No Referendum but will the Bailout Stick?

Why did the Prime Minister of Greece try to call a referendum on the bailout?  Nobody is sure, but it has been suggested that local leaders of his party may have contacted him to say they weren't confident the further austerity demanded would be deliverable.  Given the riots on the streets of Athens and elsewhere, and the constant stories of hardship coming out of the country, that's not hard to believe.  Now he has been forced to back down because effectively the people of Greece are caught up in a bigger power-struggle over the future of the Euro and the EU itself.

Because of the single (Euro) currency, Greece is being forced to effectively devalue by driving down its costs of production by cutting the living standards of its people through increased taxation and the slashing of public services.  This is supposed to restructure the economy to make it competitive within the Euro rules, but apparently it isn't working fast enough so more keeps on being demanded.  They broke the rules to get into the Euro in the first place - though surely the powers that be in Brussels must have been aware they were at least being bent pretty hard - and the the way the Euro has been run to suit the powerful countries at the centre has exacerbated the problems for those on the periphery.

Now it is said the rich and powerful in Greece, who have never paid ther way, are getting out what remaining money they have in the country and the ordinary people will be left to pick up even more than their fair share of the tab.  From what I have read from development charities this is just the same as the euphemistically named 'Structural Adjustment Programmes' of the IMF in poorer countries.  The ordinary people pay for the loans to tide their country over with the loss of education and health and other services.

However corrupt and inefficient parts of the Greek system have been, there will be a real cost for ordinary people.  Is it any wonder they have been objecting when they are being made to pay the price of the catastrophic failure of the EU leaders to get a grip on a problem that would have been relatively inexpensive to sort out a year or so ago and now threatens the world economy?

Another verse from Isaiah 3 that I quoted in my last post strikes me as apposite: 'A man will take hold of his brother in his father's house, saying, 'You have a cloak, you shall be our chief; our stricken family shall be in your charge.'  but the brother will at once reply, 'I cannot heal society's wounds when in my house there is neither bread nor cloak.  You shall not put me in authority over the people.'  (Isa 3: 6,7).