OPINION

Stymphalian birds

The intensification of the Athens 2004 Olympics-related projects and preparations has nourished, as was expected, excessive expectations among various strata of Greek society. The major event has been treated as a deux ex machina that is expected to boost the stock market index, eliminate the budget deficit, encourage market investment, stimulate the currently anemic business sector and even provide a tonic to the stagnant ruling majority. This superficial euphoria, however, conceals a very grim reality. Even Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, head of the Athens 2004 organizing committee, has been surprised to see that the usual suspects, the politically intertwined media and business groups have begun to overstep the mark, blackmailing the State to grant them contracts and subsidies on favorable terms. Of course, although Athens 2004 officials have in the past encouraged a climate of demands and exchanges, they now state that they will not succumb to any blackmail. It is a fact, however, that the pressure of time and the threat of our country’s image being severely tarnished should the projects not be completed in time for the Games all shape ideal conditions for blackmail on part of the interested business groups and for all sorts of unfavorable compromises on the part of the public sector, all these in the name of rescuing the Games. The cost of Olympic projects has already climbed to double the original budget and there are well-founded fears that worse is still to come. In the past, Kathimerini – and in contrast to the overall atmosphere of rosy delusions – raised crucial issues regarding the bid by a small country to host this gigantic, and highly commercialized event, pointing out that this would entail a heavy environmental and social cost. Unfortunately, on top of the inevitable problems deriving from the organization itself, there are also the standard woes plaguing the local public sector, which is characterized by a large number of state-dependent enterprises, an unprecedented lack of transparency and extensive political and business entanglement. The outcome was essentially predestined: Socialization of the cost, as the Greek tax payers are called upon to shoulder the economic burden, and monopolization of the profits by a narrow circle of affiliated business groups. Once again, the gooses that laid the golden eggs turned out to be, in the light of the day, Stymphalian birds.

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