The issues in Greece are very complex.
First the whole country was shocked at the death of a young person who died because he was shot by a police officer.
Second, Greece has different groups of people where there personal philosophies and beliefs are a very overiding feature of alot of things they do.
In Greece theres a conservative government, a socialist opposition in PASOK, an even more leftist party called Syriza and the Communists also have substantial representation in the Parliament, then theres a very right wing Party called LAOS that is also in the parliament. On the edges there are groups who believe in official anarchy and others who like to go out onto the streets and do what has been done the last 4 days... just not to this extent.
The current government has 151 members in a 300 member parliament. So they are hanging on by a thread.
Greece also has a massive public debt, accumulated over decades by incompetent governments, but sadly very little industry to show for it. Tourism is still the biggest income earner, whilst Global Shipping is probably the only industry where Greece has the biggest share. So the Governments always seem to run deficits, requiring bigger tax takes to fund debt, because there are few big industries. Greece is also wracked by how unions operate, the union movement is split along party lines and ideological lines, its almost impossible for any government to do deals with unions because other unions will disagree. The unions are also used by the socialist partys to stop government reform and policys needed to rectify some issues. Everytime the government wants to make reform thousands of unionists block the streets.
Unemployment is high, tax avoidance is higher, Greece has also been wracked by scandals, which have seen a small group of people making millions whilst the general population is savaged by low income levels average about $1500 per month, and high costs of living.
At an educational level, the system is rooted, education receives low levels of funding. Kids are feeling like they have little hope for the future.
On a side note, theres also a law in Greece that says that Police cannot enter university facilities, so anarchists go and smash and rob and burn buildings, then run into the nearest educational facilities because they cant be arrested.
Anyway, Greece is in a bad way at the moment but in many ways the Greeks in Greece have brought this onto themselves. Greeks around the world have done pretty well economically, politically, socially...but in Greece, there need to believe in political philosophies based on conservatism and socialism is wrecking them.
In Australia, we care about our families, our footy teams ... everything seems normal, in Greece people seem to put there political affiliation very high...in Australia hardly any of us give a poo about the political parties as long as we have our freedoms and we can live our lives in a normal fashion.
Thats just a basic summary maybe others like HT will add to it.
On another note, some media commentators recently said ... to save Greece, the 10 million of us who live here need to leave, and the 10 million greeks who live in Australia, the US and around the world should be brought back to Greece to save it. Deep down the Greeks in Greece know theyve stuffed up ... but most dont wont to admit it yet. Anyway Im disapppointed in what I seen. Hopefully things can be turned around and they can form a better society in the years ahead.
