Happenings...

Let’s say you are an Arab.
You are a successful man.
You are your country’s ambassador living the big life in Dubai.
It’s time for you to get married so you try to find the perfect bride to share your life with.
You ask around trying to find it.
(Of course flirting is not allowed)
(All women around are wearing veils and you cannot really see them anyway)
You think you find the perfect one…
Probably they tell you that she has not been corrupted by the western way of life, most likely she’s still a virgin, who knows how to cook well.
You only see a picture of her without a veil.
You check her family’s history.
You meet her a couple of times and she seems nice.
So, you marry her…
You’ve been waiting for the first night to get to know her even more.
You lift her veil to kiss her to realize that:
She is cross eyed and has a beard!!!!!


I laughed so much when I read that in BBC today… Apparently the ambassador was tricked with pictures of the pride’s sister! What did they expect?
That he wouldn’t find out or that he would never be able to get rid of her?
I can’t stop feeling slightly bad for the girl though…

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On a very different matter, things are not looking too well for Greece’s economy.


OK, Greece never had a very strong economy. We used to have some kind of industry some decades ago but it couldn’t maintain itself. Most of them had to be relocated in our neighbor countries like Bulgaria or Albania where labor is much cheaper and taxes are less painful. I know that very well because in the area I grew up, being very close to Bulgaria borders, many people I know went into unemployment since their factories moved across the borders years ago.


We are also struggling to maintain a high agricultural or dairy production that will allow us to export goods to the rest of Europe. I think that there is an effort being made for that industry to sustain itself but it is not easy. After following the European Union’s directives production is changing and getting more advanced. However, it is not as it used to be since there are products of the rest of the Mediterranean area to rival.


What Greece is trying to sell now is tourism. It is trying to present itself as a modern tourist destination. Luckily for us, there is a landscape variation to attract people with different interests since there are destinations that offer great nightlife, quiet escapes or beautiful scenery. We also have the history and ancient sites to advertise that give to the country a major competitive advantage. However, there is a lack in the infrastructure to maintain that advantage. While trying to be tourist friendly as a society some things are done in a very amateur way. On top of that, there is a part of a population in touristic destinations that in their own shortsightedness will try to exploit tourism in the most horrible way, pushing people away. Also, the global economic recession has minimized the amount of visitors coming to the country, reasonably preferring to visit cheaper destination like Turkey.

Large political economical scandals, former governments hiding or fixing the actual economical figures, the lack of preparation regarding the global economic recession even after hitting other countries before Greece, the unwillingness from the people to think about and invest for the future and comply with national laws are also major factors to bring Greece to the edge of declaring bankruptcy.

The next couple of years or even decades look very tough for the citizens of my country. Hopefully today France and Germany foremost will announce financial aid being given to Greece since they do not want a member of the EU to fall out of grace like that. The general public of these countries and the rest of the EU will not like to pay for Greece’s shortcomings though. On top of that, Greek citizens are not willing to easily accept the new directions being imposed and pay the price. There is a massive wave of demonstrations and strikes taking place, not helping of course the situation.


I cannot imagine what will happen to Greece if it is excluded from the European Union. I don’t think we could survive without their help.
I can only hope for the best though. I’m too young to do otherwise. I truly hope that in 5 to 10 years things will seem to get better. I just love the place I come from…

Anyway, I’ve probably lost even the most willing reader to finish this simplified economic analysis of Greece. I do apologise for that. I promise my next posts to be more interesting…