By John Faraclas
So here we go once again with Samaras being stretched due to his nepotism of maintaining the title, not even the role* of prime minister! His “loyal” partner and head of the PASOK “Socialists” Vangelis Venizelos’ demands were pre-agreed and fully met; remember this! That and only that suggests to me that his entire previous administration consisted of the “wrong” appointees. For example, the Greek Foreign Secretary Dimitri Avramopoulos, a diplomat by profession, moves to the ministry of defence and his post is taken over by Venizelos…
Do you want me to go on? Well one minister resigned before she was even sworn-in, one of the few women, replaced, thank God by another lady so as to… “tell” the 51 percent of Greek women, hey, proportionality works…. Ha! Ha! Many more, I should say by 90 percent, all appointments are wrong… Unbelievable but true. We have long ago in writing and from live televised interviews expressed our dismay of this coalition, as each of the smaller parties’ leaders were pulling Samaras, tearing apart his blazer to accept their terms so they don’t leave and that the government survives to the expense of Greece’s 11 plus million inhabitants. I wonder one day, who else will sit on the dock…
John N. Faraclas
Now, in shipping and aviation we are very much concerned about the leg-room(save nice legs coming up the gang-way…). We are concerned both about the catamarans, fast conventional vessel’s seats and respective leg-room, as well as about the aircraft, where, instead of 25 rows, you have 27 or even 28 rows – better cut-off your legs, you know what I mean… Now there isn’t any more leg-room, and new furniture will be needed at the Greek Cabinet’s Room in this day and age of austerity – add the surrounding space were people pile – secretaries, assistants, press advisers, you name it, the lot.
I remember that the room of the British Cabinet is certified for a certain number; what about the Greek Cabinet room, eh? Mrs. Merkel’s coalition has far fewer members and President Barack Obama, for the US, a nation twenty times bigger that Greece, 16 or 17 if my memory doesn’t fails me… Have you seen the multinational oil giants, how many are in their board? So what on earth has Samaras studied? How can you hold a proper discussion with all this lot? How much time is allocated for each of the Ministers? And what about who speaks first, second and so forth…?? What do you do when taking important decisions? Samaras’ cuts for all Greeks sounds nice to him, the European Union and the IMF; but what about Samaras scaling down his mess with this cabinet! Obviously these matters do not apply to him and his partners! It is about time, at least in the European Union for a directive to come into force proportionally stating a name, and number of ministries and ministers, under-secretaries, the lot. It is a first step towards a political union in Europe! Any objection? We can entertain you live on this!
Does Mr. Samaras believe in flexibility? Well, we all wonder! This is not a way to run a country, particularly under the circumstances that everybody knows (Leonard Cohen, remember…). Cutting his administration to size will also put curbs on big government, which to all judgement, is a bad government.
To all counts, following discussions over the last 48 hours, this is the worst ever performance – so far, of Greece’s Prime Minister following DEMAR’s quitting the threesome coalition and a reshuffle which will, unless stopped, will definitely ruin the country.
We left at the end the Ministry of Shipping and the Aegean, where an islander, Costis Moussouroulis, was replaced, exactly a year after taking office, by Harvard-educated Miltiades Varvitsiotis, the eldest son of another ND party grandee John Varvitsiotis – interestingly all family political clans have their off-spring in Greek governments, this one being no exemption… I wouldn’t comment, but I would kindly ask Mr. Varvitsiotis – whom I know well, to bring-in an under-secretary, as originally envisaged last year by Mr. Samaras government and ministerial planning, and George Vernicos finally didn’t took the post (why not another candidate, eh???). For such an important ministry and sector, the only one that Greece is proud of, bring money in the state’s coffers, offer jobs, creating wealth and keeping up the Greek flag as champions in the international shipping industry – a demand which the writer first and before anybody else tabled/proposed (a permanent under-secretary for shipping).
Same applies for Tourism! The other questions I was bombarded with about Mr. Varvitsiotis are: “when did he last had a participation in shipping affairs?” and “ when was the last time that Mr. Varvitsiotis expressed publicly his views on the shipping industry?” To be honest with you, I was expecting last year Samaras to name him Minister for Shipping and the Aegean. Now it remains to be seen what Mr. Varvitiostis is able and allowed to do. He must remember and also fully understand, rise to the circumstances of this most powerful post, on par with that of a Prime Minister, so he must make or break! As deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs – Greek Diaspora, and a participant of other shipping parliamentary groups, he has at least seen the importance of the Greek maritime cluster and he must preserve it: NO MISTAKES! We will be very tough in using harsh Aristotelian Criticism. Good luck!
*To do what must be unmistakably done.-
P.S.: We are sure you must have read an article comparing the late Mrs. T with Mr. Samaras; if not, it’s worth finding same; you will be very surprised!
