Skip to main content

Big Fat Greek Chaos

As the whole world now knows, Greece is apparently going to have a referendum on whether it will accept an EU bail-out.  This indecision has led to jittery markets.  If Greece votes to default instead, they will leave the EU, the euro, and this tail-spin will likely destroy the currency, and pull the world into a full recession.  Italy and Portugal may then collapse, more or less.  Eyewear gives this doomsday scenario around a 50-50 chance of occurring.  Meanwhile, the anti-capitalists of London continue to challenge the do-nothing theology of the C of E, which seems gutless in the face of genuine protest.  However, such protest leads down the same dark road as Greece is currently on.  The collapse of the banking system would lead to chaos, suffering, and even perhaps war or violence, on a scale not seen since the 1940s; and what or who would step in?  China?  I continue to predict 2011 as a watershed year, and more is to come.
Labels:

Comments

Poetry Pleases! said…
Dear Todd

The Greek Prime minister was insane to call a referendum. I actually think that he did it to spite Sarkozy who said publicly that Greece should never have been allowed to join the euro in the first place. As long as the French and Germans want the euro to survive, it will definitely do so, no matter how much right-wing commentators are willing it to fail!

Best wishes from Simon
Thu Nov 03, 02:25:00 pm 2011
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A  poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
Post a Comment
Read more

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...
15 comments
Read more

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more