By Anny Tzotzadini
Leonora Seeling, a German historian and author rebels at the critical publications about Greece, asking for the imposition of a special cultural tax so that Greece could be saved.
During this period, we have been talking about the rude German publications concerning the financial crisis in Greece and we tried to explain them. We talked about the most objective of them, and some really profound articles for Greece. However, we haven’t found any fervent advocacy for Greece by the German press until this one, named “ Arikanda” (like the ancient town Lycia) sent to our office by the small Stuttgart publishing houseThis handbook, written as a speech addressed to the Greek citizens, bearing the title “5 cents to save Greece” and is not signed by those who usually manage the Greek issues.
The author’s name is Leonora Seeling. She has taught history of maths and physics in German and French universities, she has published literature, she knows Greece by travelling during the last decade and now she rebels.
How are the coffers of the Greek nation going to be filled?
She rebels because of the annoying tone of the publications about Greece. As for her, what has to be done is not to stress the shortcomings of the Greek financial policy but find reasons somehow so that Greece could be saved, the country that is valuable as the cradle of the European civilization. So, Leonora Seeling suggests the imposition at a European level of a minimal, symbolic cultural tax of 5 cents on everyone that uses Greek words today. When the German says “idée” the French “idée”, and the English “idea”, at the same time the Greek coffers have to be wealthier by 5 cents. So do the coffers in the case of the words psyche and psychoanalysis, democracy and politics, museum and Europe and euro etc.
Seeling calculates the million and billion of euros that would fill the greek coffers passionately and cheerfully. She is totally convinced that the European people owe this tax to Greece, without the mental and scientific achievements of which, there would be neither the European civilization nor the European technology, the airplanes would not fly nor the ships would sail.
Blatant and veiled corruption
Leonora also asks for those who immediately condemned the Greek practices and temperament to draw their horns in. Apart from the blatant corruption in Greece, the “democratic corruption” as it is called, she also stresses the remarkable and hypocritical political-economy corruption in Germany. She compares the wages of a Greek civil servant after the 10% cut that was imposed with the highest unemployment benefit that under certain conditions, a German unemployed person receives and she suggests a reduction in Greek purchases of German weapons by 50% etc. Leonora Seeling is simply an educated German that rebelled because Greece was offended. And yes, this species of people exists in Germany, too.
(source: DW)
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