“As the impact of the Syria crisis on Lebanon’s stability and security becomes more and more apparent, the Security Council underscores its growing concern at the marked increase of cross-border fire from the Syrian Arab Republic into Lebanon, which caused death and injury among the Lebanese population, as well as incursions, abductions and arms trafficking across the Lebanese-Syrian border,” the 15-member body said in a presidential statement.

The Council noted “with deep concern” new developments with regard to the involvement of Lebanese parties in the fighting in Syria, and called on them to recommit to Lebanon’s policy of disassociation, to stand united behind President Michel Sleiman and to step back from any involvement in the Syrian crisis.

In his latest report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese group Hizbollah, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted with concern new developments regarding the involvement of Lebanese citizens in the fighting in the Syria.

This includes Hizbollah’s “acknowledged participation in and commitment to such fighting,” threats by external actors to bring their fight to Lebanon in response to Hizbollah’s involvement and calls from inside Lebanon to engage in jihad in Syria, Ban wrote.

“The implications of these developments for Lebanon’s stability, and indeed for the region, are serious,” he warned, urging all concerned parties in Lebanon to step back from involvement in the conflict in Syria.

The Council heard a briefing yesterday on the report, as well as the latest developments on the ground, from the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Derek Plumbly. Both Mr. Plumbly and the Council have strongly condemned the terrorist attack that took place yesterday in a Beirut suburb and injured around 50 people, and underlined the need to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“In the face of attempts to undermine the country’s stability,” the Council today encouraged all parties in Lebanon to demonstrate renewed unity and determination to resist a “slide into conflict” and commended Sleiman’s continued efforts in this regard.

The Council also condemned recent violence by armed groups across Lebanon, and stressed the need to support the security and judicial authorities in combating impunity.

Both the Council and the Secretary-General called on Lebanon’s leaders to work with Prime Minister Tammam Salam to finalize the formation of a Government, which is crucial for addressing the multiple challenges facing the country, including the humanitarian crisis resulting from the influx of refugees from the Syria crisis.

Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, over 1.7 million people have fled Syria to neighbouring countries and Lebanon has received the largest number of refugees in the region. There are currently more than half a million refugees from Syria in Lebanon, according to UN estimates. It is estimated that by the end of the year, refugees could make up 20 per cent of Lebanon’s population.

“As for the refugee crisis, the Security Council underlines the need for assistance on an unprecedented scale, both to meet the needs of the refugees and of host communities, and to assist the Lebanese authorities who face extraordinary financial and structural challenges as a result of the refugee influx.”

Three years ago, the crisis exploded in the hands of George Papandreou. It was the result, however, of many years of shameful politics. Antonis Karakousis in tovima.gr has described the national failure during the last three decades in a few paragraphs. He wrote (02.03.2013): “In 1981, Andreas Papandreou assumed power promising inter alia to “change things”. Change actually did occur, some of those promised were delivered, but most of his policy announcements remained unfulfilled or proved ineffective. A part of the electorate was surely satisfied; however Papandreou failed to boost the economy or achieve significant progress for the country.

The real change was attempted after 1985, when his economic policy had collapsed and he had to endorse that of the European Union, which provided funding and rescued the economy. Then the Stabilisation and Growth Programme developed by Costas Simitis – then Economy minister – attempted the first big steps to exercise control over public finances. That 3-year project was based on the slogan “We spend more than we produce.”

Karakousis noted: “During the first year the programme was implemented by Costas Simitis, harsh measures were decided that caused a lot of reaction. In the second year, some elements of growth started to appear. The third year of the programme was about streamlining public finances. At the end of 1987 the field was dominated by debates on the budget, taxes and tax evasion. Finally, Papandreou expelled Simitis and the crowd was satisfied because the “heartless” Minister of Finance was gone. Later on, in 1988 the scandals dominated public agenda and public finances derailed. In the elections of 1989, Papandreou maximized clientelism practices and soon after deficit’s revenge came. In early 1990, the Greek state had run out of money and started borrowing with a 27% rate in order to pay salaries and pensions.

The next effort to consolidate fiscal finances by Costas Mitsotakis was not concluded due to political reasons. Then, another effort by FinMin Alekos Papadopoulos in 1994 got lost three years later in 1997 due to populist notions that prevailed in the then leading political class. Since then all efforts undertaken were incomplete and have failed, hence today’s near-bankruptcy situation…”

A similar analogy (to include also a few more PMs not previously mentioned) can be simply put as follows: deficits – clientelism – more deficits – populism – missed opportunities – timidity – political amateurism.

For foreign technocrats and scientists, Greece is a mystery. When the working hypothesis necessarily assimilates the country’s Eurozone membership, the analysts’ despair grows even further; in their minds, disaster scenarios are almost a certainty. Of course, those Nobel laureates who promised investors the bankruptcy of Greece proved to be quite wrong. Recently, one of them was forced to admit publicly that the assessment was incorrect. But was it?

Scientifically speaking it was not wrong, since, no matter how one makes the calculations, the figures “do not add up,” despite Stournaras’ confidence that within the year, or early 2014, there will be a primary surplus. What does this mean? Nothing more than that Greece will stop borrowing money to live. What follows is the need for a rapid reduction of debt, which if not achieved via a new haircut, it requires a spectacular GDP growth over the next ten years or so.

Nobel laureates and domestic politicized economists (Stournaras, Milios, Varoufakis and others) probably acknowledge that achieving such a GDP jump is a mission impossible for a country in which the ruling party of the day considers citizens (and their occupations) as election target groups and reigns depending on the electoral cycle. Moreover, this time, growth will not come from increased consumption of indigenous buyers. This is over; credit cards with predatory interest rates, and seasonal consumer loans that in the past have fueled the market and Greek banks’ easy profits are obsolete.

Growth will emerge from serious and innovative investments that can attract quality visitors (on a seasonal or permanent basis) and produce goods and services that target foreign markets. This effort requires the use of the well-known ‘comparative advantages of the country’, and involves novelty, originality, design, and communication effectiveness.

All these are not associated with ideology (to exclude the communist fairytale). The whole case is simply a matter of efficiency, in order the country to be able to exploit its comparative advantages, which -fortunately- are largely independent from the actions of Greeks. The rest is shoddy propaganda stemming from vested interests or originating from the need for group psychotherapy within party walls, depending on anyone’s prism.

The way out of the vicious circle of deficits, failure and inefficient politics require drastic solutions. It mainly requires a large proportion of Greek politicians to decide to sacrifice themselves on the altar of crisis management.

This will be the beginning of the end of the Greek problem.

Dr. Demetris Kamaras is the Editor of Alyunaniya.com

Six parties apart from apart from PASOK, New Democracy, the Communist Party (KKE), Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) and Ecologist Greens which were not represented in the last parliament and are contesting the upcoming elections will be given some airtime on ERT, according to a joint ministerial decision signed on Monday by Interior Minister Tassos Giannitsis and Minister of State Pantelis Kapsis.

This decision is in response to an an appeal to the council of state by Drasi Party , which objected a cross-party committee decision to provide airtime just to the five parties who won seats at the 2009 elections and the Ecologist Greens, who won a seat in the European Parliament in the same year.

Any party that has received at least 0.25 the previous national elections or European Parliament elections will be guaranteed some airtime.

State broadcaster ERT is obliged to carry a 45-minute interview with the leader of each party and will have to cover live one of the group’s public rallies, ANA reports. ERT and private channels will also allocate each party two five-minute spots during their evening broadcasts and a total of 25 minutes for campaign ads.

However, the issue of a televised debate between party leaders remains undecided. PASOK has challenged ND leader Antonis Samaras to a two-way debate with Socialist chief Evangelos Venizelos. The conservatives rejected this idea yesterday, arguing it would simply lead to “monologues” by the two politicians. ND called for a cross-party committee to agree on a format involving more leaders. “They are rejecting dialogue because they are afraid,” said PASOK spokeswoman Fofi Gennimata, according to Kathimerini.