I was watching the film Gallipoli the other day and it struck me that the Greeks are currently in the position occupied by the ill-fated ANZACs in the film; each day they find themselves facing an impossible situation, at the end of each day they are shocked to find that they are still on their feet, each night they go to bed knowing that tomorrow may be "The End". Yet somehow they move from day to day without going mad. Sure there has been the odd riot, but London had worse over the suggestion of austerity.
There is an almost eerie serenity, a peace perhaps, that comes with the certainty of death that has settled over the entire proceeding. The actions of the Trioka look more like funeral arrangements than a live-saving operation. It has become a matter of When, not If. The Greeks are a hardy people that have survived millenia of hard times/good times/disaster/triumph and I am sure they will carry on, certainly not in the way they have in the past few years , but carry on they will.
What a Greek default means to the Euro Zone and the EU in general is another matter. Can the Euro Zone survive a Greek default within its current construction, will it expel Greece, will Greece leave of it's own accord? The biggest question probably is why Greece was brought in without proper vetting and safeguards. The urge to expand (and expand quickly) has been the worst feature of the Brussels Elites, the desire to bring in more nations for the sole reason of demonstrating the "success" of the Euro Zone stinks of a particularly arrogant version of hubris. Now they scramble to avert, or undo, the damage that their carelessness created. The problem being that with each failed effort at squelching the Euro Crisis the crew at the ECB and in Brussels come closer to the time when they must "go over the top" and face the fire they so well deserve.
Hopefully the casualty list is confined to the Elites (and their grandiose dreams) and the common folk can survive.
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