Grexit or fixit?
WGermany. The late pundit Dory Valencia in his “Over a Cup of coffee” column used to say that the best way to predict an election is after the results are in. Watching TV last week, the Greek referendum was to close to call, with some newshawks leaning to a “yes” vote. They couldn’t be farther off — Greek voters rejected lenders bailout terms, with 61 percent voting “No” to more austerity, as urged by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Tsipras says the vote “is not a mandate of rupture with Europe” but a mandate to pursue a better deal for Greece.
More drama followed after what was to give him a strong hand was stonewalled by most of 18 eurozone partners (twice burned, more shy), enough of whom were openly suspicious of his sincerity that they demanded Tsipras’ commitment to accept close international oversight.
Dr. Herman Reuter, former senior official at Dresdner Bank, expressed the sense of the German everyman about not seeing the rest of the two earlier credit tranches extended to spendthrift Greeks and a worry about throwing good money after bad.
After grueling, often angry negotiations that tested the limits of European unity, Greece won a preliminary deal that averts financial catastrophe but it also faces tough times ahead after living beyond means. Greece had to consent to a raft of austerity measures, including sales tax hikes and reforms to pensions and the labor market to start negotiations with European creditors on a third bailout worth as much as €85 billion. A debt re-profiling will require an extension of the grace period on debt payments of 30 years. Other options include explicit annual transfers to the Greek budget or deep upfront “haircuts.”
Without a deal, Greece’s banks would likely have collapsed, pulling the country out of the euro, Europe’s joint currency.
As for our own parochial concern, our OFWs are mostly officers and mariners on board Greek vessels… which are mostly registered under flags of convenience for tax purposes. Actually part of the problem of tax dodgers in that fabled country.
Aside: Turkey may be in far better situation…perhaps even for the eurozone; and Berlin is said to be the third largest Turkish city (in terms of Turkish population). Only that they get past the glass ceiling. But that’s another story.
Comelec’s plan to conduct voting in shopping malls in 2016 received a boost from Robinson’s Land Corp. (RLC), which offered its 42 Robinson’s malls around the country. Quick to the act, SM will also make available its 52 malls nationwide.
When the present Supreme Court building on Padre Faura was still the Department of Foreign Affairs in the 70’s, its consular office rented space at the nearby Robinson’s Galeria. But our straight-laced betters thought it unseemly for DFA to conduct its business at a mall and insisted that the government’s consular office have a building of its own.
We have since come abreast with the times and passport extension offices are dispersed in malls, like other government agencies. The safe money is that Comelec’s opening voting precincts in malls will spike electoral votes in 2016.
Acting Makati Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña may have found a handle to probe the Binays by putting the anniversary cakes to taste test and price tests.
But is he going in the right direction in cutting off the sister city perks… if it means turning them into pro-Binay oppositionists at the 2016 national elections?
China began construction of the Shuangjiangkou dam at a tributary of the mighty Yangtze river. The dam will be one of the world’s tallest at 314 meters. The Eiffel Tower in Paris is only 301 meters high.FEEDBACK: joseabetozaide@gmail.com