British Channel 4 launches today a reality show with the fantasy-full title “Go Greek for a Week”, ie. “Be Greek for a Week”. Three British Families are invited to describe their imaginative “Greek reality” under the prism of the real “British” life and culture. Along with the personal experiences of the three families, experts will argue for tax evasion, corruption and mismanagement in Greece, which helped to sink our economy.
The participants are a surgeon, a hair dresser and a bus driver.
Show description by Channel 4:
Three British families try out the tax, pensions and work practices that caused Greece’s economic crisis and brought on the austerity measures aimed at cutting the deficit and qualifying for EU bailouts.
A 54-year-old British hairdresser discovers the generosity of the Greek pensions system, which still allows hairdressers, pastry chefs, radio continuity announcers and people in almost 600 other jobs to retire aged 53 at 90% of their final salary because their jobs are defined as hazardous.
A bus driver reaps the rewards of the Greek approach to state-run services, where bus drivers could be paid up to almost double the national average salary and receive extra bonuses for arriving at work early and for checking bus tickets.
And a British surgeon is delighted to discover how paying income tax the Greek way will transform his disposable income.
The personal experiences of the three main characters are supported by expert interviews that establish the patterns of tax evasion, corruption and mismanagement that have helped to sink the Greek economy.
The description doesn’t say whether the participants will have a moustache, wear a traditional skirt or an ancient toga and dance Syrtaki all day long. Further, it hasn’t be clear whether the winner award will be a bottle Ouzo, a kilo of olives and/or a frenzy O-PAAA!
Trailer:
embedded by Embedded Video
YouTube Direkt
Hoping the show will continue will be more equal realistic titles like “Being a UK working class hero for a year” and “Being a Zimbabwean for 46 years after British Empire”.
The strange thing with programs like these is that I always get the feeling that they are made and aired in the wrong country. What is it to British viewers as they are not even part of the Eurozone.
No, I would love to see shows like this on prime-time Greek television. Just a nice short documentary each day (maybe after the news). Bit like the Eco-news on Skaï or so. Or Sketch-o-frenia(?) just before it.
It might put things better in perspective for a lot of people here. Everybody is saying they know of this or that. But they never are effected themselves. So, let’s see what the teachers of your children, your nice hairdresser, the garbage collectors, the tax-officers, and so on, are doing, not doing and really earning.
I, for example, was a couple of years totally astounded to learn that hairdressing is considered a hazardous job and garbage collecting still was/is(?) not!
have you ever seen a hairdressers’ fingers? marked black by the dying materials? in additonal long standing hours.
collecting garbage doesn’t seem healthy either – it’s not just the nicely packed garbage we leave at the garb bin…
may be you should spend a week of at least 48hrs at a hair salon and inhale all the chemicals to realize what it is…it would also help to read some statistics about health risks and morbidity and mortality of this profession…(respiratory diseases, blood cancer, other types of cancer, vascular and blood circulation problems, etc.)
Yes, I know hairdressers. In several countries. One just turned 50 and her hands are perfect… Look, I am not disputing that it is a unhealthy job of sorts. But the point is that garbage collectors were constantly excluded from being scaled in as ‘dangerous and unhealthy’ profession. They even striked in vain for that recognition a couple of years ago.
The system is totally crazy and had in the end (although… is it over yet?) nothing to do with what it was set up for in the first place. It deteriorated, like a lot of these bonuses and extra’s in a tool to get votes or to appease and avoid taking decisions.
And we now all pay for that, big time.
Are you kidding me? Two minutes of this is all that was bearable. A bearded man gives a bus driver £400 a week extra on the craziest of maths – Greek ‘bonuses’ are x% of average salary, so doing x% of UK salaries gives you this extra cash.
What it fails pretty resoundingly to factor in is that Greek salaries are so much lower than UK salaries that even with the bonuses, the net income is way lower than shocked London bus driver gets – in fact, reaching into his pocket and removing £400 is probably nearer the mark, given the Greek average national wage is less than half the UK’s.
Piss poor audience manipulation. I’d like to watch more to check I’m being fair but the programme so blatantly isn’t that I’m unlikely to touch another Channel 4 doc for quite a while.
You should br
Oh, you’re watching the show? WOW! I’d love to hear your point of point :))))
Same kind of stuff I read in Danish news ALL the time.. ALL Greeks are able to retire at the age of 54, ALL Greeks get 80% in pension (of what their salery were), ALL Greeks do not pay taxes, ALL Greeks have to declare the taxes themselfs ect ect ect ect ect..
Or like my brother ones wrote (to take the piss on those danes believing these things) “ALL Greeks are sitting at the cafe, with their finger up their butt, drinking ouzo”… Gotta get that thing translated that we wrote.. Him and I.. LOL.. Havent had the change yet to post it in a Danish newspaper, because there havent been any articles about the situation here the last days..
“Go Greek for a week” humorously illustrated something that most of the world knows, the British seem to be an exception. The situation described in the programme is real, and obviously absurd and unsustainable, however, that is normality for most of the word, from Angola to Belarus, from Colombia to Djibouti, from Ecuador to Fiji and so on. The UK is an exception, with a few other countries such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden…
The world is corrupt, people put up with it because they have no alternative. Italy turned corruption and bureaucracy to a fine art making the Greek look like amateurs. India, Pakistan, Russia invented incredibly convoluted ways of turning corruption and complicate procedures into a masterpiece of intricacy.
It’s a centuries old system which will not be easy to eradicate, particularly because for a large majority of the world’s population that is the only way they know and they can’t even believe a fair system is possible.
Correct. If you try go off-corruption in a corrupted system, you’re the stupid… (not you, of course lol)
There are millions of tax payers and wage earners that have nothing to do with the corruption. As always a minority have ruined it for the rest of us. The program is clearly racist and chooses to pick professions where there are problems. As a wage earner in the Greek private sector most people are at breaking point. Unofficially My taxes have jumped from 38% to 60%. The government is allowing interest groups and the unions to control the country and all the opposition parties are only interested in ruining the economy so that the current ruling party never gets in power again. (Even though they had a big enough hand in all this mess in the past.) Meanwhile the foreign press is being racist against honest hardworking people who had nothing to do with it. Do you know that the basic wage for a hairdresser in Athens is 400 euros (below the legal minimum) when the rent is 400 euros? Do you know that Greeks pay double for everthing in the large super markets? Do you know that the average retirement age in Greece is higher than in Germany?
thank you, most people outside Greece don’t know these facts and insist on palying deaf. Wait until this austerity reaches other countries’s citizens as well. Although again, Greeks will be the scapegoat, I’m afraid.
““Go Greek for a week” humorously illustrated something that most of the world knows, the British seem to be an exception.” Seriously, that made me laugh. Tax havens and tax evasion in UK is known in the whole world. Just google tax havens to start a company…tada! What a surprise Greece is NOT in, but UK is…If you donot live and work in a country and you just play good parrot, all you say worths a fat zero.
The situation is FAR from real and I challenge you and whoever else to actually go to Greece to live and work there. Get a monthly income of 382 Euros taxable, pay rent 350, buy bread for 0.90, milk for 1.75, use electricity at exorbitant prices,pay heating petrol at the price of the petrol for the cars, have NO car because the fuel price is the most expensive in Europe, try to get a second and a third job if you are lucky, pay income tax on top of the monthly tax you pay and then we talk…IF then, BY ANY CHANCE, you figure out how to tax evade, Greeks would be really thankful to be informed of how you did that…
It’s very disappointing that an “advanced” country like England has no other way to make money than making fun of a whole nation the moment that this nation is “bleeding”. You go to Greece, you enjoy people’s hospitality and pretend that you like them and then you go back to England and make fun of their difficulties. Greek people did NOTHING wrong. Politics destroyed everything and they are the ones that should pay for this.
You forget that Greek people when have no one supporting them (like now) they support each other strongly and become ONE!
Katerina.
Please do not be offended. I can assure you that Chanel 4 does not reflect the point of view of the vast majority of the English people. It keeps it’s head above water by pumping out trivia and tripe that appeals to a minority of uneducated class of people who have no knowledge of your history and probably do not even know where Greece is.
I have just watched it. It was horribly flawed and riddled with crude stereotypes. For example, by calculating bonuses paid in Greece as a percentage of average Greek salaries and scaling them up to the equivalent percentage of UK average salaries it inflated the amounts paid. It, of course, never mentioned what the average Greek salary is! It made these abuses seem typical of everybody, though it then pointed out at the end that most Greeks pay tax at source. All this was done through the tricks of reality TV and silly dramatisations.
There was a serious point made about the dysfunctionality of the tax system and of state clientelism. I don’t think that there are many Greeks who don’t complain about the same thing themselves, not that you would have guessed it from this. But it was presented in a stereotypical, ‘aren’t these foreigners funny’ way. I hated it.
They had some guests on who were good commentators who argued against the current policies of austerity, mentioned the flawed structure of the Euro and the impact of the financial crisis, the failings of the Greek political system and highlighted the reform required especially to ensure that the wealthy don’t evade tax. And this made for a good, balanced conclusion. However, this was lost in the general impression created that it was all the fault of the strange practices of these foreigners doing the sort of thing that we would not tolerate in our country. Really poor journalism in my view and disrespectful.
I have to add one other example. The programme gave an example of tax avoidance by surgeons. It goes on obviously, of course it does. But what we never saw was the other side. A good friend of mine who has lived in Greece for nearly thirty years was suddenly taken seriously ill a year and a half ago. The surgeon at the local hospital did a fantastic job in a drastic situation and saved his life. There were no dodgy invoices, no envelopes, nothing. Instead there were notices in the hospital pointing out that the doctors had not been paid for three months. The medical team that oversaw his operation and incredible recovery were simply delighted and proud to have saved a life. And that is the Greece that should be seen more, the Greece we should celebrate, the Greece to admire.
Thank you so much , Peter, for the report 10*
I agree. Well said!
Can’t believe anyone in their right minds would watch such drivvle. come to Greece and see what life is really like!
Ridiculously bad TV show. Twisted propaganda trying to portray the Greeks as greedy pigs, instead of the filthy greedy Bankers who instigated the entire global crisis.
The frame of reference of going Greek “for a week”… but all the salaries and pensions they “pay-out” are based on MONTHLY salaries of 700 Euro. Try living to a decent standard on that!
It’s a shame such a show in Greece! The British should be ashamed of and is in euro and must be returned the sacred marbles!
That could another nice reality show: Bringing the Marbles back to Greece”; thank you, Anton!
British are crazy chicken!
Fair enough !! But:
What about the UK nationals who receive welfare because they just don’t want to work as a choice of life? Instead they get the welfare for traveling and drinking !!
Also bear in mind that some minority of Greeks are hard working and do not rob the government (although the government does rob them )
the most valuable post i’ve read in here……
Athens
Greece
Η ιστορία μιας χώρας, δεν διαγράφεται ούτε γελοιοποιείται από οτιδήποτε κυβερνητικό η πολιτειακό παράγοντα. Ακόμα περισσότερο από μια χώρα του xailander και των gay Παραμένει και διδάσκει τους ανιστόρητους και τις χώρες που επιζητούν την ιστορία τους μέσα από την δικια μας. καλοδεχούμενοι στην χώρα μας να σας δείξουμε τον πολιτισμό. Αν θέλετε να δείτε τι γράφω θα πρέπει να μάθετε την αρχαιότερη γλώσσα, από τον πρώτο πολιτισμό του κόσμου.
as it is your request.. I don’t translate your comment 🙂
Ps. Εμαθα Ελλινηκα! ….
Hey! Hey! BEHAVE! You can’t possibly think I would allow such expressions here …
Sooooooooorry! Couldn’t help myself.
no idea of self-discipline, good old German habit?
Just to remind everyone who is accusing Greeks about their debt issue at the moment, what is the debt of the whole world to Greek people ?
Democracy…Philosophy…Mathematics…Geometry…Physics…Psychology…History…Eurika…Theater…Drama…School…Anatomy…Theology…Algebra..Algorithms…Economics…Politics…Biology…Geography…Parenthesis…Computers…Battery…Just in case that some of you don’t know that these words are coming from GREECE and GREEKS invented all these so you can use them nowdays. I could keep writing till lots and lots….All these are just politics and nothing to do with Greek people. All these happening in Greece is just external and internal politics.
I can not read this anymore…
Yes your right 2000 – 2500 years ago that was indeed the case and all world still uses all these accomplishments of the Greek society but this is history and for sure if the Greeks would have not invented it it would have been invented by some other people somewhere else later and maybe be called now different.
True is also that at the same time the people of countries like France, Germany or other middle and northern European countries were still living on the trees and hunting deer, not being able to read and write.
But the truth also is that these times are now 2000 years ago and within that time especially areas like Germany have developed a massiv industrilization and technology where the Greek have not. I dont know any Greek car or other famous company. For sure Greece still is a very beautiful country for amazing tourism but that is just not the same.
Still the Greeks lived like the Germans and French for many years and sadly have to pay the price now for it and that hurts!
If indeed Greece would still be a major industrilized country your life standard could also be as high as it was 2008 but its not.
So please come back to reality!!!
Reality is the 1.3 trillion Germany owes to Greece from the time of the WWII. Reality is the Siemens, Krupps and other German company scandals in Greece.And a lot more…
I seriously doubt anyone else could have invented democracy because no one has really used it since the ancient greeks did- and you brits are still a kingdom proving exactly how incapable you are of progressive thinking when it comes to matters of political equality. And news flash to you, Ralf, industrialisation is not the only thing that matters in the world. Some people are fine with not being rich so long as they lead a full life. Greece and all the Mediterranean countries are much more evolved in CULTURAL matters than the financially developed northern europeans, who work in such sophisticated jobs all day only to fuck off to the pub every evening to get themselves drunk till they resemble something between a chimp and the missing link. Whats the point of making all that money when you spend it only to come to our islands every summer to shag yourselves stupid. You might think we dont have quality of life because we dont drive a posh car. I think i have much better quality of life than you ever will because I speak 4 languages, play two musical instruments, and have been visiting museums since i was 4 years old. That’s not your average brit who barely speaks one language at the best of times, but it is your average greek, or italian or spanish who very often has been taught the basic grammar of at least one dead language (not that you would know what a dead language even means). And I’m proud to drive a tiny foreign car and come from a country that has not a single factory because we know the things that matter- good food, good company (people here dont need to get horribly intoxicated to have a fun time) and a bunch of out-doors things to do. No I dont want to be filthy rich (and im fine if my country isnt either). I just want to be left alone to live in peace, in a place where people are happy do simple jobs they love like cooking good food and making music, and where the richest people in the world pay fortunes to travel to and make their holidays- that is MY reality ralf and you can take your industrial technology and stick it where the sun dont shine.
I’m an Aussie – Greek, living in Greece with my Swedish wife. My wife works 6 days and I sometimes have to work 7, we have 3 girls.
Most (if not all) work 6 days per week, and most of the population work hard and we pay our taxes….believe you me… It’s the system which is corrupt not the Greeks, and the minority that manipulate the system do not speak for the whole of Greece.
What isn’t mentioned in this TV show (I haven’t seen it btw) is that basic salary in Greece is around 600 euros per WEEK! My good friend is a high school teacher, teaching for over 10 years is now receiving a monthly allowance of 1000 euros!
Oh on another note, read this link:
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/campaign/2010/05/why-the-new-government-should-reform-benefits.html
Believe you me, that does not happen in Greece.
Panos
“basic salary in Greece 600 euros per WEEK”???? i.e. 2.400 euro per month? WOW! I need this job!!!
The basic salary is 597 Euros per month. This is for the capital city of Athens. If you consider that most hairdressers and waiters get 400 euros and the cost of rent and food in supermarkets is excessive.
Come on paidia, satire is a Greek invention. Please, don’t succomb to the typical angry Greek waving his fist in the air. Just do what us Greek-Americans do in the diaspora. We just ignore it. We know our history and where we come from and if it makes people (British or others) feel good to make fun of Greece, who are we to keep them from their “medicine” to forget their own troubles in England.
Nikos, it’s good that you speak Greek and Epimeni Ellinika but the reality is that most in the world do not speak Greek or do not care, so although your intent is pure, you should focus on learing a foreign language and in fact know it well, because when you argue with foreign people, speaking only in Greek will be like a barking dog unforutnately.
An American of African heritage once told me that the only way for Black-Americans to truly succeed in white America was to be more literate in the language of America. So, I say, speaking Greek is great, but work on your English and then use that as KTG has to get the message out.
Now, I say this of course, as a Greek-American who should know much better English grammar myself, and with only a rudimentary Greek language ability.
Thank you very much for this comment!
I also think that it is very important to have these sites where also non-greeks can get an understanding of the situation inside the country and get a different perspective than from the local media.
As I speak four languages (English, Spanish, German and some Arabic) I can read about Greece in different news media which all have their own prospective and propaganda.
I hereby would like to thank the makes of this site KTG for their effort and want to encourrage them to keep up the good work! Thank you!!
🙂
sorry, per month, not weekly.
GO BRITISH FOR A WEEK…..
While the ship of the Old Continent is submerged in the swamp of economic downturn, it is hypocritical and stupid to see the genteel lords of the A Class laughing at the the rogue deck. It is a sad picture of a problematic society to chuckle over the problems of another society through TV trash, making a blind eye to their own mess.
If people in Britain find it funny to “live a week like Greek”, through Channel 4’s new reality show, I’m sure no one would not want to take part in a similar TV program entitled «Go British for a week» .
So let us imagine three Greek families participating in the reality and experiencing unemployment, losing their home and diving into alcoholism for a week, offering plenty of laughter to viewers.
The first Greek family will live in British levels of poverty and their children will be amongst 600.000 children who are malnourished nowdays in the UK and have the opportunity to live as a hero of their childhood, Oliver Twist.
The second family will enter the list of victims of alcoholism that is eating away the innards of the British society and will be within the25% of adult Britons consume alcohol at levels that endanger their health.
As for the third family, the show will live the experience of living under bridges and at parks, with the company of thousands more homeless people seeking shelter even in the most unlikely parts of British cities.
The game show will be based on the hard evidence that by 2013 approximately 3.1 million children, 2.5 million parents, 4 million adults without children and 2.1 million pensioners in the the UK will be living in absolute poverty. A term used in cases where the employee’s salary falls below 60% of median income.
Yet according to a report published by the Information Centre of the British National Health Service (NHS), one in three men and one in six women consume alcohol both at risk of liver damage or occurrence of psychological problems like depression.
Finally, Britain has one of the highest rates of homelessness in Europe is estimated that 4 in 1,000 people are homeless.
«Go British for a week» and have fun …
well exposed. thanks.
Have you heard of the new show that is now aired in Europe? It is called go Brit Miss Schmidt and features Single unemployed mothers with five children from 5 different fathers living in 5 bedroom state owned houses earning 2500 euros on benefits and using it all to drink in their local pub. Sounds great being Brit, non?
Totally Sucks! there is nothing in common with Greece!
But anyway Greece is way better than the Shit UK! Do whatever you want! Greece is only 1 and the BEST!
What about a reality show “Be a Greek politician for a week” A New Greek tragedy with third class politicians.
Keeptalkinggreece.com says:
“The description doesn’t say whether the participants will have a moustache, wear a traditional skirt or an ancient toga and dance Syrtaki all day long. Further, it hasn’t be clear whether the winner award will be a bottle Ouzo, a kilo of olives and/or a frenzy O-PAAA!”
————-
Well, Channel 4’s assessment of “living Greek” is much more accurate than your own stereotypical nonsense about mustaches and male “skirts”.
It’s too bad that many Greeks themselves promote these dumb portrayals of Greek society, while pretending to be educating the world about Greek culture and how Greek people really feel.
I’ll tell you how *I* feel…let’s stick to having a legitimate discussion on the fiscal crisis -which is what Channel 4 is trying to do- instead of promoting dumb, simplistic stereotypes that inaccurately portray us in accordance with Anglo-Saxon misconceptions. No one in Greece ever spontaneously yells “Opaaaaa!!!” as a term of happiness. This is *one* of *many* misconceptions that really get to me. (The word “opa” was used in dancing in the past, and nowadays has a very sarcastic meaning).
We may disagree with Channel 4 on some realities, but I find the British media is far more fair in its reporting of Greece, Greek politics & society, than the hateful anti-Greek B.S. that I hear/read from diaspora Greeks (such as this website).
I am British, working in Greece for 36 years. A high salary earner I pay a lot of tax. Every five years there is a tax reassessment scheme which leveis additional tax on already taxed income. There is also a 55 per cent increment on tax as prepayment for the coming year. On 14000 Euro tax add 55 per cent on top to get the total tax bill. In effect my tax is usually over 50 per cent of earning.
Retirement, despite the high salary, will be 880 Euro. It takes three years after application for pension to actually start getting the monthly payment. You cannot work during those three years. Application must be made on reaching pensionable age, 67 in my case. so my first pension payment might be when I am 70. Most self employed people are in the same boat. Greece has the highest percentage of self employed people in the EU.
Are these facts on the programme? Or is it all mythology?
“Hairdressers and allied occupations have a higher risk of cancer than the general population.
The risk increase is particularly marked for lung, larynx and bladder cancer and multiple myeloma.”
International Journal of Epidemiology.
Channel 4 probably has a more reliable medical reference when it mock including hairdressers in the hazardous occupations list.
British people would still be on the trees eating bananas without greek people.It’s not enough the thing that we made them civilazed people and we learn their poor and pathetic language they want to make fun of us too!What a coinsidence we even laugh at them because their cold,gay and dumm,oh they don’t even know how eat properly.Every one of the takes 10 kilos every time he/she visits greece!!!!
They accuse a 11 milions people for 1 milion public servants frauds?YOU especialy English people the robbers-murderers of other countries?let me remind you that YouR Wealth is from Murdering europe countries and stealing their kindom of blood!
You SHOULD BE ASHAME to even dare to talk about Greeks
think you selfs this…how the hell a public employee now STARVES if he was stealing so much money all his life now?he should be rich right?WRong our price of life in GReece is 10 times expensive from Other Eu Countries…only the Big Sharks made rich…all employees below management positions now they STARVE to death!
Your money Europes money??they say that they give your money Europe and Europe gives it to other countries so they will make you more taxes and they accuse greece for that which is the 0.002% of Europes economy !!by the way Germany OWES TO GREEK OVER 1 TRILION EUROS FROM WAR DAMAGE AND SIEMENS INSIDE GOVERMENT POLUTION!j
Delete
EVG13, unfortuantely, the Brit’s “poor and pathetic” language may save Greeks, because our Greek language won’t help us when we have to leave Greece to find work elsewhere. So, I recommend learning as much English as you can, because otherwise the only jobs available would be housecleaning etc, and there is quite a bit of competition from Eastern Europeans.
Speaking Greek is an honorable thing but the reality is it won’t put food on the table. I feel sorry for many Greeks who will be stuck in Greece because they do not know an international language like English. Languages such as Greek and Latin are very romantic but certainly not practical in the world today. Of course, I say this as a Greek from the diaspora whose rudimentary knowledge of Greek makes me a fool in another way.
Really? Based on your statement, I presume the planet is literally flooded by housecleaners as there is an amazing number of people who do not speak english…No wonder, famine and umployment has reached such levels all around the globe…it’s the english language…Boy! Who would have thought so! Well done Melpomeni!
Good God, after all the british have done to Europe and the whole World (look india and half of africa) they have the nerve to talk about the Greeks?!?! Return the Parthenon marbles to Greece from which you have made several millions of pounds and the you can open your filthy mouth. (Which it wouldnt be a nice view either)….
Dear Callie, English doesn’t mean squat when you are looking for job besides in Australia and in the US. This coming from someone extremely fluent in English in countries that are considered ”International” like Sweden or Norway. English yes is a key to better contract terms but by itself does not mean anything. You cannot even imagine how many Brits they are in Scandinavia living off social security salary (go Greek for two years?!?) cause they are too dumb or lazy to learn the language.
i think you should be a ashamed of yourselves this programme was terrible
the greek people are starving, we have no money to pay these ridiculous repayments, we work 12 hour days and do not get paid, they have now lowered the national minimum wage to 600 euros a month, if you think that when we have to pay help the nation tax’ at 500 euros, taxes and such at another 200 euros a week, how are we suppost to live!
ope your eyes and talk to a greek peerson – we did not agree to any of the loans and so called hand outs, stop thinking you are better than us – it is very easy to sit in a nice house with food in the fridge, and electricity and pick holes in someone else – get your facts straight before you make any sort of comment, until you live through what we are going through i suggest you say nothing.
we want to have an election, and sort out the problems we have, but for some reason you ‘superior’ nations will not let us, instead insist we borrow more money, and give away our country, we surrvied the turks, we surrvied the germans we will survive this!
or GO BRITISH FOR A WEEK and send bombs to Iraq in the name of liberty…GO FRENCH OR GERMAN and sell submarines and airplanes by making crysis between countries…or bombarding Libya in the name of Democracy…petrol…give me a break..
And if we are responible for our politicians than you are for yours too…but you must know that the last 9 years our real needs as a countryfor a loan were 18 billions euros and we were lente more than 470 billions…because the 450 billions weρε interests for previus loans
from the laoners so give as a break…
and if we should be asamed for everything you say…we are proud cause we are not selling things that kill people,we are not invading other countries,we do not use other nations history to gain money in our museums,we do not suck like vampires the goods of natios…so look your face in the mirror Europe and do no expect to be asame but to be terrified…
you … did you think the situation in greece is funny?you are pathetic instead of supporting us not financially with any other way
(the economic part is our problem)you make our life a reality show and you think this is funny.you should be ashamed
sorry for having to ‘edit’ some words…
For your information…..and not misinformation 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvgae3re58s
I have tried to watch the show, but being outside of the UK I can’t. From what I’ve read, the show is really nothing more than an attention seeking/ parody or “normal Greek” life, and how these excesses have caused all the problems. Nothing to do with the EU or the ECB policies! If your financial systems are all so different, how can you have a unified currency?
BTW – Did you know that each BRIT owes US$150,000 as external debt, the second most after the Yanks at US$48,000 pp. Greece comes in the top 20 at….19th at US$46,000pp. So to all the people that are berating the Greeks, check your own house is in order!
“If your financial systems are all so different, how can you have a unified currency?” that seem to be the main problem that the EU realized recently. And that’s the reason they EU – in fact Germany- wants to change the system into a ‘finance governance’.