Peloponnese

There is nothing like the feeling of being on a truly beautiful sailing boat, hoisting the sails, and silently swishing through the waves, listening to the straining of the rigging, watching the bow plunge, and then staring at the sky. All the sanding and varnishing, the Sisyphus-like job which a boat such as Bushido requires, is forgotten; the only thing that matters is the magical sweep of a sheer or the awesome cut of a mainsail leech extending over a perfect counter. And the way a boat sits on the water. Like a woman, a boat is judged by her grace when lying still. Tolstoy was no sailor, but he got it right about conveying feelings being an art form. I only wish I could convey what I feel.

At the island of Koronis, where George and Lita Livanos receive like no others, Willy and Olga Shawcross came onboard Bushido and showered me with compliments. They know about boats, Willy’s father having owned a great Fife, and it was like hearing compliments about my children. Boats are like mistresses—expensive, temperamental, and volatile, but one feels for them as one feels for one’s child. But back to reality. And Greece.

Pouring money in will not make Greek industry competitive. Pouring money in is the problem, not the solution. All that the summit in Brussels accomplished was giving Greece breathing space. It will not work. What is needed is a change in the culture, and that takes decades if not centuries. The Eurocrooks are taking this ancient continent down the Suwannee. They couldn’t care less as long as they keep their salaries and privileges. A borderless continent conceived by technocrats is an LSD illusion, a scam, and a monetary union without full political unification is the biggest scam of all. Yet the Eurocooks insist that lending more moolah is the answer. Greeks see fraud and corruption everywhere and refuse to play ball. The state, with EU money, has spoiled them, and now it demands sacrifices. It doesn’t work like this. This year will be the third in a row that the Greek economy has shrunk. Does anyone in their right mind still believe that things will improve and that everything will one day be hunky-dory?

The Eurocrooks are taking us down, and we’re doing nothing about it. Everyone’s playing for time in order to be able to keep the motorcycle outriders and the arse-licking and bowing and scraping which go with being in power.

I wrote this last year and I was proved right. Next year I expect to be named a prophet.