This road is named Oxi

Greece has voted.

The result is a conclusive "OXI" [pronounced "O-Shee"] and means NO

But No to what exactly?

How often has someone said "what is there to understand about "No"?"

In this case everything. No is about as unclear as it can be. There is no apparent plan for OXI




The guns rang out after dark last evening with tracers filling the night sky around the valleys of our villa and the sounds of AK47s and Kalahnikovs firing reverberated off the mountains.

One bullet came down in our yard whizzing through the air and burying itself with a  thud about 4 meters from where I sat. That got my attention.

It is a common thing on Crete for the guns to fire for any reason from a family celebration to a community event. Even Easter [Pascha here] is marked with extensive gun fire.




The Cretans are happy with the result. This island voted 73% No which is what I was experiencing antidotally as I talked with Greeks.The feeling is that they have defended their freedom against "enslavement to the Eurozone"

The ex-pats wanted a Yes vote and fear what the No will mean. They fear ambiguity but I concluded that Yes might leave ex-pats more vulnerable than No.

The past few days saw me leaning more and more to No being the wisest choice between two very bad options. That left me alone in my ex-pat circle of friends but those who know me will recall swimming against the majority is a common position for me.

One business owner in Loutra, an isolated resort community on the Libyan Sea where I spent yesterday, summed it up best for me. He said "this referendum is a small matter for me". He said the referendum was a mistake. "Syriza was elected to lead and failed with this question which will go No and will simply mean the Greeks reaffirm their choice of Syriza to lead and now they will have to lead- which is what they should have done in the first place".

The fact that the economic crisis will grow and impact all of Europe was affirmed over night. The Euro has begun its fall in value against other currencies.

As messed up as the economy and governance are in Greece, and these are very messy indeed, the EU has inexplicably really dropped the ball on providing responsible leadership for this crisis.





Austerity is a cruel cruel dynamic to drop into people's lives.

I can only say you must be here to see what it is like. For those friends in New Brunswick where we struggle with great debt, please trust me when I advise "you do not want to experience this first hand".








The cruelty of austerity and the unrelenting pressure to apply more suffering to the Greek people demonstrates the sociopathic nature at the core of our institutions and businesses, especially the banks.






On another personal note I am very pleased that the vote was decisive. A narrow win by either side could have easily tipped into  some unrest.

Yet little has changed.

Things will get worse. If trade is impeded shortages will begin to appear soon.



We are deeply effected by these dynamics. We are installing our pool. We have a big hole in the ground now and our contractors can not find out if the pool, which is supposed to be in Athens at this time and coming to Crete mid- week, is even there.

Crete and Greece have a big hole in the middle of their new road called OXI and we have a big hole in our property.

The EU has a big hole on the horizon and in all three cases what lies at the bottom of each hole cannot be seen at this time.


We have several thousands Euros in our Greek bank account. We can only withdraw 60 euros a day if I can find an ATM with money in it. If "a haircut" occurs in the banks, as predicted, we could see up to half of our money disappear in a flash.

So the road is OXI and, like it or not, we find ourselves walking it with our Greeks neighbours and friends.