Greece has secured a four-month reprieve from eurozone creditors at a last-ditch summit in Brussels, heading off imminent default and a traumatic rupture of monetary union. The interim accord gives Greece breathing room to flesh out its economic agenda and reform plans, and effectively scraps the draconian fiscal targets imposed by the EU-IMF Troika. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal: trying to get anything done in those countries is like trying to herd cats. The bureaucracy, the lack of flexibility, the absurd and utterly pointless rituals of administration and form filling, the insane hurdles that have to be faced when doing business or even the most basic of survival functions drives anyone from the Anglo Saxon cultures absolutely crazy. These are countries that live in the aftermath of decades of dictatorship, and the mentality of those societies is still bound by the dynamics between a violent oppressor and a nation of helpless dependents who were not allowed to think for themselves. Individualism is just not what it is is in say the UK. Spain is a good example of a culture stuck in a corruption. If you want to get anything done you have to avoid going through the bureaucratic processes that are so punitive, irrational and unfair that you are forced into 'going black'. That means avoiding, as best you can, declaring anything you do to the authorities. This is why collecting taxes is difficult. No one declares what they are doing because to do so is such an ordeal of bureaucracy, punitive costs and legal processes that the only way to achieve anything is to avoid the system. Spaniards are very hard, skilful and committed workers, but they work within a framework of rules and regulations, of corrupt traditions and established interests that disable them. These countries need revolutions to throw off their oppressive regimes, and until that happens they will languish in dysfunction.
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