[Nogbad the improbable]

Dealing with the Greek Economic crisis........a modest proposal.

Greece is broke and its economy needs fixing. This much most people agree on; what they don’t agree on is who broke it and the ‘how’ of fixing it.

Ignoring who done it, though I've got my suspicions that restaurenteurs were involved somewhere along the line, I’ve had a think about the ‘how to fix it’ question.

At the start of the crisis a suggestion was made that the Greek government sell an island or two – they’ve got plenty to spare – and recently the government did start looking at selling off surplus land. Coupled to this, the voices in my head have told me that it’s coming up to the 100th anniversary of the union of Greece and Crete and there have been suggestions that the anniversary affords an opportunity to change the status of Crete; several people have already suggested that Crete might declare independence in 2013.

This got me thinking; why not kill two birds with one stone and encourage the Greek government to sell Crete?

The question then is to whom would they sell it? You need someone who is rich, powerful and has a bit of cash behind them: this rules out potential bids from FYROM, Bulgaria, the UK and Albania (and Switzerland probably couldn’t be arsed messing about with the –to them- pocket change involved).

Germany is an obvious prospective purchaser but there’s too much history involved to make the sale successful – anyway they may not have the cash or the inclination since they’re still struggling to integrate the former DDR.

The USA is a possibility, but again the history of American involvement in the Greek civil war, their support for the Junta and their position vis a vis Cyprus would tend to make that a no no.

Turkey looks possible in economic terms, however for rather obvious reasons of history, such an option is unlikely to gain much favour in Crete.

There is though, one, blindingly obvious if you think about it, option; sell Crete to Israel.

Look at the similarities:

Religion: both Israel and Crete are suffering from a massive overdose of it.

Muslims: neither Israel nor Crete particularly cares for them.

Conscription: both have it, though the Israelis are a bit more efficient at enforcing it; in Israel you can’t get out of it just ‘cause your parents are rich – the only way to avoid it is to become a rabbi. (This could lead to an increase in the number of Cretan rabbis - an interesting example of the 'Law of Unintended Consequences'.)

Guns: every male in both Israel and Crete seems to have one and seems to be obsessed with them.

Nuclear weapons: the only difference would be that the ones in Suda Bay would be Israeli rather than American – not much change there then.

Flags: both currently have blue and white flags.

History: both Israel and Crete have a lot of it.

I can't see how this would fail to be a winner all round so I’m off now to write to the various Prime Ministers; I expect my Nobel Prizes for Economics, Politics, Peace and the 75 Metres Blindfold Egg and Spoon Race will be in the post shortly.

[lefteris]

who will win the egg or the spoon.? there are some rich cretans who could afford to buy the island one lives just above Paleochora .