The organization, they were informed, had the support of AHEPANS and the Forestry Authority of the Ministry of Agriculture. The Environment Editor Michael Anastasiades had a long chat about it with the General Secretary of the Forest Service, Mr Dimitrios K. Katsoudas, and The Athenian put it all down in black-and-white.
This project for the Greening of Greece sprouted few stories in the local press and it seems the government forgot about it, too, what with forest fires, tax-evasion, Skopje and other more pressing issues. As a result the Environment Editor got out of sorts with the General Secretary of Forests. This, in turn, caused ‘in-house’ embarrassement since Greece, though small, is full of ‘Renaissance’ men and women and it happens that Mr Katsoudas has also been The Athenian’s Music Critic.
At this moment of editorial awkwardness, the Athens News Agency’s correspondent Mr Zissis came to the rescue with a report from New York last month that Prime Minister Mitsotakis has inaugurated there the “Plant Your Roots in Greece” project. So, let both Mr Katsoudas and Mr Anastasiades, as well as readers, be rest assured that money will soon be flowing in from the New World, sowing new greenery in Greece.
We are very beholden to Mr Mitsotakis for getting us out of this briar patch, and will continue supporting his government with its majority of one (even without Mr Samaras), through thick and (mtly) thin, even if it ends up allowing Macedonia ten names: the only real one will always be Greek.
It is on the severe measures lately legislated against tax-evasion that we will have to withdraw life support. It’s not just that tax evasion is a normal Hellenic way of life, or that its patron Saint Mamas is a pillar of the Orthodox Church or that disguising one’s assets was the patriotic way of saying ohi to the Ottoman tax-collector in the bad old days. It is simply that the government’s policy is unrealistic; in short, “pie-in-the-sky”.
Firstly, Greeks don’t even know when they’re tax-evading. This country has more laws than it has rocks, and it is impossible for its citizens to be familiar with all of them. Tens of thousands of them have rolled out of Parliament, while those of Napoleon, Justinian, Draco, Solon and Lycurgus have never been officially invalidated. As a result, everything in this country is against the law, and therefore, as the old folk adage has it, “everything is possible”. How can someone be held liable for an act whose significance he is unaware of?
Secondly, even when they know they’re tax evading, Greeks will slip out the government’s fingers. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is one of those untruths imported from the West. Here, old dogs learn new tricks every day.
The low-down on the government’s policy so far is this: Putting teeth into the laws that are known and straightening those involving tax enforcement are the concerns of the government’s new orthodontist, Mr Stefanos Manos. He has introduced legislation that hands out six-month prison terms for anyone convicted of owing the states between 100,000 drachmas (500 US dollars) and two million drachmas (10,000 US dollars), and a year’s incarceration for anyone owing more.
This all looked good on paper to the people at the Finance Ministry, but those over at Justice blanched. Since it is already known that there are 60,000 tax evaders at large, and no doubt many more, where are they going to be put? The municipal jails are all full of Albanians and the federal ones like Korydallos already overbooked.
But wriggling out of quandries is the Greek way of life, and eager Justice Ministry General Secretary Mr Karras brighly suggested taking over hotels to house convicts.
Now, as everyone knows, the hostelry business isn’t exactly flourishing in Athens, and all would agree that the abandoned Hotel George 11 in Syntagma would look better with barred windows than it does now. So Mr Karras asked banks if they had available hotels around which they have taken over when their owners defaulted on debts. The answer was very supportive.
So now it was the Ministry of Public Order that became uneasy. How could they provide the manpower to enforce security? Concierges have enough on their hands without having to lock up each of their guests and, presumably, provide room service without Filipinesa maids who have all had their work permits cancelled to give unskilled, unemployed Greeks a chance.
Then, when the banks heard how much the state was willing to pay in rent, they returned to the old idea of transforming their hotels into office blocks where, cynics remark, new fields for tax-evasion will soon be cultivated.
As the dream of hotels faded, idea-men came up with taking over mostly vacant shopping malls on the edge of insolvency. Building shopping malls has reached epidemic proportions in Attica, and despite ever fewer rentals and customers, enthusiasm for building more has continued unabated. But, on analysis, even if the walls built around them were rented out for hoardings, the cost would be prohibitive. Even if they united all the colors of the rainbow, Bennetton could not afford that many billboards.
The Athenian modestly recommends a much simpler and enlightened solution. Have every one found guilty of a tax-evasion violation go out and plant a tree. Within a few years Greece will look like Norway and everyone will live happily ever after.
Of course, what the government really wants is to exterminate tax-evasion, even by terror, and bring in lots of money. Can’t Greeks become docile, law-abiding tax-payers? If not, Mr Manos, with his professional background in biscuit manufacture, could start making and marketing fortune cookies.
