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Help me defend my Greek friends

L

louballoo

Banned
Lately my Greek friends have been chided for being lazy.

Please help me to defend my Greek friends by confronting their accusers by suggesting some solid counter arguments.

Thanks

Louballoo
 
louballoo said:
Lately my Greek friends have been chided for being lazy.

Please help me to defend my Greek friends by confronting their accusers by suggesting some solid counter arguments.

Thanks

Louballoo
Click to expand...
they, on average, work longer hours and for more years than Germans.
 
Many Greeks work very hard. The top companies in Greece employ some very competent people (many have studied in the US, Germany or the UK and have worked abroad). The work ethic is intense and quite competitive. (I'm not Greek but have worked there for two years.) The very low minimum wage combined with high retail prices (Greece imports a lot) means that people have to work hard just to keep their heads above water.

Check the names in any British or US faculty (especially in science/medicine/IT) and see how many first or second generation Greek names there are (answer: lots, considering Greece is a poor Balkan country of 11 million inhabitants). These people have risen to the top in a very competitive environment through talent and hard work.

OTOH you see things in the public sector in Greece that make you shake your head and wonder/despair.

Without resorting to stereotypes there are some fundamental problems in Greek society. Politically and socially it is a deeply divided society. There is a general lack of trust in institutions (some of it justified) and plenty of corruption in some corners. Perhaps as a result of this many Greeks tend to be rugged individualists and look out for number one, which perpetuates things. Greece was colonized by the Ottomans for centuries (kiss of death for any country) and largely missed out on the industrial revolution of the 19th century. It suffered several catastrophic wars in the 20th century: the great Anatolian disaster in the 20s and WW2. The civil war (reds vs. whites) just after WW2 lasted 3 years and only ended in 1949. There was a military dictatorship in the 70s. These are all comparatively recent events. No wonder the country is messed up.
 
Just to put a bit of perspective I recently found a couple of photos from a Greek trip late 60,s. Both photos showed a line of village kids in the road (well one was a track) nearly all of them barefoot & running around on chippings.
The photos were taken somewhere between Northern mid Greece. These kids would be in their early to mid 50's now & would remember that austerity.
I can't blame anyone for wanting to avoid a return to it.
 
From the small bits I've read, Greece seemingly has a culture of not paying their taxes. There are many reasons offered to explain this..... some suggest it's a cultural thing going back to the Ottoman Empire days whereby resisting paying taxes was seen as patriotic by the Greeks. Others suggest there's a complete lack of trust in the political parties and those who run the country....which probably explains why there are widely held beliefs that the political classes are corrupt in Greece. Some suggest that this drives a lot of Greeks to look after number one because the state won't look after them. On top of that, the state bureaucracy is ineffective and inefficient so non payers aren't clamped down on.

It sounds like a bit of a mess and I'm not sure if anything will change but I have some sympathy as I do believe we are heading down a similar road.
 
Jeez ... talk about lazy?

I live on a council estate .... I see very few people going off to work ....

sad thing is, those who don't work seem to have more than me .... they smoke cigarettes (I smoke roll ups) .... they go most nights to the pub ... I drink at home (4 pints for a fiver from Tesco) .... they drive better cars than me and go on holidays

so, lets not point fingers
 
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