Coriolan
Elite member
- Messages
- 216
- Reaction score
- 88
- Points
- 28
The Greeks are constant source of fascination and bewilderment for the Swiss. They are everything the Swiss are not: passionate, flashy, disorganised, uninhibited, provocative, liking big displays of emotions. Reading the Xenophobe's Guide to the Greeks, it suddenly made sense to me why the Greece accumulated such a huge public debt and why the Greeks aren't going to do anything about it. These passages were taken from pages 18-19 and 15-16.
"The modern Greek's dearest dream is to male lots of money easily (preferably without lifting a finger), but it would never occur to him to hoard his wealth. [...] The Greeks want to have money in order to spend it as ostentatiously as possible - eating out, expensive cars, flashy (genuine) jewellery, designer clothes, fur coats, a house in the country and basketfuls of flowers to throw to the performers at the nightspots they patronise. All the rest - a successful career, a good marriage, a family - come second. It is not surprising that household borrowing is one of the highest in the world."
"The phrase: 'Forget it, brother! I am not going to stick my neck out in order to save the Roman nation' is quite common and denotes the supreme unwillingness of the majority of Greek to show an active interest in anything that lies outside their immediate circle or will not benefit them personally. Yet their schizoid nature also leads them to stage violent demonstrations or come out on strike - ruinous to the country's economy - at the drop of a hat."
This was written by a Greek author.
"The modern Greek's dearest dream is to male lots of money easily (preferably without lifting a finger), but it would never occur to him to hoard his wealth. [...] The Greeks want to have money in order to spend it as ostentatiously as possible - eating out, expensive cars, flashy (genuine) jewellery, designer clothes, fur coats, a house in the country and basketfuls of flowers to throw to the performers at the nightspots they patronise. All the rest - a successful career, a good marriage, a family - come second. It is not surprising that household borrowing is one of the highest in the world."
"The phrase: 'Forget it, brother! I am not going to stick my neck out in order to save the Roman nation' is quite common and denotes the supreme unwillingness of the majority of Greek to show an active interest in anything that lies outside their immediate circle or will not benefit them personally. Yet their schizoid nature also leads them to stage violent demonstrations or come out on strike - ruinous to the country's economy - at the drop of a hat."
This was written by a Greek author.