Greeks have a conflicted relationship with the state
A pony-tailed Greek on a motorcycle pulled up onto the sidewalk, hunting for a better parking spot, and an elderly tourist with a crutch shuffled out of the way. The good-natured driver explained his illegal maneuver with a smile.
One word was enough. "Greece," he told her in English.
So it goes in Greece, a historical patchwork of Balkan, Mediterranean, and even Middle Eastern influences that failed to follow the European rule book. Scratch the veneer of slick highways and gleaming euro coins, and there's also a broad culture of cutting corners that helped push it into financial crisis.
With a May 19 deadline looming for Greek to repay its massive debt, European governments and the International Monetary Fund on Sunday agreed on euro110 billion in emergency loans on the condition Athens make painful budget cuts and tax increases.
The talk is technical. Contagion and credit downgrades, junk status and bond spreads. But go to the root, and you find this: Greeks, though fiercely patriotic, have a problem with being told what to do by the government. That could have profound consequences for the course of the crisis: Greeks often strike when told to tighten their belts.
"Greek people don't like authority. This is good and bad at the same time," said Georgios Koutsoukos, who works in the tax collection section of the Ministry of Finance and joined a protest against government steps to blunt the crisis....
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One word was enough. "Greece," he told her in English.
So it goes in Greece, a historical patchwork of Balkan, Mediterranean, and even Middle Eastern influences that failed to follow the European rule book. Scratch the veneer of slick highways and gleaming euro coins, and there's also a broad culture of cutting corners that helped push it into financial crisis.
With a May 19 deadline looming for Greek to repay its massive debt, European governments and the International Monetary Fund on Sunday agreed on euro110 billion in emergency loans on the condition Athens make painful budget cuts and tax increases.
The talk is technical. Contagion and credit downgrades, junk status and bond spreads. But go to the root, and you find this: Greeks, though fiercely patriotic, have a problem with being told what to do by the government. That could have profound consequences for the course of the crisis: Greeks often strike when told to tighten their belts.
"Greek people don't like authority. This is good and bad at the same time," said Georgios Koutsoukos, who works in the tax collection section of the Ministry of Finance and joined a protest against government steps to blunt the crisis....