In the middle ages a community’s time management was the job of priests and monks.
The church bells gave a tone and set the start, stop and end of work.
The morning prayers acted like an alarm clock, while the afternoon mass warned people that the day was coming to an end.
That is why church bells have been praised over the centuries and people invested in them, building unique buildings within or beside the churches.
Wherever you may find yourself, from the Notre Dame in Paris to the furthest Greek village, the bell tower stands out.
In 1492 a Swiss craftsman invented the mechanical clock and time management slowly escaped the grips of the Church and became a personal matter.
Since then a lot of time has passed and the concept of time has changed. In our days we have real time, as well political, financial, social and – of course – personal time, which is rather special.
Each of these times has a different density, purpose and value.
In our case, in the financial crisis-ridden Greece, time turned out to be a crucial factor.
The time it took for a political reaction was catastrophic and is what made the political time become so dense, in order to make up for its initial lag.
The subsequent social catastrophe during the great crisis is attributed to the lack of time for preparations, understanding circumstances and selecting appropriate measures.
There were also cases where, under pressure from financial time, uneconomic and absolutely problematic decisions were made, that brought results opposite to those intended.
But there were also cases where claiming extra financial time saved fortunes and averted undesirable circumstances.
Who has forgotten about how two years ago the troika pressured the banking system into auctioning hotels and tourist sector businesses?
Nobody predicted the subsequent tourism explosion.
Today hotels have improved their position; increase of demand for tourist service has increased revenue, loans are being paid off and above all, the values have been redefined, they cannot be sold off for scraps and they can form the foundation for new funding.
In the case of hotels, financial time turned out to be the most important.
At present similar circumstances are pressuring businesses and people. Yet again, the reconstruction of entire sectors, a significant part of the private sector of the economy, is being conducted under pressure from financial time.
Obviously, there cannot be any solutions under pressure. Decisions without any room to maneuver, review and time will most likely turn out to be catastrophic for businesses and people alike. Time has once again become critical and contestable for many.
Politics wants more of it, the banks believe that it has gone by, businesses that made it on their own strength and reclaiming it and the people who can see their lives go by want it back.
Time is time and money together, as they used to say.
Only everyone understands it differently and there are different consequences in each case. The time of church bells has gone by; we must take time into our own hands…
Antonis Karakousis
