Greece is author of its own misfortune

Re Greek ‘rescue’ is a failure for Europe, July 18 I’m having an issue with David Olive’s column on Greece.

He’s advocating that there should be a mechanism in place to allow for debt forgiveness throughout the EU; that fiscal recklessness and mismanagement is something that shouldn’t have consequences.

While I agree that what is currently happening in Greece is truly tragic, and debt forgiveness is now their only hope, it was Greek overspending and hiding it with creative accounting methods (the Greek government hired Goldman Sachs to help them do this) that first started them down this path.

What’s happening in Greece is something that must be seen to be avoided at all costs: Telling countries that act responsibly that, in the future, their citizens will have to contribute to bailing out member states that do not want to live within their means.

It can be just as destructive as continuous unbridled deficit spending. Dennis Shaughnessy, Peterborough, Ont. Heather Mallick’s depiction of Greece — down and bleeding from cops’ boots — is not only apt but also iconic. Like Eric Gardiner, the Greek people were shouting “We can’t breathe!” to deaf ears. The Teutonic cops simply refused to listen.

But more than anything else, the Greeks needed to be heard rather than audited. It is truly disappointing that the Greek “oxi” did not nudge Europe into a completely different, more humane direction like the one shown to Germany after the Second World War.

Yes, Angela Merkel blew a marvellous opportunity to humanize the eurozone. Evidently, in its obsession with austerity, the EU suffers from a form of OCD. Salvatore (Sal) Amenta, Stouffville, Ont.