Pinellas News

Greek economic crisis to be examined in Tarpon

Mark Schantz
The Suncoast News
Published: October 28, 2010

TARPON SPRINGS - Greek-Americans will get an in-depth look into their ancestral homeland's at-times-violent economic crisis during a free special presentation at the Prometheus Pan-Hellenic Cultural Center Friday night.Many Tarponites of Greek heritage have watched the people of Greece protest, strike and lash out at governmental austerity programs, pay cuts and layoffs for public workers and increased taxes.

Andy Dabilis, Athens executive editor of The National Herald , a New York City-based bilingual newspaper catering to Greek-Americans, will give his views on the crisis besieging the Hellenic democracy at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29. He will appear at the Prometheus Pan-Hellenic Cultural Center, 123 E. Orange St.According to the U.S. State Department, Greece faces several economic challenges, including a growing governmental deficit and escalating public debt, the downgrading of its international debt and bond rating and financial instability.

The Greek government has implemented unpopular austerity measures that include reducing the number of publicly owned companies, reforming the health care and pension systems, tackling a problem of tax evasion and reforming the labor markets.

The country is experiencing a rise in unemployment and decline in foreign investment. The world's economic downturn negatively affected two of the country's largest economic engines: tourism and shipping.

Tina Bucavalus, city curator, said Dabilis has been covering the crisis on the front lines, including reporting on a terrorist attack in which three bank workers were killed by a firebomb thrown by anarchists. He will relate the kind of information one can only receive from someone who has been there, she added.

Dabilis will explain what led Greece to the verge of bankruptcy, forced to borrow $146 billion in emergency loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. He will also talk about the role Greek-Americans can play in saving the country from financial ruin.