The Issues of Greece Over My Stay

Over the course of my stay in Greece I have learned a lot life lessons that can be carried to my future. I have traveled on a plane by myself to discover a land I was not sure I would be comfortable with. In my adventure, I have learned that it is good to go out of the comfort zone and explore the world that we live in. I am blessed to have the opportunity to stay in a country so full of history and culture.

In my time here in Greece there was a great political change happened. Antonis Samaras won the leadership of Greece’s conservative New Democracy Party (Wilson 4). He was elected on the 29th of November on my last day here and he won by a landslide (Wilson 4). He has over half of the vote with 50.18 percent (Wilson4)! That is amazing. The runners up were Bakoyannis with 39.76 percent and Psomiadis with 10 percent (Wilson 4).

It was time to get a new leader, because recently with the recession in America, it also affected Europe. In a recent article by Matthew Saltmarsh, Greece has a long way to go to bounce back from the economy’s slump. Greece’s economy was not hit as fast as many other European nations, but the recession did get to Greece. The banking system has got so bad that soon Greek bonds may no longer be accepted as collateral for credit (Saltmarsh). With this new government in place they should fix the problem. The new leaders have a plan to tax the rich to stimulate the economy (Saltmarsh). In a Paris study mentions in Saltmarsh’s article was the unemployment rate would reach 10 percent by 2010 and remain that way for a year. And Oregonians thought there unemployment rate was bad!

Another issue that was happening during my stay was that Greece has been importing lower priced prescription drugs to Germany, because Greek drugs are less expensive here (Cleaver). For example, the HPV Vaccine Gardisil in Germany costs 477 Euros while in the United States and other European countries it is in the 300 Euro range (Cleaver). Not are just name brand drugs more expensive in Germany, generic are also expensive compared to Greece.

While these are some pretty controversial topics Greece was very pleasant to stay in. I learned so much from country and from myself. I also learned so much about classic Greek food. Living on your own in foreign country can be very difficult, but to me with was a great adventure.

References

Cleaver, Hannah. "Germans Footing the Bill for Big Pharma's Drugs." The Local 23 Sept. 2009: 1. Web. 1 Dec 2009. .

Wilson, George. "Samaras Wins ND Leadership." Athens News 30 Nov. 2009: 4. Web. 30 Nov 2009. .

Saltmarsh, Matthew. "As Europe Rebounds, Greece Gets Left Behind." New York Times 19 Nov. 2009: n. page. Web. 1 Dec 2009. a.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=greece&st=cse>.