{"id":10016,"date":"2015-07-04T12:43:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-04T12:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=10016"},"modified":"2015-07-04T12:43:39","modified_gmt":"2015-07-04T12:43:39","slug":"once-vital-nation-set-to-cast-itself-aside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=10016","title":{"rendered":"Once-vital nation set to cast itself aside"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Greece has become a joke. And a decidedly unfunny one at that.<\/p>\n

The country is about to conduct a referendum on Sunday. The outcome may determine whether the nation remains part of the European Union and a partner in one of the world’s pre-eminent international consortiums.<\/p>\n

How did it come to this?<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.macropolis.gr\/?i=portal.en.the-agora.2686<\/p>\n

It sickens me.<\/p>\n

I’ve had the pleasure and the privilege of visiting my ancestral homeland three times. I know of the country’s rich history. I am acutely aware of the pride the Greek diaspora around the world have of this place. It’s magic is beyond belief.<\/p>\n

Now it’s about to be reduced to a bit player, an outlier on the world stage.<\/p>\n

The nation cannot pay its debt. Other European nations have grown weary of bailing out the Greeks. Frankly, who can blame them?<\/p>\n

What’s more, the Greeks are letting their own pride take them down the road perhaps to further ruin.<\/p>\n

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras opposes further austerity measures designed to enable Greece to pay its debts. He is urging a “no” vote on the referendum, suggesting that it will strengthen the country’s hand and enable Greece to reopen negotiations with the EU.<\/p>\n

All the while, the country — this cradle of western civilization — is being relegated to some peanut-gallery place on the world stage.<\/p>\n

Those of us around the world who are proud of our ethnic inheritance are saddened beyond words by what’s happening there.<\/p>\n

My own hope is that the majority of Greeks let some common sense rule by voting “yes” on the referendum.<\/p>\n

As the essay attached to this post notes, the Greeks are left with two options. One of them is\u00a0bad; the other is worse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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Greece has become a joke. And a decidedly unfunny one at that. The country is about to conduct a referendum on Sunday. The outcome may determine whether the nation remains part of the European Union and a partner in one of the world’s pre-eminent international consortiums. How did it come to this? http:\/\/www.macropolis.gr\/?i=portal.en.the-agora.2686 It sickens … Continue reading Once-vital nation set to cast itself aside<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[252,1639,1648,1996],"class_list":["post-10016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-news","tag-alexis-tsipras","tag-eu","tag-eurozone","tag-greece"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}