Europe must do all it can to avert calamity

THE people of Greece arrive at a crossroads tomorrow, even if it seems that all roads lead to more or less the same unattractive, unavoidable destination.

They will vote in a referendum on whether they should accept or reject the terms of an 11th-hour rescue package though, as the relationship between the European Union and the Greek government becomes ever more fraught, precise details of what is being decided — or offered — are at best scant.

The idea of a vote may cheer those who, despite considerable evidence to the contrary, believe in the primacy of democracy. Nevertheless, no matter how the Greeks vote, Greece is still a bankrupt, impossibly indebted nation on the cusp of a frightening humanitarian crisis; a society already battered and bruised by years of hardship and deprivation.