Somber times loom ahead
This Christmas season is unlike any other in recent memory: Everything has changed for everyone in Greece. Transport strikes, combined with consumers’ greatly reduced incomes, have cast a shadow over this normally bustling time. This week, the government will be introducing measures to open up closed professions whose security came at the expense of the economy. We can now expect pharmacists, lawyers, real estate agents and more than 100 other groups to begin their own dynamic protests. After decades of mismanagement, the measures this government had to take have provoked an equally harsh reaction. This was to be expected – but it is at the expense of the economy and of people trying to get their work done. Our hope is that the protests will die down before irreparable harm is done. As it debates the 2011 budget in Parliament, the government must make clear that these sacrifices are for the common good – a good that was ignored for far too long.
