6,300,000 people bordering on and below the breadline. The latest statistic officially issued by the office monitoring the budget of the Greek Parliament. This is over half the total population. A population that has been in steady decline since the German inspired Troika, cheered on by the whole of the rest of Europe, slapped its punitive measures on the country.

Birth rates down to below death rates. Life expectancy has fallen. Let alone massive chronic unemployment.  And though official figures show a slight drop in unemployment of point something percent (as could be expected during the height of the tourist season), closer inspection reveals that the actual number of people in work has dropped. People have either left, or died (naturally or by suicide) or just dropped off the charts and into oblivion.

This is what the dream of a united Europe of equal sovereign states, based on the ideal of solidarity, shared values and promoting prosperity has collapsed into.

More Deja vu? Do our current so called leaders suffer from a total ignorance of history? Whatever else, they certainly have not read the bits about the Crash of 1929. And there are so many good books on it. Whatever. Be that as it may. But one can’t help having that funny feeling in the pit of the stomach again when one sees how they have decided to deal with the Ukrainian crisis. Sanctions! they shout and then, More Sanctions! (Not unlike Austerity! and then when that fails, simply MORE Austerity!)

Now given the state of the global economy, and perhaps even more the abysmal state the Euro economy is in as it sticks religiously (the operative word here) to the iron rules, (nay laws!) set down by The Frau. Rules she might have realised were not all that effective had she bothered to read a little bit of history. John Kenneth Galbraith’s little book on the Crash of 1929 is not that long and very instructive. Surely she could have managed that at the very least (and I have no doubt that there must be an excellent German translation).

So here we go again, with this criminal negligence of history. Since it is the centenary of the First World War one would think they might realise that all these clever economic sanctions do not differ all that much from mustard gas. It had the horrible propensity to blow back into your own trenches and gas your own troops.

And what about the two Great Russian Victories? The first against Napoleon’s invading troops and next over Hitler’s invading troops. As we all know, or as we all should know or at least bother to find out if we are in a position of power deciding sanctions and so on, the Russians kept retreating and retreating drawing the invaders deeper and deeper into the large land mass till their supply lines got unmanageably long and they got stuck in the squelch of the thaw.

Russia did not achieve these victories painlessly and neither at a small cost to themselves. But they prevailed in the end. Now, by ratcheting up the sanctions game into a full scale economic war, does not Europe, particularly Europe, risk getting stuck in the slushy quagmire? In its current state of political and economic decay will it be able to withstand this self inflicted ordeal?

And, perhaps worse of all, does it insist on this dangerous path simply because, as with economics, they simply can’t be bothered to think round the problems?  How to handle them realistically? And could this be because they prefer to immerse themselves in that mesmerising dogma of “There Is No Alternative!” in politics too. Are they so lacking in imagination, intelligence and even the stamina to think things through and break out of the automatic pilot mode they are so inextricably wrapped in?

But when you see how the decisions are taken, a bunch of overrated mediocrities holding meetings through the night while imbibing quantities of choice wines, specially chosen by the Current Head of the Commission, falling asleep on sofas, appearing totally cluless as they sign on to the latest TINA nonsense, then you can hardly be surprised by the miserable results.