Leadership the name of the game!

The following are the main points – in brief – from the latest John Faraclas live interview from the Camelot Castle Hotel in Tintagel, Cornwall, to Panos Thomakos on SBC TV last Friday the 29th of March 2013:

Faraclas started with a cultural and touristic note supporting also the Anglo-Saxon’s culture adding that same has all that Ancient Greek grandeur which until today the British follow, and Thomakos promptly responded that “…nowadays one learns Ancient Homeric Greek in Oxford and not in Greece!” Faraclas countered that it is important to retain the power of the Greek language as in shipping there are seventeen words for the word sea!

1)Entering the main issues of the markets, Thomakos expressed his concern that Harry Vafias, who was few minutes ago live was on SBC TV,   was anxious about the overcapacity issue, which continues given that American funds and Chinese “surplus” money plus some Greeks continue the construction of tonnage, thus creating a very difficult market. He also mentioned the optimistic view of Nicolas Bornozis, head of Capital Link, who earlier on gave also a live interview to Vassilis Tsekouras on the state of the shipping markets. Faraclas reiterated that despite his “optimistic” view on the 22^nd of March (interview), the market dropped, and he stressed the difficult times ahead and that it is still early days to see the upward trend of the market.

Faraclas said that: “One has to expect all the issues that Mr. Vafias mentioned, it’s a free market after all, and all these happenings where expected. Only the capable shipowners, listed or not will survive and they will smash the rest! Forget the powerful / big shipowners…” Difficult times are ahead….” He continued by saying that:  “There is a lack of discipline, something which I have mentioned many times in the past, as there are not any platforms to stop this unended newbuilding spree…”, adding: “… who controls the demand and supply? The banking/finance industry has gone bust! We are going to witness ‘crazy weather conditions’ in the shipping industry. This oversupply of ships destroyed the markets.”

2) Thomakos then mentioned that: “… generally the world does well…but here in Europe we live in misery. The Greeks accuse the Germans, the Germans accuse the south (of Europe), and so forth….” Faraclas said that “…there is a big envy about the south of Europe, mentioning that all come down to the Med for their holidays; where all Germans, Scandinavians, the Swedes, we are talking here about countries with powerful economies, Belgians, Dutch, British go?  They come down in the Mediterranean Sea and try, besides their cheap holidays, to get everything good we have: our olive, yogurt; have you seen the studies and importance of our olive oil; and given the chance even our cuisine, our ideas…. One can see what happened at IFE (International Food Exhibition) at London’s ExCel Centre, where amongst the giants of the food industry there where some powerful Greek companies…” Thomakos then said: “So they envy us, and not us them, as Mr. Schaeuble says” Faraclas said: “ I guess that Mr. Schaeuble has too many problems, its obvious, and its best for him to see what he will do when the German Economy goes under; I would like to see what Mr. Schaeuble will do. All these gays and Mrs. Merkel, Mr. Kohl and the rest didn’t foresee what will happen and they “couldn’t play their game” in exporting goods as their Deutsche Mark was a hard currency stopping them to improve their exports. Add the French Franc which was a very weak currency, the Italian lira too and see what do you make out of this: the Euro… They never ever imagined that globalization will bring them opposite the Chinese products as a result of globalization’s ‘benefits’….”  Thomakos continued: “What will happened to Europe… should Euro be dismantled, what’s going on…?” Faraclas said that Europe should remain united. “Europe is 700 million people  – from Lisbon to the Ural Mountains with 4/5 members in the G7/G8 group, don’t forget this”, he said “Europe has the strongest economy! When Europe started to shake, Iceland was supposed to have capital controls for a few weeks only and it goes on today after five years and this has destroyed the Icelandic economy. You can check this from the newspapers archives. Here in the Cyprus saga there were warnings since 2007… but what do you expect when Europe has corrupt politicians?  All the scandals, financial or sexual are happening, particularly in Europe are due to the corrupt politicians in all European countries…

Faraclas added and repeated his previous position that: “Greece needs a leader…”, he questioned also “What happened with the European Mediterranean Structural Funds”. He stressed that this leader should come out on TV and explain within the country and outside what happens, then things will change.

He ended by repeating that it is unfair to tax the poor and elderly pensioners and have a record of unemployed of over 26, 4% in Greece and other European States close to this figure. Its a disaster…

He also mentioned that: “If you want tackle the Germans you must be serious, then they will consider you… See these mega cruise ships built in Finland and Germany, some of them are of Greek backing. The Greek Masters of the seven seas are serious and all the world of business consider them as the best of clients!

We look forward to our viewers comments. As usual there will be a translation into English.