Telling people the truth
Health Minister Andreas Loverdos has called for the people to be told the truth about the economy. But what can we say?
That the figures don?t add up? That we are borrowing money for the privilege of getting further into debt? That the more we stare at it, the larger our debt grows? That our politicians are sticking with their bankrupt policies? That those who gained from the country?s decline are not the ones who are now being called upon to pay the price? That those who have shouldered the burden will continue to do so? That we passed from ascent to decadence without ever standing on the top, without consolidating our right to prosperity? That the deficient services, on which we have already spent a fortune, will become more expensive and of a lower quality? That the social security funds are struggling to find the money for pensions and medicine? That the banks are fighting their own battle for survival? That those who should be telling the truth to the people have in fact been lying for so many years that they have lost all credibility?
What can we tell them, Mr Minister? What can we tell them that they don?t already know?
Our society was not hit suddenly by a lack of credibility, by the lack of accountability and by selfishness. In fact, a lot of people have worked hard to bring us to this point — to deconstruct the central administration, to discredit institutions and to damage all sense of collectivism.
No one has any illusions anymore. Nevertheless, a lot of people are still behaving as if we were still living in the good old prosperous days; they are still driven by the same ideas; they still behave in the same manner.
It?s as if these people think that the old routines can dispel today?s fears and steer us into the future. But they know the truth, and they know they cannot live with it, or rather against it, for too long.
That is why they are sticking to the past: their entitlements, their utopian demands, the easy accusations, the shouting and the theatricals.
The search for the truth has long stopped being an alibi for action. What people want, what they need to hear, is that apart from the memorandum signed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, there is a plan, a plan that is based on the reality that we all know and on the people?s unexploited talents. Hope is the only truth that we are missing.
