I have been at a loss for words over the past week. What can you say? The violent closure of ERT, the public broadcaster in Greece has struck us dumb in more ways than one. The crass stupidity of it being perhaps what strikes one most, initially. The lack of ay planning. The failure to take any repercussions into account. And perhaps worse, or what adds insult to  injury, the vilification of all ERT employees. Branding them without exception as being lazy, corrupt, inefficient. In short, using the original German inspired propaganda against Greece, against the hapless employees.

I won’t go into the idiocy of cutting off the Greek diaspora throughout the world from the motherland. Nor how the Greek Aegean islands now watch Turkish TV without subtitles, and Salonika has been invaded by FYROM TV and things like that.

These lazy, corrupt, useless employees, however, have proved they are nothing of the kind. They have kept up a ‘pirate’ programme being supported and streamed by the EBU. And persecuted with a vengeance by the the Samaras regime. The quality is superb. The level of intelligence in debates is higher than anything ever seen on Greek TV before. In a way the Samaras regime has shot itself through the foot with this senseless act of dumb barbarism.

But what struck me most, was an image. The closures summarily fires all the employees. ERT’s excellent orchestras and choir, set up by Manos Hadjidakis no less, are to be disbanded never to reappear. So no more classical music on Greek airwaves from anywhere any more. This is really the kind of reform we need so dearly. Brutalise the population  completely.

And the image. A concert by the ERT orchestra broadcast by this “pirate’ station. They were performing a requiem, quite fitting. A violinist, a woman in early middle age, had tears of silent pain streaming from her eyes as she played her violin, contributing to the beauty of the music they now want to silence.

It would come as no surprise to anyone were it to  be disclosed that Antonis Samaras is a pathological narcissist. Which is one reason why a recent cartoon by the brilliant cartoonist Yannis Ioannou depicts him smashing one TV set after another, because none of them reflects back that he is the fairest, brightest, most successful of them all.

However, in his recent fit of absurd pique, he has taken the mirror metaphor further. He smashed the TV because it didn’t show him what he wanted in a childish tantrum. Yet, as I heard on free radio today, what he managed to do was what he least wanted to do.

The people of Greece have been lulled or drugged or terrorized into a state of lethargy through the shock doctrine that has hit them hard. This has turned them into docile couch potatoes staring at their TV sets. But when he shut down state TV they, we, all suddenly saw a black screen staring back at us, reflecting what our life has really become and what we can look forward to. A black nothingness.

This, the radio commentator said made us all jump up off the couch in shock and dash onto the streets and to the TV building in support. All of a sudden we saw what they have reduced us to and we did not like it. We did not like it at all. It fired us into realisation of the truth, it fired us into action.

Regardless of how this will play out or where it will lead, I would suggest that Mr Samaras has achieved the unachievable.

Under state control the TV stations were regurgitating his idiotic propaganda about how well he has done, how he has changed the climate, how Greece has turned the corner, and how he has achieved the Greek Success Story. The private TV stations were even worse in plugging this idiotic tale nobody could believe in, because they are dependednt on the state for favours and tax free profits.

So in imposing a black out, he blacked out his own propaganda tool, with the aim of replacing it with a better propaganda tool, but in the meantime, his mesmerised, stultified people, woke up, jumped out of their stupor, saw him for what he really is and ruined his whole image!

Bravo Antonis! Bravo. That really needs brilliance to achieve. Perhaps your mirror will reflect this when next you dare look into it.

The ham fisted idiotic decision to close down and abolish the Greek State TV and radio in one clean stroke, seems to have back fired. That does not mean Samaras will mend his ways in any way, nor relinquish the premiership if he can possibly help it.

But though Samaras has been Teacher’s pet doing everything and anything to please Schauble and The Frau, his very success in this (well he has boasted of his Success Story) may turn out to be his very undoing. Though the policy he insisted on following, that is to do everything the troika dictated  was patently wrong (and wrong in free market economic terms, hang the humanitarian aspect) he persisted in doing it quite regardless of the fact that it is leading to the complete collapse of the Greek economy and exit from the Euro.

With the invaluable help of Yannis Stournaras (who has taken on the mantle of Minister of public order now as well, threatening everyone daring to relay the ERT “criminal” broadcasts) he has pushed the people beyond endurance, and over board through his show of strength in shutting down the State Broadcaster.

This show of strength was a petulant move after the privatisation of the Gas company went terribly wrong, after recession has proved far deeper than estimated (something which was obvious to anyone with a modicum of common sense). He simply had to show to his cringing people that he was a Man. So he decided to smash things in the face.

Well… But be that as it may, and where this will lead in the end is something we will find out sooner or later for better or worse. But even in a worse case scenario, he has administered a fatal blow to himself. A blow from which he will not recover. Whether he dies a slow lingering death or a sudden flash one and how exactly this will play out for the country remains to be seen.

But one things is certain, if Merkel’s Poster Boy does not actually turn out to be her ruin, he will most certainly have gone a long way to contributing it.

Well now, how is that going? It is true, apparently, that there is a likelihood of achieving a primary surplus by the end of the year. However, this will be at the cost of the economy as a whole and will no doubt exacerbate the recession since it can only be achieved through taxation that has reached confiscatory proportions and cannot be sustained, unless the majority of the population is put behind bars for inability to pay. But then that will only increase expenses, won’t it?

So apart from that rather dubious achievement, what else constitutes the Samaras success story? Well now, lets see…. um…. ah… Unemployment isn’t increasing as fast as it was? Well it has already hit 27% and still is growing. The recession has been tamed? Not exactly that either. It has already overshot its target in the first four months. So what is left? Privatization!

That panacea the troika treat as gospel. Privatization! That’s the name of the game! Sell off the family silver! Well now, the great hoo ha made over the privatization of OPAP the state betting company rings rather hollow. Firstly, there was only one bidder, secondly the price was below expectations and thirdly, nothing has been paid yet. Hmmmm….

But that’s okay. DEPA, the gas company was to have been the great triumph AND brought in loadsa money! Unfortunately, however, again it was expected there would only be one bidder, Gazprom, only even they didn’t show up this time. Disaster!

But like everything else in this troika project to “save” (?) Greece, everything has been badly designed, badly thought out, based on false facts and considerations existing only in the realm of a limited imagination. First of all, all the proceeds from all privatizations are ear marked to go straight to paying back debt. Nothing will go to help the economy back on its feet again. Not only that, but the state has pledged to undertake losses too. Never mind that it will have collected nothing.

Secondly, when Gazprom showed its interest, the EU started muttering that it did not want Russia to have such a large share of the European market and would probably veto the deal if it went through. So hardly encouraging even the single solitary bid that might have been made.

And last but not least: what does it mean when there are No Bidders for anything put on sale? That prospective investors are brimming over with confidence in the Greek economy, as our cloud cuckoo land PM would have us believe? Does it mean everyone is convinced of his other little deceitful mantra, that the Grexit threat has been vanquished once and for all and Greece will not leave the Euro? No wonder he refuses to show up in Parliament and give answers to pertinet questions over all the nonsense he has been spewing out.

The more the Samaras government proceeds with this policy of do nothing other then what the troika demands, ratchet up austerity because that is what you are being told, do nothing at all in the way of trying to streamline public administration, rationalise tax and stimulate the economy, the less likely Greece has any chance of remaining in the Euro.

After today’s fiasco with the failed DEPA bid, I would suggest to the troika (who already know as much even if they won’t admit it) and Samaras (who hasn’t a clue) that perhaps not only Greece but the EU too would be better served if they stopped whipping this wretched dead horse and applied their energies instead to planning for an orderly exit of Greece from the Euro.

Otherwise it will happen in an extremely disorderly manner.

All of a sudden Europe has become churlish. What does the IMF know? It’s only a minor report drawn up by mere employees (what the Greeks tried to say about the troika in the first place.) It bears no relation to facts. It is a hindsight document (from Draghi that one), the rest from the Commission spokesman O’Connor – Not Donald unfortunately, at least he would have made us laugh. This one makes us cry.

Why all this petty refuting? Well, because the IMF finally came out with it. The Greek so called bail out plan has been a complete and utter failure and they got it wrong! Of all the cheek. The EU Commission never gets anything wrong. Ever. Just ask Olli Rehn, that greatest know all of all! He knows austerity is the right and only thing to do. And anyone who disagrees with him should just go hang.

After all look at Greece! The plan has worked beautifully! We have succeeded in totally destroying its economy and bringing down its welfare and healthcare and putting an end to all that soppy social policy that is so wasteful, haven’t we? And that is what we set out to do, so there! Besides, we have also solved Germany’s demographic problem. Germany has a lack of qualified personnel but Greeks and Spaniards etc will flock to the Mecca for work, solving that problem, oh and at a much lower wage than if they had been German.

So what is the IMF talking about? The Greek plan has been a resounding success! The way the EUSSR sees it.

Still, it is a sorry day when “Europe” makes the IMF look really good, now isn’t it?

By now it is common knowledge that all this raving about what the Greek Prime Minister has shamelessly called the Greek Success Story, is nothing but dastardly, cruel spin. There is a very good piece on this in the Guardian. The Greek economy is in tatters, people are suffering badly. Unemployment is rising and is expected to reach 30%, and any work available is either underpaid or not even paid at all. Social security has been reduced to a joke and health care is only being maintained, to the extent that it is by the sheer heroism and integrity of medial personnel.

So why all this nonsense about how well Greece is doing? Well because the criminals who thought up and imposed this policy, out of a desire to punish and not fix the economy in any way, are desperately trying to convince the world that “austerity works!” See? Look at Greece! Only not too closely of course. Just listen to what the Quisling PM and his cohorts have to say. Turn a blind eye to the grief and destruction that has been wrought.

We can in no way admit that our policy is wrong! What will happen to the markets if we do? Not to mention that one of our major players needs to win her election. Besides, we certainly don’t want to lose our cushy jobs. And the Greeks? And by extension all the other peoples of the south (and now climbing northwards)? Well, we don’t have to deal with that now.

Besides we do keep telling them and the world that this brilliant imminent success story depends on their doing exactly what we told them and achieving the targets. And of course we know that if they do do exactly what we tell them they will never reach the targets (since these are a contradiction in terms). So we shall blame the failure squarely on their shoulders, and anyway by that time The Frau will have been safely reelected and Mme Lagarde will be considering a different job or even retirement.

However, they will be right to blame the Greek government. It is all very well whining about how the troika demands this that and the other, but it is inexcusable for the Greek government to have no plan of its own, no idea what it wants to do, no thought as to how to get the Greek economy right and what paths it wishes to follow. And not a care in hell over the suffering of its people. It appears Mr Samaras is under the illusion that if he keeps playing at the good boy, teacher’s pet, and sucking up to Merkel in every way he possibly can, after her reelection she will reward him

What he has given no thought to is what he would want as a reward. Oh no. He expects her to decide that for him too. More money to throw down the plug hole? With no recovery strategy planned or even in his mind, that would be disastrous.

But then perhaps the only reward he really wants is not for his country but just for himself. A position in the European nomenklatura or perhaps the IMF.

Greece has fallen prostrate under the shock and despair, not least fanned by Samaras and his band of criminals. But if the country does not rise up soon and take the situation into its own hands and start planning and deciding for the benefit of the people instead of for the benefit of the governing classes, then I am afraid Greece will soon join Carthage in the history books of long forgotten peoples.