In the last two years, dailyGreece.net is delivering the truth to its Members and it will continue to do so in a passionate way. This constitute a very specific task most Greek journalists mix with obligations to “other truths”, dictated by their close relationship with political parties or advocated by various centres of power that mix extreme nationalism with financial post-bankruptcy benefits. Delivering the truth requires cleaning information flow from the occasional nonsense produced by political short-termism as well as intentional propaganda.

In our view, there are three steps to put Greece on track; simple steps that derive from common sense most politicians have come to despise, mainly because it turns their arguments into gibberish. First, tell the truth to ourselves and our EU partners, second, clean our house fast track, third, explore our (many) competitive advantages. We do not need to describe these into detail. Everybody is aware about the problems and all these three actions are self-evident. What we need is to act on them, implement the plan, and deliver the results.

So, in our opinion, we should not rush into rebranding strategies, at least not until we put things in order.

Even in its worst, Greece is branding itself across the globe quite effectively. Indeed, investors will continue to curse us for as long as we remain an uncertainty factor, CDS holders will carry on predicting destruction for obvious reasons. On the other hand, people around Europe are picketing for our country, the French dance syrtaki an masse and tourists will return this season, despite the hard time we give them each time they set foot on Greek soil.

Beyond the symbolism, the connotations and the necessary promotional material deriving from specialists who wish to position themselves in the national restart, the real effort will come from Greeks themselves. They have to regroup, fight with their unproductive stereotypes and look forward. They have to reinvent themselves, especially in terms of their ability to create new GDP, a skill that was put asleep many years ago, when civil service became the absolute employment dream.

Therefore, rebranding Greece should begin as an inner soul-searching process that could raise the spirit of Greece’s inhabitants and lead to actual results and justify the repositioning of the country at an international level. Premature reputation management efforts could even undermine the problem solving process, since we have flirted with our very own Hell’s kitchen but we haven’t found our way out yet.