Carson, psychologists are being sent directly to the battlefields after particularly harrowing engagements and more rigorous psychological evaluations are now given to the returning soldiers. 

The Sheehy article is consistent with the IMNA findings, but not typical.  I hope the Ft. Carson program succeeds and becomes widespread. But it may not.  The Ft. Carson approach represents a huge culture change.  There's a telling remark at the end of Sheehy’s story.  An Army psychiatrist is quoted as saying in part, "This is not a military problem; this is an American problem."

That's a distinction without a difference, but suggests a cultural attitude that exposes the difficulty of dealing with psychological trauma. 

Back to Sparta

We train our soldiers to be warriors in traditions that go back to Sparta.  We train them to be indifferent to pain and fear, and to fight as a disciplined and bonded group, physically and technologically best at inflicting pain and fear on the enemy.   Of course, other armies – friend and foe - and guerrillas do the same, as do biker gangs.

Trained to be indifferent to physical pain and fear, soldiers from the warrior culture try to extend their indifference to psychological pain as well.  There's evidence for this in the varied suicide rates among the branches of the service.  About half of the suicides are committed by troops who have never been deployed. Overwhelmingly the Marine Corps and the Army are responsible for the increase. Why? The Army and the Marines train for and support personal physical combat and as a consequence, their troops suffer PTSD more.  The Air Force and the Navy?  Not so much.

Unfortunately if you don't acknowledge the illness, guys and gals with PTSD look remarkably like poor soldiers, resistant to authority, easy to enrage, isolated from friends, and maybe self-medicating with alcohol.  Separating sufferers from malcontents is difficult.  Someone suffering from PTSD is in a war within him or herself to regain safety and control.  Yet in the military a person is never fully in control, his superiors are.  This contradiction seems to confound the organization which still needs to find more effective ways to deal with the illness. 

There have been national and local training programs designed to teach everyone to recognize the symptoms.  It doesn't help in the least that the person suffering the most may be terrified that he or she fits the mold.  This is a disability subject to discharge - not a desirable outcome for someone hoping to complete a twenty year career.

The US military is an all-volunteer corps. It has been since the Vietnam War. The Army and Marine corps brag about their retention rates.  Their enlistees have career ambitions. Discharge for a psychological disability doesn't fit the program.  The INMA report confirms that career enlistments are a barrier to treatment.

Back to business as usual – at least, for a bit

By Lois Woestman, Guest Contributor

Dr. Lois Woestman, both a Greek and US citizen, is a Lecturer in Anthropology of Contemporary Greek Society at Arcadia University (Athens branch), an External Funding Officer at the Agricultural University of Athens and an independent research/policy advice consultant (including for UNWOMEN, Europe-based WIDE+ Network, global Association for Women in Development – AWID).

Today is Thursday, four days after the second round of elections in which more Greeks voted against further austerity than for it. And yet, because the New Democracy party obtained just under 3% more of the vote than Syriza, we narrowly missed the opportunity to shock ourselves, our politicians, and the world, by refusing to go along with the austerity-only path we have been on the past two years, and are projected to be on for at least a decade to come.

In other words: It is pretty much back to business as usual in Greece – at least, for a bit.

There are a few changes within this continuity, however. For one, free market leaning New Democracy, instead of center-left “socialist” Pasok, is leading in the coalition between the two parties that have run the show in Greece for decades, and led us into the quandary we are in. And, these two are joined by the small “Democratic Left” party as well.

Monday and Tuesday’s New York Times headlines suggest that these election results mean EC institutions, and the G20, have lost the sense of urgency to make real, radical, changes in a clearly faltering global economic system that the potential for a Syriza win had evoked. “Greek voting Past, Europe Returns to Fiscal Rescue”; “After Greek Vote, Europe Still Has a Host of Problems”; “World Leaders Make Little Headway in Solving Debt Crisis”. Our “leaders” are back to putting out fires, instead of burning bridges with the past.

 Their respite may be short-lived, however. Another of yesterday’s New York Times headlines declared “Before Greek Coalition Forms, Question about Its Resolve”. Today’s Kathimerini notes that “Democratic Left backs coalition, won’t join cabinet”. The same decision was made by Pasok. Wary of the political fall-out, the two junior parties are reneging on the responsibilities that come along with accepting to join the newly-formed government. They are limiting their participation in the cabinet being formed by Mr. Samaras, New Democracy’s leader, by not placing any of their primary figures in it. Instead, they are proposing, inter alia, that some of the previous interim ministers remain at their posts. Such a lack of political responsibility could arguably be called yet another certainly not encouraging change within continuity.

And, all three parties are calling for renegotiation of the adjustment agreements while remaining in the Euro – essentially Syriza’s position. As today’s Kathimerini also notes, “Creditors seem open to talks” – meaning the EC is indicating it may be open to extending the fiscal adjustment period, on (the rather disingenuous) ground that the recession in Greece is deeper than expected. German officials, however, continue to insist that what is needed is “greater decisiveness in the implementation of what has been agreed”.

 As Greek, EC and global leaders revert back to business as usual, Greece continues to slide ever so steadily from its status as a “normal” “PIIG” southern European country, toward membership in the global south. The misery here increasingly resembles that which I saw in Mexico in the mid-1980s, after the world’s first debt crisis broke out, and the first adjustment programme was implemented.

If more evidence were needed: The case of Greece demonstrates that the combined economic shock doctrine and accumulation by dispossession “the north” has been pressing on the global south has come home to roost in the Eurozone. The example of Greece should - and is increasingly being - understood by many other European citizens as the potential picture of their future; they, too, are slated to become “southerners in the north.” I am talking not only about residents of the other “PIIGS”, but also the majority of those in the “core” Euro countries, who have been living through adjustment over the past decade or more, just to an (as yet) lesser degree, and at a slower pace.

As a Peruvian colleague told me a while back: “Now you are getting a taste of your own medicine.” Her schadenfreude is understandable. However, for all our faults, many of us Greeks – as the Syriza vote attests – are not and have never been advocates of this model. And many of us (at least as old as I am) have been continually denouncing it as it has been implemented globally under different guises and mantras.

The time may still come, and perhaps soon, for Greeks to shock the world and ourselves. Predictions are that the current coalition may not last long. It will have to implement the even tougher austerity measures, further tax hikes, and privatizations, stipulated in the second adjustment package. As the vote for Syriza shows – a jump from 3 to 30% within two years – Greeks are rapidly reaching the end of their ropes. 

Argentina took a number of rounds of elections before a government emerged that led the country out of a dollar-tied currency regime, out of austerity, and into growth. So, as Argentina shows, there is some hope – if/when we might eventually depart from the Euro. However, while it lasts, hope – even for traditionally upbeat Greeks - does eventually die, as the rapidly rising suicide rate in Greece documents. Newly sworn-in PM Samaras’ comment that he will push his ministers to work hard in order to bring the Greek people “tangible hope” provides as yet nothing of substance.

Today’s New York Times’ “Samaras Takes Office as Greece’s Prime Minister, Facing Major Challenges” notes that the new Greek government came together just a day before European finance ministers are to gather today in Luxembourg, to discuss Greece’s latest troubles. George Zanias, the departing finance minister, is expected to represent Greece at today’s meeting in Vasilios Rapanos’ stead, the president of the National Bank of Greece, who is expected to be named Greece’s finance minister.

If some tangible hope is to emerge, it will be seen in today’s meeting, and/or in the outcome of the (re)negotiations at next week’s European Union summit in Brussels.

In the interim, as our politicians and world leaders turn back to business as usual, many of us in Greece have no business(es) to turn back to - except trying to eek out a living, and continuing to hold onto hope for hope’s sake.

Also see: Lois Woestman, 17 June Election Mood in Greece and Germany, WhirledView, Tuesday, June 19 ,2012

17 June election moods in Greece and Germany

By Lois Woestman, Guest Contributor

Dr. Lois Woestman, both a Greek and US citizen, is a Lecturer in Anthropology of Contemporary Greek Society at Arcadia University (Athens branch), an External Funding Officer at the Agricultural University of Athens and an independent research/policy advice consultant (including for UNWOMEN, Europe-based WIDE+ Network, global Association for Women in Development – AWID).

Athens, June 18, 2012

Yesterday felt like the eye of the storm. We Greeks had our second round of elections to determine our futures – in/outside of the Euro/pe, of austerity – and to some not insignificant degree set the stage for broader European, if not global, developments.

Aeolus, the ruler of the winds, was out in full force – as if to make up for the eerie silence. Uncharacteristically, my fellow Greeks were keeping their voting cards close to their chests - not to be secretive, but because they were genuinely baffled as to which choice to make. Many voted at the last moment, wavering all the day/way to the box. When I coaxingly asked one colleague which party she will vote for, she said: “The one that is going to save our country.” And when I asked which one that might be, she said: “I wish I knew.” 

Yesterday’s “choice” consisted in one between two roads that lead to the same bitter end, just at different paces and through different means: Do we remain in the Euro, and with it the austerity straightjacket that has caused five years of recession, dropping living standards for the majority, growing social unrest and splinterings to left and right “radical” parties – with more stringent austerity and worsening circumstances to come for at least the next decade? Or, do we “bite the bullet”, and leave both, so as to take things into our own hands, albeit based on a now severely dysfunctional economy and political system? Either option portends very difficult times ahead.

In a recent discussion I had with a lawyer, he claimed that if we leave the Euro, we will be “sta machieria” – up in arms against each other, literally. But, as I responded, if we implement the austerity programme as is, without any growth mechanisms in place, we will also be “sta macheria”, just at a slower pace.

Yesterday’s vote demonstrates a squeak-by “victory” for the remain-in as vs. bite-the-bullet path. In the next days, it remains to be seen if New Democracy, the right-center party winner of yesterday’s election, can form a coalition government with Pasok, the “socialist” party that ruled during the signing of the two austerity programmes. This is likely, given international pressure – and the fact that Syriza, the party advocating the tearing up and rewriting of the austerity memorandums - which obtained only 2% less of the vote than New Democracy - declared it will not join a coalition with New Democracy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkl is said to have settled back last night into her easy chair, heaving big sighs of relief. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle declared yesterday that Germany may grant Greece more time to meet its targets – but that the targets remain unchanged.

A colleague of mine who recently returned from a trip to Germany explained that, already prior to the elections, Germans had written Greece off - their mental maps, TV screens. It is perceived as but a far away sprite of a country that constitutes 2% of the European economy, whose time in the limelight has come and gone. A “Grexit”  did not threaten any longer to affect them, as contingency plans were ready. There were bigger fish to bail out – Spain, Italy – as a “Spexit” or an “Itexit” would pose a more immediate threat to the Euro’s, and hence Germans’, wellbeing.   

If New Democracy and Pasok form the expected coalition, our hopes may, ironically, rest with Germany. If, as predicted, Merkel’s coalition will lose the German elections in fall, 2013, the German Social Democrats may join with France's President Francois Hollande to finally bring some growth into the European economic equation. This might be encouraging news for others in Europe, but I fear comes too late for us, as our fate has essentially already been written in stone in our already signed and sealed austerity-only Memorandums. As my recently returned colleague said, the most we can hope for in the way of changes in the Memorandums' conditions until the German elections are a shifting of a few commas from here to there.

As foreign journalists also noted last night, there was not much celebration going on, even by New Democracy supporters. This morning, most of us are walking around as if hung-over. Not from drinking too much, or only from too little sleep, or the oppressive heat. The feeling is one of listlessness. Aeolus continues to fill in for speech, and to provide impetus for movement to Greeks who voted across the political spectrum. Pandora is said to have kept sealed hope inside her jar, after she released the ills from it. Most fellow Greeks and I sense especially strongly today those ills flitting around us on the winds - with the eye of the storm our entrapped hope. 

 

California: The Greece of the US?

 By Wendi Maxwell, Guest Contributor

Wendi Maxwell brings personal insight and occasional stories from California. Maxwell is a former policy maker for California adult literacy projects.This is the second in a series about municipal bankruptcy in California.

My city, Stockton California, is beginning mediation with its creditors to try to forestall becoming the biggest city in the US to declare bankruptcy. Stockton’s financial crisis didn’t just come along overnight, and we’re not the only California municipality facing possible bankruptcy. Here in town, as we proceed, the questions on everyone’s lips are “How did this happen?” and “Who’s to blame?”

Recent articles in The Record (Stockton’s daily newspaper) list the major decisions that impact our recent finances. Four costly decisions center on retirement and health care benefits. Three are bonds for redevelopment projects, including the sports arena, ballpark, and marina. At the time, these decisions provided a sense of excitement. A few years later though, we all mourn the results of these financial decisions.    

But our city is not unique in having invested in infrastructure projects during the boom times, nor are we unique in investing in strong wages and benefits for our employees. Cities all over California, and across the nation, face similar problems.

Financial trouble all over the US

Before we use our 20/20 hindsight to condemn any decisions made in the past, let’s remember the financial climate in the state, and the US in general. During the early years of this twenty-first century, the world was awash in money. Stocks and bonds were skyrocketing; housing prices increased by double, then three times their purchase price. Construction and property sales were booming; tax revenues were pouring in. Nationally, we increased debt like there was no tomorrow. At the state level, we did the same thing. And in Stockton, we simply followed everyone else’s lead. Surprisingly, no one predicted an end to the prosperity.

Michael Lewis, in his recent book “Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World” traces the financial health of American states. Between 2002 and 2008, the US spent as freely as its residents, (who bought new houses, then when the value increased, got a second mortgage so they could buy a new car). States and cities did the same thing. Indebtedness across the US doubled, and spending grew by two-thirds. States also systematically underfunded their pension plans, depending on stock market growth to fuel future-funding for pensions. When the stock market dropped, pension plans dropped accordingly. Even though the Federal Reserve promised to keep interest rates at zero, states continued to build in an eight percent growth factor for their pension plans. And a few years later – guess what? There’s not enough money to fulfill the pension obligations.