Hirvisaaris internet-kommentar är ett
klart exempel på den växande samhällsklyftan mellan ’moral-konservatister’ och ’post-materialister’.
På den ena ytterligheten har vi väldigt post-materialistiska och idealistiska
värderingar om bl.a. mänskliga rättigheter och miljöskydd. Sedan, på den andra
ytterligheten har vi materialisterna med sina samhälls-konservativa attityder,
på det lägret ligger Sannfinländarna. Retoriken de för är i linje med den s.k.
'Nya Högern' som framväxer runtom etablerade demokratier, inte enbart i Europa,
utan även i USA med den s.k. 'Tea Party' rörelsen. Balanserande på den andra
sidan har vi de post-materialistiska 'Nya Vänstern' med bl.a. den gröna
rörelsen. SFP är också ett väldigt post-materialistiskt minoritetsparti trots
att partiet inte klassificeras som ’’Nytt Något’’, men värderingsgrunden är
väldigt post-materialistisk.
Eftersom, de gröna samt SFP representerar
den ena ytterligheten medan Sannfinländarna den andra så clashar de. Denna
clash ska inte tolkas som en clash mellan ekonomisk vänster och höger utan av en
post-materialism kontra materialistisk-konservatism. Synd att klyftan
i vissa fall blir så stor att man har svårt att förstå varandra. Hirvisaaris
retorik är något som i allt mindre grad tillhör vårt millenium, ett millenium
där post-materialisters andel är ständigt växande. Kanske det är klokare, att
istället för att direkt göra den här saken till en ”svenskans sak”,
att poängtera faktumet att Hirvisaaris retorik tillhör en bottennotering.
Eftersom kommentaren tillhör ett av de mest respektlösa uttalanden mot
den finska statens demokratiska grundpelare, nämligen grundlagen. Ifall han
inte gillar husets regler och att höra på svenska i plenisalen så tvingar
ingen honom att stanna. Han kan stanna utanför plenisalen, eller kanske helt
enkelt lämna riksdagen om det blir allt för jobbigt att lyssna på lite svenska.
Det är en annan sak vad som pratas i Hirvisaaris privata bostad, hursomhelst,
riksdagen klassificeras nog knappast som hans privata bostad. Riksdagen är
i så fall en ”bostad” som delas med 199 andra folkvalda representanter som
formar tillsammans husets regler med en demokratisk majoritetsprincip, och i
det här fallet med en kvalificerad majoritet. Eftersom, det är det som krävs för att ändra grundlagen.
Dylika offentliga internet-kommentarer går inte
åsidosättas med en ''det var ett skämt'' ryckning. Finlandssvenska
representanter - oberoende parti - är oftast valda eller delvis valda av
finlandssvenskar eller människor som har inget problem med svenskan, därför, är
Hirvisaaris kommentar förutom en kränkning mot vår stat även en kränkning mot ett
segment av väljarkåren, och därmed en kränkning demokratin. Eftersom,
kommentaren riktar sig direkt mot en väljarkårs och deras representanters användning av sitt modersmål är, detta, ingen sakfråga.
Ifall han inte kan respektera demokratiska grundprinciper så förundrar man
verkligen varför han ens är, eller ens vill vara i riksdagen. När senast har en
liknande olycklig händelse inträffat då, en riksdagsledamot, fördömt en annan
riksdagsledamots användning av landets officiella språk i den finländska
representativa-demokratins tempel? Hursomhelst, demokrati förutsätter att man
bär en viss värdighet, respekt och tillit mot sina medmänniskor. Annars blir
det tungt att samarbeta. Ja, kanske rentav omöjligt. Hoppeligen är Hirvisaaris internet-kommentar en kommentar emot språkpolitiken, och inte en symptom av något mycket
värre. Komihåg, vid plenisalen tillämpas
ingen språkpolitik som går under stapeln 'tvångssvenska', den svenska som talas
inom plenisalen är i högsta grad 'frivillighetssvenska'. Var och en får själv
välja ifall de vill tala eller lyssna på svenska i plenisalen. Vem tvingar
dig, Hirvisaari, att lyssna på svenska i plenisalen - annan än du själv?
I read on a
newspaper that a Japanese Zeppelin will fly over Finland next week. That
reminded me of this movie about Graf Zeppelins flight around the world, which I
saw last year. The movie somehow affected me strongly, and made me think of how
different the world once was. However, that was only barely being a lifetime
ago. All these people with their troubles, hopes and dreams, just like any
person today. However, so much has changed since that time our values,
technology, culture, society and politics. This semi-documentary is,
therefore, one of my favorites, because it manages to capture and re-create the
world of 1929.
I keep asking whether or not someone, a hundreds of years from now, will look
at a semi-documentary about our world. Just like this one. What will they
think about our time, our world?
We cannot go
on like this with this self-denial. Ordinary working people are not given enough
respect and credit for the sacrifices they are making for our society. This
cannot simply go on. These are people that should be given the pride and
dignity they deserve. On a few occasions, I have heard people looking down on
these tough people. Regrettably, that is just sad and vain. Honest tax paying working people are everyday heroes. If there is one thing I could bring back from the past it would certainly be respect.
Tonight my friend told me, that some figures of the death-toll due to pollution in China
have been released. He told me that the death toll in China were 1.2 million in 2010
alone. Looking at pictures of the thick and toxic smog over Beijing and Shanghai
during the last few weeks – and the information my friend shared with me. This
led to a somewhat disturbing and terrible thought. To get some perspective
Nazi-Germany’s Holocaust killed in genocide around 8-12 million people. They
died in completely inhumane conditions, at concentration camps – where they worked
until they grew too weak and perished or were executed.
Why is this 'gas chamber' ''okay''
While this is not? What is the difference?
Dear
people, you need to wake up! How can we allow this to happen? How can we
allow an oligarchy in China (or elsewhere) to push for economic growth at any price?
The breaches of basic human rights and the destruction of our habitat are happening
out of our, Westerners, sights. However, this does not irradicate the problem or our responsibility. This cannot go on, can it? These cheap
blood-stained gadgets and products are simply not worth the human and environmental
price. This is not even good in the long term. We cannot afford to destroy our
limited habitat on our planet. Earth is all we have, for now, and with the
current exploding global population growth we will need the entire habitat that
is availed on this planet. Limited natural resources are leading to a situation
where humanity will increasingly compete for resources. Africa is a good
example of a renewed resource scramble. China is ‘buying-up’ (or trying to)
natural resources on the whole of the African continent. We cannot allow ourselves
to destroy more of our habitat, because it will only make the situation worse.
Sadly,
I doubt humanity is capable to improve the situation. There is not any
significant political will to do anything about these things. If there were, we
could probably get far on solving these issues. The power of the human WILL can
be incredibly, but is sadly too often underestimted. I will not get in-depth about this, or well I will name a few examples.
Just think about those people who discovered America, went to the moon, or
fought wars successfully despite terrible odds. Finland in WW2 against Soviet
Union in Winter War (Finland fought alone), Vietnam (communists) in 1960s against USA, Afghan combatants
against the Soviets and now against the West. These are just a tiny bit of examples of the
power of the human WILL.
What about the responsibility of the companies that have out-sourced their production. This is a question I keep asking. How come so many companies fail to follow regulations of Western standards when they off-shore their production? There are many reasons for that (I will not go into that now).
It is so sad that we have incredible scientists and know-how, countless of solutions to these problems. . . but no will. These things should be obvious, but they clearly are not.
Greece is currently facing one of its biggest post-war
crises with its massive debt. It is a crisis where a small European country
might determine the future of the EU. How did Greece end up in such a poor
state? This paper will investigate the landscape of corruption and linkage
between the current crisis and corruption in Greece. And suggest a few
solutions on how to combat corruption in Greece
.
2. Landscape and brief history of corruption in Greece
Corruption in Greece is present at both private and
public sectors. In the public sector corruption is present at the political,
judicial and bureaucratic sides. When researching corruption in Greece one
finds the longevity of the corruption tradition in Greece. According to
Kleomenis S. Koutsokis it is impossible to understand corruption in Greece
without understanding the long ranging past of it. In his research he divides
the corruption in Greece to three different phases. The first of the phases he
calls bureaucratic corruption which dates from 1946-66. This post war corruption
was fuelled by foreign investment flooding to the country after the war.
However, the country’s legal and bureaucratic traditions were a hindrance, and
in many cases the only way to make things happen was through the means of
corruption through a clientele-system. Kleomenis S. Koutsokis lists the second
phase of Greek corruption as cynical corruption 1967-74. This was the period of
the authoritarian military junta in Greece. The junta had set as one of its
priorities to abolish corruption from the country, but in fact only worsened
the situation. Corruption became much more direct at his time. The third phase
called structural corruption 1974-2000, perhaps ranging to today also. This
period is marked by the return of democracy and a range of institutional and
structural changes. During this time the state both privatized industry and
took over private industries. Greece joined the EU during this time (Koutsokis
pgs 27-28). The long and grave persistency of corruption has resulted in Greeks
becoming suspicious or even hostile towards the state, further being fuelled by
a various amount of corruption scandals. During the late 1980s the early 1990s
Pan-Hellenic-Socialist Movement, PASOK, and liberal New Democracy Party of
Greece were both involved in waste corruption scandals. These parties are to
date major players in the political field of Greece (Koutsokis pg 29).
Politically this has meant that the Greeks have lost fate in their political
system. A great majority of Greeks feels that politicians are active in
politics only for their own good. The scandals have resulted in political
apathy amongst the voters; several votes casted are blank during general
elections reflecting their mistrust towards the political system (Koutsokis pg
34). This is alarming, because another research conducted on corruption in
Greece found that general elections and the Ombudsman in Greece are currently
the strongest institutions against corruption (NIS pg 7).
The most vulnerable sectors for corruption in Greece
are the executive, media and business according to a National Integrity System
Assessment of Greece. The study criticizes the executive branch of power,
stating that it is a too dominant player in the Greek political system. NIS
also found that governments fall often under patron-client relationships, and
organized interests, as they cling to power (NIS pg 5). Political
corruption-scandals at the top level of politics are not unheard of in the
politics of Greece. NIS criticizes that the parliament does not have enough
monitoring powers over the government, especially on the budgetary issues (NIS
pg 8). Regarding the media NIS criticizes the freedom of the press, stating
that it often falls under political pressure, and that media owners politicize
its content (NIS pg 5). Corruption in private sector, NIS found that there are
differences between corporations listed that companies listed in the Athens
Stock Exchange and those that are not. Listed companies were noted to follow
international standards. Whereas companies that were not listed to the stock
exchange were found to be very un-transparent, this in combination with ‘’the
complexity of the legal and fiscal environment, entrenched bureaucracy, and
frequently changing policies on entrepreneurship, all create an environment highly
conducive to corruption.’’ (NIS pg. 6) Regarding the public sector NIS found
that there is a substantial divide between law and practice, further stating
that the decades of lack of transparency have left their marks on the public
sector. This has resulted in corruption practices (NIS gp 6).
When we look more closely at the corruption in Greece,
through empirical data provided by Transparency International Greece we can see
that corruption in Greece is dominated by the public sector. Based on the following:
‘’Replies only from those who in the past 12 months have been asked to pay a
bribe in order for their affairs in the Public or Private sectors to be
attended to more quickly or settled’’ (TIG pg 4) we can see that corruption in
the public sector, private sector an both persisted at the following in 2011:
67,3% public sector, 27,7% private sector and 5% in both (TIG pg 4). These
figures have been quite stable during the period between 2007 and 2011.Transparency International Greece estimated that a total
of €554 million were paid in bribes in Greece in 2011. Estimated amount of
households affected of corruption in Greece is around 271-thousand in the
public sector, and 124-thousand in the private sector. This is a large amount
of money, and households affected but say nothing of the society as a whole
affected by corruption. For instance €554 million and the damage caused by
corruption are potentially much higher than these figures show.
3. Consequences of corruption in Greece
It is perhaps impossible to calculate the total amount
of economic, social, political and human costs the Greek people are paying due
to corruption. Greece today is in the midst of a great tragedy due to their
debt crisis. It is beyond question that the Greeks are paying a great price for
the misconducts accumulated during the decades of corruption. There are several
forms of corruption such as embezzment, bribery, favoritism, fraud and so
forth. Corruption as earlier mentioned has led to lower participation in
election in Greece (Koutsokis pg 7). In combination with the NIS study which
also mentioned above stated that Greek national elections are one of the most
important institutional factors in combatting corruption in Greece. This means
that Greece has effectively been partly lacking one of their most important
assets against corruption. It is a serious issue for democracy itself that
citizens feel that way. Politically the representatives of the people have to
some degree not represented the will of the people. The alarming part in the
case of Greek corruption is that corruption has been frequently found on the
very political top (Koutsokis pg 29). Corruption at the political top has
certainly contributed negatively to the present financial crisis in Greece.
Politicians have potentially extracted public resources to their private
interest, through methods of embezzlement and fraud and favored private rather
that public interests (Amundsen pg 6). Greek politicians have potentially also
attempted to preserve their power through corrupt means, using methods of
favoritism, clientelism and vote buying (Amundsen pg 7). This raises questions
of the health of democracy itself in Greece. Even if the politicians, perhaps,
have not been corrupt, as stated above by the findings of Koutsokis, most
Greeks still thought they were.
The public sector also suffers from corruption and
thus of infectivity. Recruitment to public offices can for instance be based on
favoritism rather than merits. Thus the quality of the public sector suffers.
Tax evasion is a well-known problem in Greece, and largely made possible
through ineffective public administration and corruption, both which can be
regarded as the result of corruption. Tax evasion is one of the largest issues
facing the present financial crisis in Greece. It is estimated that Greece
loses around €30 billion each year due to tax evasion, which accounts of about
twelve per cent of the total GDP (Randall). An ineffective public sector is
overall wasteful for a country’s economy. Not to mention that foreign
investments are likely to snub a corrupt state.
- Negative attitudes and mistrust towards the state itself are another important factor in tax evasion.
Greece’s culture of corruption can also be seen in the
fraud in joining the Eurozone. Had Greece never been so corrupt as it is it
could be argued that much of Europe’s and Greece’s troubles today wouldn’t have
occurred. According to the BBC Greece’s public spending soared after the
country joined the Euro, a country which manipulated its way into the Eurozone.
The BBC reports that consequent governments concealed the figures, until the
global financial turmoil which finally forced the Greek government to reveal
the truth. It is indeed odd that PASOK and New Democracy, parties that have
consequently controlled the cabinet at different times since the country joined
the euro; neither party raised the alarm of the previous government’s wrong
doings regarding the debt crisis. It is difficult to give reasons as to why
this occurred. One explanation could simply be that they wanted to remain in
power, while extracting as much resources as possible from the state before
being caught.
Corruption has definitely had a large linkage to the
present crisis in Greece. The weak institutions and overall lack of ethics
played their part to lead the Greek people to this trap. It is unfortunate
because the whole the Greek welfare is in tatters and an increased amount of
people are falling into poverty.
4. How to solve the corruption in Greece?
Greece is undergoing massive budgetary austerity
measures, imposed by the EU and IMF. Further, Greece’s economy is expected to
have shrunk a fifth by the end of this year since the beginning of the crisis
in 2008 (BBC). There is more at stake than plainly combatting corruption at
present. The most important measure in Greece is to re-establish the trust
between politicians and the citizens. Greece needs national unity at this
present time to be able to make reforms and to get rid of corruption in the
country. The question is whether it can be possible with the present set of
parties which are in way symbols of corruption. However, it is possible that
they will re-invent themselves and be able to start a fresh. It is however
important that the parties and politicians get rid of their self-serving image
amongst the citizens.
Greece has already during the past few decades been
making legislation to combat corruption. However, the implementation of these
legislations has not always worked. Thus there needs to be real political will
and leadership to crack down on corruption. There needs to be political
leadership which is determined to implement its reforms rather than just write
beautiful words. This leadership has to be able to make transparency reforms
for the government and the parliament itself. The parliament should be given
increased monitoring powers over the government (NIS pg 8).
Now that Greece is undergoing these massive austerity
measures it would be good to make reforms in the public sector, in order to
make it more effective and free of corruption. Reforms have to be made either
way, because there are not resources to continue the same way as before. These
reforms have to include increased amount of transparency, in order to make it
easier to access information for citizens, media and other watchdogs. Good
governance requires transparency in order to be tested by an objective and independent
judicial system.
It must be remembered, however, that it will be very
difficult to combat all these issues at once in Greece. And with the shrinking
resources the quality of public administration, judicial system are at risk.
Greece is a weakened state with both internal and external international
pressure.
Koutsoukis,
K. S.
(2003) "Political
Corruption in Greece" in Bull, M. J. & Newell, L. N. (2003)
"Corruption in Contemporary Politics", Palgrave MacMillan.
Randall,
J.
(2011) "Greece: It's Corruption, Stupid!" (The Telegraph online,
accessed 23.1.2013)
Organzations:
Transparency
International Greece (2012) "National Integrity System Assessment Greece - Executive
Summary" (TI online , accessed 3.2.2013)
