Author Nick Gage Asks Greek Shipping Tycoons about the Greek Crisis in: 'Aegean Blues'

Constantine S. Sirigos

 One of Athens' renowned theaters goes up in flames as the pain of austerity, including soaring unemployment, engenders rage. Can Greece's shipping class come to the rescue, at least on the investment and jobs front?

In the March 2012 edition of the renowned Town & Country magazine, author Nick Gage speaks to some of the sometimes secretive, sometimes loquacious Greek shipping tycoons about the current plight of Greece. Gage slides from the poetic to the prosaic in framing a question that is not at all rhetorical: “Since the days of Homer, the fate of Greece has depended on the will of sailors. But what are the shipowners of the present, who control more than 15 percent of the world’s freight, doing to save the country whose flags they fly (well, depending on the tax situation)? Can the great Greek shipping magnates rescue the birthplace of civilization once again?”

He writes that the “burning question is, will the shipowners, by far the wealthiest sector in Greece, make the sort of financial investment that could save their country?”