Nice post!
Furor Teutonicus
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I agree with trysts. Well said.
I would only hope that the Greek government restructure their social programs in a way that should help them to be more fiscally sound, but, as my fellow countrymen would say, " To kick a man when he is down." is cowardly and exhibits low class in the extreme. Shame on them.
Jerry
A funny thing happened the other day. The allegedly serious publication Der Spiegel, in a fit of northern smugness (or was it perhaps humor?), run a quiz on Greece’s financial and social woes asking readers to identify the meaning of the word fakelaki.
For persons not fully versed in Latin or Greek, fakelaki, in the sense the magazine’s learned editors used it, refers to the envelope full of bribe money - the money that corrupted our society turning Greece into a land of thieves, crooks and vagabonds. Apparently, we are here on earth to fleece the wealth of nations and throw the world’s (healthy, decent and honest) financial system into a turmoil.
We are such pigs. It boggles the mind that the International Monetary Fund still allows us to inhabit this country of beauty, of unknown treasures - anyone interested can see a small sample here: http://www.chess.com/photos/view_album/himath2009/der-spiegel – when it should all be sold and repay our debt. And, indeed, it might.
Still, the true answer to Der Spiegel’s quiz is this: fakelaki is what Germany’s most venerable industrial conglomerates (like Siemens and Ferrostaal) and investment banks, have been using for years in order to corrupt consciences - in Greece and elsewhere - so as to secure multi-billion contracts for exorbitantly priced goods and services we did not need.
Der Spiegel’s editors should know better: ridiculing and insulting a people in misery is immoral. Using the example of the rogues – that exist in every nation, profession or assembly - to concoct massive and ugly stereotypes about peoples’ creed, race or religion is worse than a crime. It is a mistake.