Barack Obama, President
United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President,
I just listened to the conference you and Mrs. Merkel had mostly on the Ukraine and a tiny coverage on the Greek austerity situation.
Speaking of Greece and WWII, the Italians did compensate Greece for their involvement in that war and although Hitler signed an agreement to repay Greece on the loan the Bank of Greece gave them to pay for their war, the Greeks were not paid nor were they paid for the destruction of the country and their atrocities; however, the United States paid Germany billions of dollars to regain her stature today. Germany tried to extinguish the Greek population with guns and starvation then, and now, they are trying to do the same using what I call ‘economic starvation’. More than 300,000 Greeks were starved to death and also more than 50,000 Jews. I am a WWII and a subsequent Greek Civil War survivor. I have a scar under my neck from a Nazi knife. I fled the village before they set it on fire and massacred 21 innocent villagers including a pregnant woman. I fled with a sack of hard bread, feta cheese and olives, and I slept in the fields for days with my family until the Nazis left the area. Don’t you think that paying for those atrocities is justified? I read an article recently from a French economist that reparations amount to hundreds of billions in today’s euros. Why don’t they pay?
Angela Merkel talked about countries like Spain, Portugal, and Ireland having returned to growth because they met the EUs austerity rules. How can Greece have any growth when she has to pay more than 400,000 euros of high interest rates annually so Germany can fatten her pockets? How can Greece grow and reduce the 50% unemployment of the youth and also when hundreds of thousands of young productive minds have left Greece? Did you know, Mr. President, that more than 26,000 young doctors left Greece to work in Germany because they could not find work in Greece?
Mr. President, you have the power to put an end to this by telling Germany to pay for the reparations that amount to hundreds of billions of euros, just like the United States of America did for Germany to get them back on their feet. The loaners (EU, IMF, ECB, etc.) can also give Greece a stated amount of years to pay back the loan with no interest. That is the least they can do to help a poor country in need. By the way, sir, Germany gets a loan for 2 ½ percent or less and Greece is charged more than 6 percent.
It’s in your hands Mr. President to do something. It’s about time for the Germans to do justice to the Greek people.
Respectfully yours,
Nikolaos Caravasos
Retired – formally 38 years with Boeing and 14 years consulting for DoD (Institute for Defense Analysis)