Fiction

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Austerity Laboratory- Part 1
The Pope even supports Tsipras
It was to become a day many European aristocrats would sullenly refer to as the betrayal of capitalism. But the eventual sacrificial lamb, the Greek Finance Minister, also known as Yanis Varoufakis and his negotiating team bothered little about how irritated the IMF team and the ECB officials appeared to be. Already he had been accused of being an “overly emotional communist juvenile.” He was resolute in his efforts to safeguard the little that had been left after the “Austeric Tsunami” had ravished his home city for several years. It had been a very tumultuous week of fruitless negotiations with the IMF. Tsipras, the head of government had called for a special parliamentary session that evening. The message delivered after the meeting was intended to resonate across parliaments in Europe, and press home a clear understanding, “I have the backing of my people”. “The people who gave us the mandate must have an important stake in whatever proposal that my government would have to sign on to” even if the price had to be a default, my resignation or a Grexit from the common market, Tsipras argued.
Caught unaware by this sudden “political maneuver” by Greek leftish government, several European leaders, lead by soft spoken Merkel, denounced the referendum and resorted to the use of their well oiled exploitative media machinery to “terrorize” the Greeks into voting Yes and continuing with the unreasonable demands of their creditors. She began by clearly rejecting any basis for a third bailout and called off all negotiations in an effort to send a strong signal to the Greeks. Thankfully it backfired.
Tsipras, after receiving a series of threats from investors and several European politicians decided it was time to take a break from what has been a long day and preserve the little sanity that was still left in his brain cells for the day after, a day he envisaged to be the beginning of the “ruthless warfare” to rid his nation of the “Austerity Laboratory” that had been established at the heart of Athens. He had had enough of the media labeling his government as insane and unreasonable. “After all, the worst that could happen was to resign,” he quietly pondered as he crouched into bed forgetting to even take off his shoes. About an hour into his sleep, his wife suddenly woke him up, Tsip, Tsip, “you have a very important person on the line.” “Who is it again?” He demanded angrily as he reluctantly stretched his hand to take the call. “It is the Pope” his wife snapped as she handed the phone over to him, “Poooope?” “What did I do wrong?” He blurted and answered the phone call; “Hola, Hola” the Pope said. “Holy See !!!! My goodness, what an honor to have you call me!!!” Tsipras responded. “Igracias a Dios, Senora,”….. …..Before he could exhaust his limited Spanish vocabulary, the Pope interjected and said, “I am proud of you Tsipras. Keep fighting for the poor in your country. Some of us admire what you are doing, I understand that you have had a very busy day so I will allow you to continue your nap, please do not compromise on your redlines, I will have my assistant arrange for you to visit me at the Vatican after the confusion dies down. Gracias, Dormirse.” In other words, thanks very much and enjoy your sleep, the Pope concluded. Overwhelmed, shocked and amazed by the Pope’s words, Tsipras frenziedly searched his Spanish memory bank and dolced the following words, “Ique Dios te bendecir!!!” “God bless you too,” the Pope responded and brought the call to an end.
“Poor me and here I was thinking that I am the only socialist communist in a capitalist dominated society,” he mumbled. Immediately after the call, Tsipras reached out for his mobile phone and called his special Admiral, the finance minister. “Yanis,” he called out, “are you still awake?” “Tomorrow meet me at 9am at my residence, the hunger games has just begun. I want you on your best game for the campaign for a No vote!! We are waging a full scale attack from tomorrow. Long live Greece!!!! Yanis, already burning to hear those words of defiant, responded in an equal proud and defiant tone, “Long Live Tsipras, Tomorrow we fight and win, Long live Greece, Good night Tsipras!!!!!”
End of Part 1
Written by
G. K. Sarpong
www.amazon.com/author/gksarpong

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