Cornucopia

by John Francis Kinsella

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  From afar Tom Barton looked on aghast. After the Greek extreme-left party’s stunning electoral victory with just two seats short of an absolute majority, its leader, Alexis Tsipras, faced an an uphill battle if he imagined Marxist ideas could be applied in Greece.

  He had been elected to solve an economic problem, not foment a politically obsolete revolution. In 2015, Greeks wanted jobs, young and old sought the benefits of the consumer society, they were not interested in ideology, or religion, a Marxist state was the furthest thing from minds, and even less did they want to see Russian imperialists on the streets of Pyraeus or Athens, Orthodox co-religionists or not.

  As the interest rate on Greek ten year bonds leapt, shares of the country’s leading banks plunged. Trápeza Pireós, the country’s largest bank, had lost more than ninety eight percent of its value during the five years leading up to the Syriza victory, with the rest of the country’s banks not doing much better.

  Disaster was on the horizon, capital flight and savings withdrawals exploded, deposits fell to a mere trickle, as Tsipras spoke of large scale nationalisations, an increase in minimum wages and the rehiring of recently dismissed public sector workers.

  Only firm action could save Greece and prevent Europe and its institutions, banks, and industries from being dragged into the quagmire.

  But to the Greek people Alexis Tsipras was a messiah. The trouble was the world had acclaimed messiahs before, only to discover that nothing ever changed; the latest in date was Barack Obama, whose achievements, which were an improvement when compared to George Bush’s warmongering, fell far short of the hopes and aspirations of many of those who had elected him.

  Barton, a ringside spectator of another saviour’s calamitous policies in nearby Venezuela, looked on as Nicolás Madura, who had succeeded his charismatic predecessor, Hugo Chavez, struggled to fulfil his electoral promises. His fiery rhetoric was of little avail as the United Socialist Party’s policies, built on the price of oil, collapsed. Madura was forced to call in the army to control the lengthening lines outside supermarkets, where shoppers in Caracas fought for basic essentials: rice, sugar and toilet paper, where even McDonald’s ran out of French fries.