let us be realistic. Few foreign powers have ever really helped modern Greece.
To begin with, there was the Greek War of Independence. It is true that had it not been for the intervention of the British, Russian and French fleets at the Battle of Navarino (1827), the Greek state would have been crushed at birth by the Ottomans. On the other hand, we know that these fleets were in Greek waters less to protect the Greeks than to keep an eye on each other, so that one or another wouldn't gain control of the Eastern Aegean.
And so a Greek state finally emerged - in a manner that suited the Great Powers. The Greeks had a Bavarian prince imposed on them, along with a hungry army of retainers and regents who skimmed off a significant percentage of the money funnelled into the country through European loans. As a result of this skimming, Greece faced its first debt crisis.
Incidentally, King Othon of Greece tried to impose a system of taxation; but because Greek citizens were offered very little in return in the form of policing, improved courts, social services or education, they resisted. Indeed, the monarchy turned out to be simply a substitute for the Ottoman regime, with no benefits.
A metaphor for the indignation felt by Greeks at the time was the failure of Othon's German mercenaries to collect taxes in Mani. The Mavromichal clan ambushed the mercenaries and after stripping them of their uniforms and equipment, sent these hired tax collectors back to Athens. That is analogous to the so-called "haircut" that private bondholders are today being forced to accept from the Greek state.
Sadly, Greek fortunes fared no better in the 20th century. In the Second World War, the British dispatched a small army to support Greek forces in 1941, but it was too little, too late: The German occupation of Greece had already been established.
My point is that countries are largely amoral; they tend to look after their own interests. Fundamentally, the only people outside of Greece that the Greek people can really count on are those in the worldwide Greek diaspora. These Greeks created the Philiki Eteria, the organization with membership from both inside and outside of Greece that initiated the Greek War of Independence.
These Greeks lobbied the Great Powers to intervene and save Greece from the Ottomans. They raised money, lobbied and, when they lived outside of Greece, returned to fight in a variety of wars.
Contrast that with today. The current plight of Greece has elicited only sporadic response from the Greek diaspora. Perhaps the diaspora is tired of endemic corruption in Greece and resents the fact that they are disenfranchised.
Remarkably, in the early years after adoption of the 1863 constitution, diaspora Greeks could vote and stand for the Greek parliament. Charilaos Trikoupis was one such diaspora Greek. The Greek community of London elected him to the Greek parliament in 1863.
Diaspora Greeks will help Greece if their compatriots in their motherland actively seek out their political expertise as well as their financial largesse. In order for modern Greek diaspora businessmen - and businesswomen - to invest their wealth in Greece, they need assurances from their own ranks.
One way to do that would be to give the diaspora the right to vote in Greek elections.
Another would be to appoint distinguished bipartisan representatives from the diaspora to the council of state.
This might raise the level of trust in the diaspora and unlock political and financial resources that can help Greece recover, rather than see Greece remain at the mercy of foreign powers.
