Quote of the Day:
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive.".
Howard Thurma
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Griechenland: Quo Vadis?
By Costas Ayiotis
The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso announced today that the EU had reached agreement on a bail out plan for Greece. It seems that the risk of Greek default and contagion spreading to other EU countries like Spain and Portugal has been contained for now. Greece has been a delinquent member of the EU for many years with its serial flouting of the financial rules, running a budget deficit of 12, 7% of GDP; the highest in the EU and more than four times higher than the 3% limit which EU rules allow. As a result the country ran into serious financial trouble amassing sovereign debt of close to a whopping Euro 300 billion. Currently the debt to GDP ratio runs at over 120%. Greece’s debt primarily lies in global bond funds, pension companies and sevral banks including French, Swiss and German banks.
The fiscal accounts and cash flow of Greece are to put it mildly, in a disastrous state and it will take many years of painful and unpopular austerity measures to rehabilitate the troubled country. The Government of Prime Minister George Papandreou now faces the unenviable task of finding the cash it needs to inject into its economy, while simultaneously drastically slashing government spending, freezing the wages and the hiring of government workers, raising the retirement age and increasing taxes on alcohol, tobacco, income and property. The burning question now on everyones lips: Can Greece afford to service its soaring debt and interest payments without outside help?
It was clear to see who the main architect of the latest bail out plan was. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany emerged out of the EU meeting all smiles and reassuringly announced: “Greece is part of the EU and will not be left on its own.” Without losing her smile for a second, she rather ominously also added: “but there will be strict rules!” And we all know what happens when the Germans impose and apply strict rules. But this may not be such a bad thing. So it is clear that German assistance in whatever form, will come with intrusive conditions. Maybe the concept of economic sovereignty is overrated after all.
Meanwhile the USA faces its own Greek style fiscal crisis. The USA for too long has behaved like an over-indulged and spoilt brat. It has shown that it is equally incapable of running its own finances with China owning a great big chunk of the USA’s debt. The fiscal position of the US does not inspire much confidence with the federal debt running into trillions of dollars. Unlike Greece the USA sets its own monetary policy and has tried to delay the pain with "quantitative easing." This is a nicer way of saying that they potentially have an unlimited capacity to print money and thereby buy time and secure more debt but I still don’t quite understand how you cure debt by getting deeper into debt. Maybe they're hoping that soaring inflation will erode the value of the debt and mop up the excess liquidity injected into their system to rescue US banks and soften the recession.
The markets indicate that as a result of non-specific pledges of EU support for Greece, it has become a little less risky to own Greek debt. But as a bond investor would you have confidence in Greek or for that matter US debt? The USA is certainly no safe haven when it comes to money matters, be it their banks or bonds and even if the dollar still remains the world’s reserve currency for now. As for Greece, on a personal note I would sooner owe money to a Greek than have him owe me money. And whether you are a country or a household, the same old-fashioned golden rule applies: always spend less than you earn. But maybe that is being too simplistic.
Critics will of course point out that there is no comparison between the size and complexity of the US economy which looks more and more like a giant pyramid or Ponzi scheme and the world’s first tzatziki economy. They will point out that the USA has an undervalued dollar and an ever increasing tax-paying, working age population to fuel growth in its consumer driven economy. Greece on the other hand, like many of the other weaker countries in the EU, produces very little and when it does like Spain has high production costs and low productivity. Greece sweats it under an overvalued Euro and would benefit from a weaker currency to stimulate domestic growth. Greece in contrast to the USA has a working age population that is in severe decline and even when working, highly evasive when it comes to paying taxes. Retiring from your strenuous half-day job as a bank teller at the age of fifty is common place. It’s not surprising then that some enterprising but unscrupulous Greek politicians were so keen to import Albanians into the economy, initially to mix concrete and push wheel barrows but now these same Albanians are now building contractors and Egyptians and Pakistanis push the wheel barrows.
Nobody disputes Greece’s enormous contribution to Western civilization in diverse fields such as politics, architecture, art, aesthetics, science, mathematics, medicine and literature. The country has produced many great thinkers and philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle but unfortunately in more recent times it has also produced many unprincipled rogues, brigands and goat thieves who could not find gainful employment in the towns, cities, mountains, the plains or on the farms so they became politicians.
How did Greece get into this mess? The usual litany of ills, come to mind. Greece like South Africa is run by kleptocrats. Years of economic mismanagement, a succession of inept and corrupt governments from both sides of the political spectrum, a lack of political will and fiscal discipline, access to unlimited, cheap & easy credit, endemic short term thinking and disastrous internal policies, a bloated and inefficient civil service used as a dumping ground by politicians to secure sheltered employment for family, friends and cronies, an ageing population, unacceptably high levels of tax evasion, endemic bribery and corruption at all levels of society and numerous high level scandals involving embezzlement of funds by top government officials.
Transparency International lists Greece alongside Bulgariaand Romania as the most corrupt countries in the 27 member EU, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Colombia. The Greek Finance Ministry reports that a massive 30 % of all economic activity in Greece produces no revenue for the government because of active cheating on taxes by companies, employees and professionals like doctors and lawyers.
The EU should have seen the makings of this Greek tragedy coming. This toxic brew has been bubbling away for years. Crisis and deficits are not something new in the Aegean. They have known about Greece’s irresponsible behaviour as a member state for years and did nothing to bring Greece to order. Therefore they are partially to blame for this fiasco. Some countries are good at balancing the books while other countries are good at cooking the books. Greece clearly falls into the latter category. And Greece is not only good at cooking the books; it has also shown remarkable flair in fiddling with all sorts of statistics. The old saying was: beware of Greeks bearing gifts. It is now beware of Greeks bearing statistics.
I read recently in John Mauldin’s Investor newsletter that a prominent Swiss investor pointed out that Greece has been in default in 105 of the last 200 years. Not a great track record but he is stating the obvious. Greece has always been a volatile country battling to overcome the legacy of Turkish rule and the lack of vision of its own rulers. The Greek people will ultimately foot the bill as they always have throughout history for the stupidity and greed of their political and economic oligarchy or elite. I use these words deliberately because Greece has never had leaders in the true sense of the word, a leader being someone who is prepared to serve and protect the interests of others. I would also like to remind our Swiss commiserator that Switzerland may have clean streets but it also has dirty money. It's banking record is not something to inspire confidence and pride. Self-inflicted deficits and defaults morally speaking, are infinitely less objectionable than protecting the money of despots and dictators or hoarding the treasures, gold and artworks looted by the Nazis from the Jews of Europe.
Nonetheless the unruly Greeks should never be entrusted with state funds and high finance. I would happily outsource the running of Greek finances to a secretariat sitting in Berlin as long as I get an ethical pledge and clearance certificate from Angela Merkel that Siemens will have nothing to do with it. And I would rather live with Germans running Greece’s fiscal policies under German rules than those of the USA or China. Germany is after all the richest, largest and most economically advanced state in Europe. Greeks wearing aprons, a form of national dress in many parts of the country, have in any event been serving wealthy German tourists for years and occasionally stealing their wives. We all get a bit nervous when the Germans are around mainly because the serious-minded, work-seeking, uber-efficient Germans have been known to invade the odd continent in search of lebensraum but thankfully that’s all in the past.
Germany today is an uneasy giant, an embarrassed, bashful power almost reticent to flex its growing financial and political muscle in Europe. They need someone like the hyper-active and energetic Sarkozy to occasionally prod them out of their collective guilt and self-reflective stupor. But Germany also faces a domestic problem. With elections coming up soon, even limited German participation in a Greek bail out plan will not be very popular across the Rhine and may come at a considerable political cost. German taxes are already very high and the disciplined German electorate has very little excess debt to pay off. Why should Germany care and what does Germany get in return?
I don’t know why they are complaining. Angela Merkel may simply be protecting the exposure of German banks to Greek debt. Besides we didn’t ask them to invade us in 1941. Greece also provided German factories with cheap labour in the 50's and 60's. Will the country ever eventually free itself from the guilt of its old sins? Normally we should not hold sons accountable for the sins of their fathers but nor should we forget what they did under Hitler and maybe the Germans should shoulder the burden for Greece’s future stability especially if Germany benefits in the long term as well. The Germans should see the bailout plan as a form of minor reparations or pay back plan for wiping out entire Greek villages and flying the swastika over the Parthenon.
Anyway it seems the Greeks for once are not asking for money. They may be simply be asking France and Germany if they can rely on the superior credit record of these two countries, so that Greece can raise money on the international bond markets at less crippling rates. Being the reluctant financial custodian of the county which gave us democracy may not be sufficient reward. Greece does not contribute much to the GDP of the eurozone but the future viability of the EU may be at stake here. Allowing Greece to collapse may be the fall of the first domino which threatens the very future of the EU, an EU with Germany at the head as its pre-eminent political and economic power. Germany has always been the biggest contributor to EU finances but with the EU a bigger market than the USA, if the EU fails everyone suffers including Germany. The bottom line as other experts have pointed out is that Germany may have to continue paying to maintain its leadership position and to make things work in Europe.
Greece has quite sensibly resisted the urge to follow the American example and sell the country to China. The Greeks don’t like melamine in their famous yoghurt. This anti-China sentiment has mostly been as a result of persistent pressure on the government from the very powerful souvlaki vendors lobby which has vowed that dog meat will never find its way into the venerated souvlaki. In the past dogs were not treated very well in Greece and packs of stray dogs roaming the streets was a common sight. Today following the example set by Diogenes the Cynic who in ancient times roamed the streets of Athens with his staff, lantern and faithful hound at his side searching for an honest man, dogs in Greece have made a fashionable come back and are now understandably more loved and trusted than people.
Greece will never die, so says a famous line in the Greek national anthem and the Greek people are a resilient lot. The country has faced far greater perils than a fiscal crisis in its long and bloody history and endured with its ancient fighting spirit intact. It has resisted invasion from Persian hordes, accommodated Roman occupation; lived through the devastation of its lands by invading Goths and Huns, survived four centuries under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks and more recently Nazi occupation during World War II. Living with German financial planning now necessarily imposed on Athens is a welcome picnic by comparison. And things won’t be so bad. It may be blitzkrieg by other means but rule by the cheque book is far better than Stuka bombardments and Panzer invasions.
Most of the Greek debt is due in four years time but of more immediate concern, the country has to honour an important debt and interest payment in May with more than 50 billion Euros needed just to make it through 2010 alone. The old stock market adage may well apply in reverse. My advice to my compatriots: Pay in May and go away. Go away and lick your wounds. Go away and sing and dance and drink your troubles away as you always have done when things looked bleak. The world is dysfunctional. It has gone mad and nobody should be pointing fingers. We are all collectively responsible for the mess this fragile planet finds itself in today.
And go away they will this summer, to their villages, country homes and islands. The islands will still look beautiful; the Greek flag will still fly over the Parthenon although I suspect the flag pole is made in Germany. And when the sandal clad German tourists come visiting, either be nice to them or lose them to Turkey. One hope of lifting Greece out of this mess is to boost tourism.
Even with limited means, people will still go to the pavement café’s, to the tavernas, to the open air theatres, cinema’s and the bouzouki joints because that is the Greek way of life. With Germany’s help Greece will survive this crisis. Stranger things have happened. The German-Greek partnership may not be such a mismatch after all. Let us not forget that it took a German coach behaving like a Greek and unfancied Greek soccer players behaving like Germans to win the coveted UEFA European Football Cup in 2004. And if things don’t work out and the German financial Polizei from Berlin turn native, go Greek on us and lose their will to work, the ever resourceful Greeks can always follow Diogenes’ celebrated frugal lifestyle and live on the side of the road in a barrel. It’s only money and the ancient Greeks admired austerity and never trusted great wealth anyway.
11 February 2010
By Costas Ayiotis
The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso announced today that the EU had reached agreement on a bail out plan for Greece. It seems that the risk of Greek default and contagion spreading to other EU countries like Spain and Portugal has been contained for now. Greece has been a delinquent member of the EU for many years with its serial flouting of the financial rules, running a budget deficit of 12, 7% of GDP; the highest in the EU and more than four times higher than the 3% limit which EU rules allow. As a result the country ran into serious financial trouble amassing sovereign debt of close to a whopping Euro 300 billion. Currently the debt to GDP ratio runs at over 120%. Greece’s debt primarily lies in global bond funds, pension companies and sevral banks including French, Swiss and German banks.
The fiscal accounts and cash flow of Greece are to put it mildly, in a disastrous state and it will take many years of painful and unpopular austerity measures to rehabilitate the troubled country. The Government of Prime Minister George Papandreou now faces the unenviable task of finding the cash it needs to inject into its economy, while simultaneously drastically slashing government spending, freezing the wages and the hiring of government workers, raising the retirement age and increasing taxes on alcohol, tobacco, income and property. The burning question now on everyones lips: Can Greece afford to service its soaring debt and interest payments without outside help?
It was clear to see who the main architect of the latest bail out plan was. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany emerged out of the EU meeting all smiles and reassuringly announced: “Greece is part of the EU and will not be left on its own.” Without losing her smile for a second, she rather ominously also added: “but there will be strict rules!” And we all know what happens when the Germans impose and apply strict rules. But this may not be such a bad thing. So it is clear that German assistance in whatever form, will come with intrusive conditions. Maybe the concept of economic sovereignty is overrated after all.
Meanwhile the USA faces its own Greek style fiscal crisis. The USA for too long has behaved like an over-indulged and spoilt brat. It has shown that it is equally incapable of running its own finances with China owning a great big chunk of the USA’s debt. The fiscal position of the US does not inspire much confidence with the federal debt running into trillions of dollars. Unlike Greece the USA sets its own monetary policy and has tried to delay the pain with "quantitative easing." This is a nicer way of saying that they potentially have an unlimited capacity to print money and thereby buy time and secure more debt but I still don’t quite understand how you cure debt by getting deeper into debt. Maybe they're hoping that soaring inflation will erode the value of the debt and mop up the excess liquidity injected into their system to rescue US banks and soften the recession.
The markets indicate that as a result of non-specific pledges of EU support for Greece, it has become a little less risky to own Greek debt. But as a bond investor would you have confidence in Greek or for that matter US debt? The USA is certainly no safe haven when it comes to money matters, be it their banks or bonds and even if the dollar still remains the world’s reserve currency for now. As for Greece, on a personal note I would sooner owe money to a Greek than have him owe me money. And whether you are a country or a household, the same old-fashioned golden rule applies: always spend less than you earn. But maybe that is being too simplistic.
Critics will of course point out that there is no comparison between the size and complexity of the US economy which looks more and more like a giant pyramid or Ponzi scheme and the world’s first tzatziki economy. They will point out that the USA has an undervalued dollar and an ever increasing tax-paying, working age population to fuel growth in its consumer driven economy. Greece on the other hand, like many of the other weaker countries in the EU, produces very little and when it does like Spain has high production costs and low productivity. Greece sweats it under an overvalued Euro and would benefit from a weaker currency to stimulate domestic growth. Greece in contrast to the USA has a working age population that is in severe decline and even when working, highly evasive when it comes to paying taxes. Retiring from your strenuous half-day job as a bank teller at the age of fifty is common place. It’s not surprising then that some enterprising but unscrupulous Greek politicians were so keen to import Albanians into the economy, initially to mix concrete and push wheel barrows but now these same Albanians are now building contractors and Egyptians and Pakistanis push the wheel barrows.
Nobody disputes Greece’s enormous contribution to Western civilization in diverse fields such as politics, architecture, art, aesthetics, science, mathematics, medicine and literature. The country has produced many great thinkers and philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle but unfortunately in more recent times it has also produced many unprincipled rogues, brigands and goat thieves who could not find gainful employment in the towns, cities, mountains, the plains or on the farms so they became politicians.
How did Greece get into this mess? The usual litany of ills, come to mind. Greece like South Africa is run by kleptocrats. Years of economic mismanagement, a succession of inept and corrupt governments from both sides of the political spectrum, a lack of political will and fiscal discipline, access to unlimited, cheap & easy credit, endemic short term thinking and disastrous internal policies, a bloated and inefficient civil service used as a dumping ground by politicians to secure sheltered employment for family, friends and cronies, an ageing population, unacceptably high levels of tax evasion, endemic bribery and corruption at all levels of society and numerous high level scandals involving embezzlement of funds by top government officials.
Transparency International lists Greece alongside Bulgariaand Romania as the most corrupt countries in the 27 member EU, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Colombia. The Greek Finance Ministry reports that a massive 30 % of all economic activity in Greece produces no revenue for the government because of active cheating on taxes by companies, employees and professionals like doctors and lawyers.
The EU should have seen the makings of this Greek tragedy coming. This toxic brew has been bubbling away for years. Crisis and deficits are not something new in the Aegean. They have known about Greece’s irresponsible behaviour as a member state for years and did nothing to bring Greece to order. Therefore they are partially to blame for this fiasco. Some countries are good at balancing the books while other countries are good at cooking the books. Greece clearly falls into the latter category. And Greece is not only good at cooking the books; it has also shown remarkable flair in fiddling with all sorts of statistics. The old saying was: beware of Greeks bearing gifts. It is now beware of Greeks bearing statistics.
I read recently in John Mauldin’s Investor newsletter that a prominent Swiss investor pointed out that Greece has been in default in 105 of the last 200 years. Not a great track record but he is stating the obvious. Greece has always been a volatile country battling to overcome the legacy of Turkish rule and the lack of vision of its own rulers. The Greek people will ultimately foot the bill as they always have throughout history for the stupidity and greed of their political and economic oligarchy or elite. I use these words deliberately because Greece has never had leaders in the true sense of the word, a leader being someone who is prepared to serve and protect the interests of others. I would also like to remind our Swiss commiserator that Switzerland may have clean streets but it also has dirty money. It's banking record is not something to inspire confidence and pride. Self-inflicted deficits and defaults morally speaking, are infinitely less objectionable than protecting the money of despots and dictators or hoarding the treasures, gold and artworks looted by the Nazis from the Jews of Europe.
Nonetheless the unruly Greeks should never be entrusted with state funds and high finance. I would happily outsource the running of Greek finances to a secretariat sitting in Berlin as long as I get an ethical pledge and clearance certificate from Angela Merkel that Siemens will have nothing to do with it. And I would rather live with Germans running Greece’s fiscal policies under German rules than those of the USA or China. Germany is after all the richest, largest and most economically advanced state in Europe. Greeks wearing aprons, a form of national dress in many parts of the country, have in any event been serving wealthy German tourists for years and occasionally stealing their wives. We all get a bit nervous when the Germans are around mainly because the serious-minded, work-seeking, uber-efficient Germans have been known to invade the odd continent in search of lebensraum but thankfully that’s all in the past.
Germany today is an uneasy giant, an embarrassed, bashful power almost reticent to flex its growing financial and political muscle in Europe. They need someone like the hyper-active and energetic Sarkozy to occasionally prod them out of their collective guilt and self-reflective stupor. But Germany also faces a domestic problem. With elections coming up soon, even limited German participation in a Greek bail out plan will not be very popular across the Rhine and may come at a considerable political cost. German taxes are already very high and the disciplined German electorate has very little excess debt to pay off. Why should Germany care and what does Germany get in return?
I don’t know why they are complaining. Angela Merkel may simply be protecting the exposure of German banks to Greek debt. Besides we didn’t ask them to invade us in 1941. Greece also provided German factories with cheap labour in the 50's and 60's. Will the country ever eventually free itself from the guilt of its old sins? Normally we should not hold sons accountable for the sins of their fathers but nor should we forget what they did under Hitler and maybe the Germans should shoulder the burden for Greece’s future stability especially if Germany benefits in the long term as well. The Germans should see the bailout plan as a form of minor reparations or pay back plan for wiping out entire Greek villages and flying the swastika over the Parthenon.
Anyway it seems the Greeks for once are not asking for money. They may be simply be asking France and Germany if they can rely on the superior credit record of these two countries, so that Greece can raise money on the international bond markets at less crippling rates. Being the reluctant financial custodian of the county which gave us democracy may not be sufficient reward. Greece does not contribute much to the GDP of the eurozone but the future viability of the EU may be at stake here. Allowing Greece to collapse may be the fall of the first domino which threatens the very future of the EU, an EU with Germany at the head as its pre-eminent political and economic power. Germany has always been the biggest contributor to EU finances but with the EU a bigger market than the USA, if the EU fails everyone suffers including Germany. The bottom line as other experts have pointed out is that Germany may have to continue paying to maintain its leadership position and to make things work in Europe.
Greece has quite sensibly resisted the urge to follow the American example and sell the country to China. The Greeks don’t like melamine in their famous yoghurt. This anti-China sentiment has mostly been as a result of persistent pressure on the government from the very powerful souvlaki vendors lobby which has vowed that dog meat will never find its way into the venerated souvlaki. In the past dogs were not treated very well in Greece and packs of stray dogs roaming the streets was a common sight. Today following the example set by Diogenes the Cynic who in ancient times roamed the streets of Athens with his staff, lantern and faithful hound at his side searching for an honest man, dogs in Greece have made a fashionable come back and are now understandably more loved and trusted than people.
Greece will never die, so says a famous line in the Greek national anthem and the Greek people are a resilient lot. The country has faced far greater perils than a fiscal crisis in its long and bloody history and endured with its ancient fighting spirit intact. It has resisted invasion from Persian hordes, accommodated Roman occupation; lived through the devastation of its lands by invading Goths and Huns, survived four centuries under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks and more recently Nazi occupation during World War II. Living with German financial planning now necessarily imposed on Athens is a welcome picnic by comparison. And things won’t be so bad. It may be blitzkrieg by other means but rule by the cheque book is far better than Stuka bombardments and Panzer invasions.
Most of the Greek debt is due in four years time but of more immediate concern, the country has to honour an important debt and interest payment in May with more than 50 billion Euros needed just to make it through 2010 alone. The old stock market adage may well apply in reverse. My advice to my compatriots: Pay in May and go away. Go away and lick your wounds. Go away and sing and dance and drink your troubles away as you always have done when things looked bleak. The world is dysfunctional. It has gone mad and nobody should be pointing fingers. We are all collectively responsible for the mess this fragile planet finds itself in today.
And go away they will this summer, to their villages, country homes and islands. The islands will still look beautiful; the Greek flag will still fly over the Parthenon although I suspect the flag pole is made in Germany. And when the sandal clad German tourists come visiting, either be nice to them or lose them to Turkey. One hope of lifting Greece out of this mess is to boost tourism.
Even with limited means, people will still go to the pavement café’s, to the tavernas, to the open air theatres, cinema’s and the bouzouki joints because that is the Greek way of life. With Germany’s help Greece will survive this crisis. Stranger things have happened. The German-Greek partnership may not be such a mismatch after all. Let us not forget that it took a German coach behaving like a Greek and unfancied Greek soccer players behaving like Germans to win the coveted UEFA European Football Cup in 2004. And if things don’t work out and the German financial Polizei from Berlin turn native, go Greek on us and lose their will to work, the ever resourceful Greeks can always follow Diogenes’ celebrated frugal lifestyle and live on the side of the road in a barrel. It’s only money and the ancient Greeks admired austerity and never trusted great wealth anyway.
11 February 2010
La Regime du President
By Costas Ayiotis
The eating habits of a nation’s president may be a useful indicator of the state of a country’s psyche and where a country is headed. The presence or absence of certain foods on the presidential table may not only reveal a lot about the state of a nation but also his state of his mind. What happens when a president who hails from Texas refuses to eat broccoli and when another from Arkansas gorges himself on fattening southern style foods such as hamburgers, fried chicken, barbecued steaks and sticky pork ribs? We get two major wars against Iraq, mayhem in Afghanistan, global warming, melting glaciers and a massive global recession.
Sparta was the dominant military power in ancient Greece. Spartan soldiers consumed a vile, evil smelling broth every day of their lives. They were formidable warriors who picked fights with all the other Greek city states. Maybe there’s a strong case to be made that the more refined, sophisticated and varied a cuisine is, the less belligerent the nation. We also know for instance that an ancient civilization like the Chinese, the people who gave us ice cream and noodles can and will eat anything that moves hence the renewed scramble for Africa and that the leaders of certain African countries are blessed with remarkably strong digestive systems, so like locusts they devour everything in sight. Our former Minster of Sport, who is well known and even admired for his gargantuan appetite, has fittingly been nicknamed “Buffet” Balfour. In a similar vein, others have been called “Pork ribs Radebe”, “Chicken feet Chuene”, “Mincemeat Mahlangu” or the “Mieliepap Mampara.”
Around the corner from where I live and next door to Bicccs, my regular early morning coffee spot, the political elite of South Africa are doing very well for themselves. Regime or diet is simply no longer part of their otherwise colourful lexicon. They have reassuringly robust and roving appetites and are in rude health. They regularly indulge in long lavish lunches at their favourite Pretoria restaurant, Ritrovo. The honourable cadres and ministers of our nascent elite couldn’t care less about La Regime et son Politique. And these are not ordinary lunches. While Diepsloot burns, they enjoy multi-course banquets reminiscent of ancient Greek and Roman symposiums. Under the expert care of Chef/Patron Fortunato and his father Commendatore Giovanni Mazzone, they feast on the finest Italian fare and enjoy the best wines and brandies South Africa has to offer.
Some leaders like “Emperor” Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic took matters a step further. He found a unique way to deal with his political opponents. He ate them. So if you’ll pardon the pun, when you become fed up with your politicians and want to put them to good use, you simply recycle them.
Good food and good eating is the mark of a civilized nation and here the emphasis should be on fresh local produce. Conversely when nations adopt the banal and mindless mass culture of fast food and franchised eating, they quickly slide into mediocrity and decline. How many more themed or franchised food stores does the world need? A recent American study has shown that although more and more people go to Starbucks they don’t necessarily create or enjoy a sense of community. They don’t socialize, talk to each other, debate or exchange ideas. Although they drink coffee, they are not true pavementistas having meaningful and spontaneous conversations with each other free of agendas or ulterior motives.
This brings us to France, the country which gave us Brigit Bardot, professional boulevardiers and crème brulee. When Ernest Hemingway lived in Paris in the 1920’s he cleverly solved the café problem by having three regular cafes which he frequented. One nobody knew about, where he went to read and write in private, a second to entertain his mistress and a third café where he went to meet and socialize with his friends. So why not rather support the brave and solitary chef patron or proprietor of the stand alone, high street, neighbourhood or village café and reject the ersatz or manufactured pseudo culture of imitation and replication forced down our throats by the dubious forces of globalization. Consider that even in café friendly France the war of attrition against independently run establishments continues. In 1960 there were 200 000 traditional style cafes in France. Today their number is down to a mere 40 000. France is a country with a proud and distinguished culinary tradition which goes back hundreds of years. France and Italy have long stood at the pinnacle of what good eating is all about. In the days before Italy’s unification, the two countries even took time out from their endemic fighting and fornicating, to collaborate on the culinary front. When Catherine de Medici married the King of France, she brought along her chefs, a host of elaborate new recipes and even introduced the French court to the fork, a rather useful Florentine invention.
The neighbouring Belgians of course will splutter over one of their famous beers and dispute the pre-eminent position of the French and the Italians in the culinary stakes but nobody in their right mind takes them too seriously or even listens to them and the other bureaucrats loitering in Brussels. To be fair though, the city did have a sprout named after it. Except for a minor blemish in their colonial history, their cruel and bloody legacy in the Congo, the Belgians are the Canadians of Europe.
Now it turns out that the hyperactive President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen to forego the pleasures of the palate. While his insatiable neighbor Silvio Berlusconi behaves like an irrepressible rogue, grabs the bottoms of meter maids, cavorts with twenty year olds and eats spaghetti, Sarko has taken up jogging and eats like a supermodel. This is in part to please and impress his wife Carla Bruni, a former supermodel turned chanteuse and now the first lady of France. In short, Sarko is behaving like a New Age Wimp. I don’t think the French public is very impressed. If reports coming out of the now redundant kitchens of the Elysee Palace are to be believed, the diminutive Sarko survives on a diet of cottage cheese, fruit compote and mineral water. Now there’s a simple test to determine whether something constitutes real or desirable food. Would a prisoner condemned to the gallows request a tub of cottage cheese as his last meal?
Being labeled a lightweight is not a good thing for an ambitious politician yet the slightly built Sarko has already lost 7 kilograms. Then Sarko met the world’s sexiest male politician. He bumped into the tall and athletic looking Barack Obama and he noticed the way Carla looked appreciatively at the fine figure of the photogenic pin up. Sarko immediately felt jealous and he became even more determined to get fit and stay in shape. A tan is not on the cards. He now also follows the example of recent US presidents and jogs every day. Carla’s personal trainer also introduced him to the joys of pelvic floor exercises and leg squats.
As the president of the world’s greatest cheese eating nation, Sarko’s every move is closely watched by his political opponents, by the ministers in his cabinet and by the French public. The president’s opponents criticize his diet and his leadership style as infantile and dismiss it as la Politique de la Silhouette. Also his choices, preferences and behavior send clear messages to the nation at large. When he first took office he behaved like a pop star and became known as the “bling-bling” president. He wore branded clothes and took great pleasure in showing off his Rolex. Then Carla Bruni came along and changed all that. She whispered into his ear and told him that the best way to show off was by not showing off at all.
The problem now is that Sarko wants to surround himself with thin people and imposes his will on others close to him. Reliable sources in Paris reveal that he “persuades” his cabinet colleagues to lose weight, stay in shape, get better haircuts and dress more stylishly. One can just imagine the type of late night pillow talk that takes place between him and Carla at the apartment they share in one of the city’s more fashionable Arrondisements.
“Mon dieu! He looks and dresses like a butcher from Marseilles. He and his frumpy provincial wife need a complete makeover. Either that or I demote him when I next reshuffle the cabinet. I’ll make him our ambassador to Vanuatu or Kiribati. Either he shapes up or he ships out. ”
Sarko’s ministers have got the message. Eager to please him, get noticed, get promoted, or simply to keep their jobs, they are behaving like most unimaginative and spineless corporate weasels and slavishly copying the boss. One minister has even taken to eating soup, fat free cottage cheese and berries to impress Sarko. No need for that Florentine fork after all. A spoon will do just fine for the nouvelle cuisine pour bebe. Aides at the Elysee Palace confirm that at formal functions, on Sarko’s orders, court or banquet cuisine is now officially out. Meat, pomme frites, cheeses and rich desserts are no longer served to guests. Instead, fish, salads and sorbets are served. Wine is served to those who want it but Sarko sticks to mineral water. This also signals a clear departure from his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who famously favoured beer. Chirac championed the cause of farmers and his aides would warn the staff at cafes, bistros and even four star Michelin restaurants to always put a beer on the table in front of him. This was designed to show that he was the president who was in touch with the common man. Wine was considered too snobbish and elitist.
Now you may reasonably argue that Sarko is setting a good example by encouraging healthy eating habits and maybe also be doing his bit to save the planet by not eating meat. After all is simplicity, self-restraint and moderation not the way to go in a world destroyed by greed and excess? But is a diet of cottage cheese and fruit compote the right way to go? Madame Hortense de Marigny Chabrol, a leading Parisian dietician who operates from a tres chic bureau in the 7th Arrondisement, clearly believes it isn’t. She maintains that the president’s diet is an unbalanced and unhealthy crash diet.
“Maintaining a good silhouette is one thing but the president’s diet is unfortunately an unsustainable and dangerous fad diet over the long term. Mr. Sarkozy is obviously a busy man with a hectic and punishing schedule. His body needs proper fuel to give him the energy he needs to satisfy Carla. That can only come from the correct combination of healthy fats, good carbohydrates and lean protein. It’s no wonder he collapsed recently.”
So what message is Sarko sending to his compatriots and to the world with his exercise regime and his frugal and uninspiring diet? What can we make of his new dining philosophy? Sarko it seems is determined to show the French public and the wider world that he is a fit, healthy, virile and vigorous leader. OK so we know that he tries his best to keep Carla happy, not an easy job. We know he is not a glutton and probably does not suffer from constipation. But in avoiding or shunning the wide variety of gourmet delicacies and sublime regional dishes France has to offer, he is also thumbing his nose at the traditions and culture of his country. Food and gastronomy is a matter of national pride in France. It is an integral and undeniable part of the country’s heritage. Can we imagine France without its world famous chefs, its Michelin rated restaurants, its bistros, patisseries, chocolatiers, boulangeries, charcuteries and epiceries? They form part of the wealth of the country, its patrimonie, its legacy and its very essence. You don’t mess with that if you want to get re-elected.
Sarko is a determined and driven man and clearly he wants to be taken seriously on the global stage and be seen to punch above his weight. Watching him address international events, one can clearly see that he is enjoying himself immensely. He is animated, expressive and gesticulates a lot. He can’t believe his luck, a case of the school nerd who is now accepted by the big boys.
He also has a passion for service delivery, a concept completely alien in some parts of the world, especially in South Africa. Sarko wants to instill German productivity levels and a Thatcherite work ethic in the French. He’s mad. The diet has obviously made him unstable. The French have no business copying the nasty habits of the Germans or the English. It used to be that if you were fired or retrenched in France you became an overnight hero. It was like winning the lotto. You received two years compulsory severance pay and you celebrated with your friends and family over pastis at your local café. The French know what the rest of the world has yet to figure out; the rampant growth model has ruined the world and work is seriously overrated.
If he wants to copy the English he should consider the fine example set by one of Britain’s best loved leaders, Winston Churchill who in marked contrast had a hearty appetite and ate and drank his way to the brink of bankruptcy. He presided over long lunches and dinners at his Chartwell estate featuring several courses. He loved alcohol and had he met the old soak Boris Yeltsin, he would have drunk him under the table. He also smoked 3000 Cuban cigars a year, more than quarter of a million in his life time. He saved his country from wearing lederhosen, socks with sandals and drinking schnapps. He also authored several impressive volumes and lived to a ripe old age.
Although he holds one of the most powerful executive posts in the Western world, unfettered by the kind of checks and balances which restrain the US president, at least Sarko is sensible enough not to tell the French public what to eat. He wouldn’t dare. Marie Antoinette tried that and we all know what happened to her. Was it not another Frenchman, no less than Napoleon Bonaparte who believed that an army marches on its stomach? Well the same can be said of a nation. A well fed population glued to their TV sets is unlikely to start a revolution.
I believe that the diet will eventually lead to Sarko’s demise. The regime will make him irritable, miserable, irrational and impossible to live with which could be a short term inconvenience for France but a long term blessing. But then politicians are unhinged and unreliable at the best of times and one should not get too attached to them. Their political lifespan should ideally be brief like a Hollywood marriage. Like overpaid investment bankers, the function they perform is socially useless. I still find the idea rather quaint that we are required to vote for people who we know are lying to us but then so much of what we are duped into doing by society, by large corporations, by institutions, by what the French call La Systeme, is based on a monumental lie.
Nicolas Sarkozy is at best a temporary aberration and an amusing distraction. He is a passing fad like his diet. Thankfully his habits are not a reliable indicator of where France is ultimately headed. While the rest of the civilized and thinking world wants to live in a village and emulate the hedonistic French diet and lifestyle, he wants to act like a neurotic Upper East Side Manhattanite. All that his diet tells us is that he is a vain man and a president increasingly isolating himself and out of touch with his people. And the damning evidence against him is mounting. Only last week, in an act of hubris and blatant nepotism, he broke his 2007 promise to the electorate and appointed his son as the head of EPAD, the organization which runs the controversial La Defense business district.
Sarko’s diet is bad for the image and prestige of France. The French public, have quite sensibly chosen not to follow his example. They shrug their shoulders with supreme Gallic indifference, pour themselves a fine glass of Bordeaux and tuck into a hearty cassoulet. We all marvel at the French paradox. We love the French because they are refreshingly different in a world obsessed with uniformity and compliance. Their cars are different, their aircraft are different, their women and their films are different. We love the French because they smoke, they drink and eat whatever they want and yet they still manage to outlive the stressed out of their minds Americans crippled by fear.
Charles de Gaulle once remarked, “France cannot be France without glory.”
I say bollocks! The price of glory is too high and always paid with the blood, guts and sacrifices of ordinary people, by citizens like you and me. There is nothing glorious about being dead. Two million people died because of Napoleon’s quest for glory. Another fifty million died when another megalomaniac, Adolf Hitler pursued his twisted idea of glory for a greater Nazi Germany.
I say forget glory, forget silly diets and forget politicians. France cannot be France without gastronomy. France cannot be France without its villages, its café’s and its legendary culinary traditions. France cannot be France without its celebrated cheeses, its rich pates, its excellent wines and crusty baguettes. But France can and will be France without Nicolas Sarkozy.
Anyone for crème brulee?
By Costas Ayiotis
The eating habits of a nation’s president may be a useful indicator of the state of a country’s psyche and where a country is headed. The presence or absence of certain foods on the presidential table may not only reveal a lot about the state of a nation but also his state of his mind. What happens when a president who hails from Texas refuses to eat broccoli and when another from Arkansas gorges himself on fattening southern style foods such as hamburgers, fried chicken, barbecued steaks and sticky pork ribs? We get two major wars against Iraq, mayhem in Afghanistan, global warming, melting glaciers and a massive global recession.
Sparta was the dominant military power in ancient Greece. Spartan soldiers consumed a vile, evil smelling broth every day of their lives. They were formidable warriors who picked fights with all the other Greek city states. Maybe there’s a strong case to be made that the more refined, sophisticated and varied a cuisine is, the less belligerent the nation. We also know for instance that an ancient civilization like the Chinese, the people who gave us ice cream and noodles can and will eat anything that moves hence the renewed scramble for Africa and that the leaders of certain African countries are blessed with remarkably strong digestive systems, so like locusts they devour everything in sight. Our former Minster of Sport, who is well known and even admired for his gargantuan appetite, has fittingly been nicknamed “Buffet” Balfour. In a similar vein, others have been called “Pork ribs Radebe”, “Chicken feet Chuene”, “Mincemeat Mahlangu” or the “Mieliepap Mampara.”
Around the corner from where I live and next door to Bicccs, my regular early morning coffee spot, the political elite of South Africa are doing very well for themselves. Regime or diet is simply no longer part of their otherwise colourful lexicon. They have reassuringly robust and roving appetites and are in rude health. They regularly indulge in long lavish lunches at their favourite Pretoria restaurant, Ritrovo. The honourable cadres and ministers of our nascent elite couldn’t care less about La Regime et son Politique. And these are not ordinary lunches. While Diepsloot burns, they enjoy multi-course banquets reminiscent of ancient Greek and Roman symposiums. Under the expert care of Chef/Patron Fortunato and his father Commendatore Giovanni Mazzone, they feast on the finest Italian fare and enjoy the best wines and brandies South Africa has to offer.
Some leaders like “Emperor” Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic took matters a step further. He found a unique way to deal with his political opponents. He ate them. So if you’ll pardon the pun, when you become fed up with your politicians and want to put them to good use, you simply recycle them.
Good food and good eating is the mark of a civilized nation and here the emphasis should be on fresh local produce. Conversely when nations adopt the banal and mindless mass culture of fast food and franchised eating, they quickly slide into mediocrity and decline. How many more themed or franchised food stores does the world need? A recent American study has shown that although more and more people go to Starbucks they don’t necessarily create or enjoy a sense of community. They don’t socialize, talk to each other, debate or exchange ideas. Although they drink coffee, they are not true pavementistas having meaningful and spontaneous conversations with each other free of agendas or ulterior motives.
This brings us to France, the country which gave us Brigit Bardot, professional boulevardiers and crème brulee. When Ernest Hemingway lived in Paris in the 1920’s he cleverly solved the café problem by having three regular cafes which he frequented. One nobody knew about, where he went to read and write in private, a second to entertain his mistress and a third café where he went to meet and socialize with his friends. So why not rather support the brave and solitary chef patron or proprietor of the stand alone, high street, neighbourhood or village café and reject the ersatz or manufactured pseudo culture of imitation and replication forced down our throats by the dubious forces of globalization. Consider that even in café friendly France the war of attrition against independently run establishments continues. In 1960 there were 200 000 traditional style cafes in France. Today their number is down to a mere 40 000. France is a country with a proud and distinguished culinary tradition which goes back hundreds of years. France and Italy have long stood at the pinnacle of what good eating is all about. In the days before Italy’s unification, the two countries even took time out from their endemic fighting and fornicating, to collaborate on the culinary front. When Catherine de Medici married the King of France, she brought along her chefs, a host of elaborate new recipes and even introduced the French court to the fork, a rather useful Florentine invention.
The neighbouring Belgians of course will splutter over one of their famous beers and dispute the pre-eminent position of the French and the Italians in the culinary stakes but nobody in their right mind takes them too seriously or even listens to them and the other bureaucrats loitering in Brussels. To be fair though, the city did have a sprout named after it. Except for a minor blemish in their colonial history, their cruel and bloody legacy in the Congo, the Belgians are the Canadians of Europe.
Now it turns out that the hyperactive President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen to forego the pleasures of the palate. While his insatiable neighbor Silvio Berlusconi behaves like an irrepressible rogue, grabs the bottoms of meter maids, cavorts with twenty year olds and eats spaghetti, Sarko has taken up jogging and eats like a supermodel. This is in part to please and impress his wife Carla Bruni, a former supermodel turned chanteuse and now the first lady of France. In short, Sarko is behaving like a New Age Wimp. I don’t think the French public is very impressed. If reports coming out of the now redundant kitchens of the Elysee Palace are to be believed, the diminutive Sarko survives on a diet of cottage cheese, fruit compote and mineral water. Now there’s a simple test to determine whether something constitutes real or desirable food. Would a prisoner condemned to the gallows request a tub of cottage cheese as his last meal?
Being labeled a lightweight is not a good thing for an ambitious politician yet the slightly built Sarko has already lost 7 kilograms. Then Sarko met the world’s sexiest male politician. He bumped into the tall and athletic looking Barack Obama and he noticed the way Carla looked appreciatively at the fine figure of the photogenic pin up. Sarko immediately felt jealous and he became even more determined to get fit and stay in shape. A tan is not on the cards. He now also follows the example of recent US presidents and jogs every day. Carla’s personal trainer also introduced him to the joys of pelvic floor exercises and leg squats.
As the president of the world’s greatest cheese eating nation, Sarko’s every move is closely watched by his political opponents, by the ministers in his cabinet and by the French public. The president’s opponents criticize his diet and his leadership style as infantile and dismiss it as la Politique de la Silhouette. Also his choices, preferences and behavior send clear messages to the nation at large. When he first took office he behaved like a pop star and became known as the “bling-bling” president. He wore branded clothes and took great pleasure in showing off his Rolex. Then Carla Bruni came along and changed all that. She whispered into his ear and told him that the best way to show off was by not showing off at all.
The problem now is that Sarko wants to surround himself with thin people and imposes his will on others close to him. Reliable sources in Paris reveal that he “persuades” his cabinet colleagues to lose weight, stay in shape, get better haircuts and dress more stylishly. One can just imagine the type of late night pillow talk that takes place between him and Carla at the apartment they share in one of the city’s more fashionable Arrondisements.
“Mon dieu! He looks and dresses like a butcher from Marseilles. He and his frumpy provincial wife need a complete makeover. Either that or I demote him when I next reshuffle the cabinet. I’ll make him our ambassador to Vanuatu or Kiribati. Either he shapes up or he ships out. ”
Sarko’s ministers have got the message. Eager to please him, get noticed, get promoted, or simply to keep their jobs, they are behaving like most unimaginative and spineless corporate weasels and slavishly copying the boss. One minister has even taken to eating soup, fat free cottage cheese and berries to impress Sarko. No need for that Florentine fork after all. A spoon will do just fine for the nouvelle cuisine pour bebe. Aides at the Elysee Palace confirm that at formal functions, on Sarko’s orders, court or banquet cuisine is now officially out. Meat, pomme frites, cheeses and rich desserts are no longer served to guests. Instead, fish, salads and sorbets are served. Wine is served to those who want it but Sarko sticks to mineral water. This also signals a clear departure from his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who famously favoured beer. Chirac championed the cause of farmers and his aides would warn the staff at cafes, bistros and even four star Michelin restaurants to always put a beer on the table in front of him. This was designed to show that he was the president who was in touch with the common man. Wine was considered too snobbish and elitist.
Now you may reasonably argue that Sarko is setting a good example by encouraging healthy eating habits and maybe also be doing his bit to save the planet by not eating meat. After all is simplicity, self-restraint and moderation not the way to go in a world destroyed by greed and excess? But is a diet of cottage cheese and fruit compote the right way to go? Madame Hortense de Marigny Chabrol, a leading Parisian dietician who operates from a tres chic bureau in the 7th Arrondisement, clearly believes it isn’t. She maintains that the president’s diet is an unbalanced and unhealthy crash diet.
“Maintaining a good silhouette is one thing but the president’s diet is unfortunately an unsustainable and dangerous fad diet over the long term. Mr. Sarkozy is obviously a busy man with a hectic and punishing schedule. His body needs proper fuel to give him the energy he needs to satisfy Carla. That can only come from the correct combination of healthy fats, good carbohydrates and lean protein. It’s no wonder he collapsed recently.”
So what message is Sarko sending to his compatriots and to the world with his exercise regime and his frugal and uninspiring diet? What can we make of his new dining philosophy? Sarko it seems is determined to show the French public and the wider world that he is a fit, healthy, virile and vigorous leader. OK so we know that he tries his best to keep Carla happy, not an easy job. We know he is not a glutton and probably does not suffer from constipation. But in avoiding or shunning the wide variety of gourmet delicacies and sublime regional dishes France has to offer, he is also thumbing his nose at the traditions and culture of his country. Food and gastronomy is a matter of national pride in France. It is an integral and undeniable part of the country’s heritage. Can we imagine France without its world famous chefs, its Michelin rated restaurants, its bistros, patisseries, chocolatiers, boulangeries, charcuteries and epiceries? They form part of the wealth of the country, its patrimonie, its legacy and its very essence. You don’t mess with that if you want to get re-elected.
Sarko is a determined and driven man and clearly he wants to be taken seriously on the global stage and be seen to punch above his weight. Watching him address international events, one can clearly see that he is enjoying himself immensely. He is animated, expressive and gesticulates a lot. He can’t believe his luck, a case of the school nerd who is now accepted by the big boys.
He also has a passion for service delivery, a concept completely alien in some parts of the world, especially in South Africa. Sarko wants to instill German productivity levels and a Thatcherite work ethic in the French. He’s mad. The diet has obviously made him unstable. The French have no business copying the nasty habits of the Germans or the English. It used to be that if you were fired or retrenched in France you became an overnight hero. It was like winning the lotto. You received two years compulsory severance pay and you celebrated with your friends and family over pastis at your local café. The French know what the rest of the world has yet to figure out; the rampant growth model has ruined the world and work is seriously overrated.
If he wants to copy the English he should consider the fine example set by one of Britain’s best loved leaders, Winston Churchill who in marked contrast had a hearty appetite and ate and drank his way to the brink of bankruptcy. He presided over long lunches and dinners at his Chartwell estate featuring several courses. He loved alcohol and had he met the old soak Boris Yeltsin, he would have drunk him under the table. He also smoked 3000 Cuban cigars a year, more than quarter of a million in his life time. He saved his country from wearing lederhosen, socks with sandals and drinking schnapps. He also authored several impressive volumes and lived to a ripe old age.
Although he holds one of the most powerful executive posts in the Western world, unfettered by the kind of checks and balances which restrain the US president, at least Sarko is sensible enough not to tell the French public what to eat. He wouldn’t dare. Marie Antoinette tried that and we all know what happened to her. Was it not another Frenchman, no less than Napoleon Bonaparte who believed that an army marches on its stomach? Well the same can be said of a nation. A well fed population glued to their TV sets is unlikely to start a revolution.
I believe that the diet will eventually lead to Sarko’s demise. The regime will make him irritable, miserable, irrational and impossible to live with which could be a short term inconvenience for France but a long term blessing. But then politicians are unhinged and unreliable at the best of times and one should not get too attached to them. Their political lifespan should ideally be brief like a Hollywood marriage. Like overpaid investment bankers, the function they perform is socially useless. I still find the idea rather quaint that we are required to vote for people who we know are lying to us but then so much of what we are duped into doing by society, by large corporations, by institutions, by what the French call La Systeme, is based on a monumental lie.
Nicolas Sarkozy is at best a temporary aberration and an amusing distraction. He is a passing fad like his diet. Thankfully his habits are not a reliable indicator of where France is ultimately headed. While the rest of the civilized and thinking world wants to live in a village and emulate the hedonistic French diet and lifestyle, he wants to act like a neurotic Upper East Side Manhattanite. All that his diet tells us is that he is a vain man and a president increasingly isolating himself and out of touch with his people. And the damning evidence against him is mounting. Only last week, in an act of hubris and blatant nepotism, he broke his 2007 promise to the electorate and appointed his son as the head of EPAD, the organization which runs the controversial La Defense business district.
Sarko’s diet is bad for the image and prestige of France. The French public, have quite sensibly chosen not to follow his example. They shrug their shoulders with supreme Gallic indifference, pour themselves a fine glass of Bordeaux and tuck into a hearty cassoulet. We all marvel at the French paradox. We love the French because they are refreshingly different in a world obsessed with uniformity and compliance. Their cars are different, their aircraft are different, their women and their films are different. We love the French because they smoke, they drink and eat whatever they want and yet they still manage to outlive the stressed out of their minds Americans crippled by fear.
Charles de Gaulle once remarked, “France cannot be France without glory.”
I say bollocks! The price of glory is too high and always paid with the blood, guts and sacrifices of ordinary people, by citizens like you and me. There is nothing glorious about being dead. Two million people died because of Napoleon’s quest for glory. Another fifty million died when another megalomaniac, Adolf Hitler pursued his twisted idea of glory for a greater Nazi Germany.
I say forget glory, forget silly diets and forget politicians. France cannot be France without gastronomy. France cannot be France without its villages, its café’s and its legendary culinary traditions. France cannot be France without its celebrated cheeses, its rich pates, its excellent wines and crusty baguettes. But France can and will be France without Nicolas Sarkozy.
Anyone for crème brulee?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Bribery & Corruption the Greek Way
“You first parents of the human race….who ruined yourself for an apple, what might you have done for a truffled turkey?”
Brillat Savarin
French Epicure &Gastronome
Bribery and corruption is as old as the hills. In fact after prostitution, it is the second oldest profession. Aristotle may be the founding father of ethics but the Greeks are certainly not fanatical when it comes to acting in an ethical way. Cynical pragmatism and extreme self-interest rather than idealism and absolute considerations of virtue, guides their actions. If by virtue however we rely on the ancient Greek meaning of the word “arête”, meaning excellence or being good at something, a relative rather than a moralistic term, then the Greeks are virtuous in that they excel at bribery. They have turned the nefarious art of bribery into a course in business efficiency. They have made it a vocation.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Greek Chapter of Transparency International, Greeks paid an estimated 748 million Euros or
R 9, 5 billion in bribes in 2008. It reported that sixty percent of these bribes were paid at public hospitals, tax offices, the transport department and land planning offices. It appears that most of the money went to pay corrupt tax officials with an average payment of 2 362 Euros as opposed to average payments of 222 Euros at the transport department. These figures probably exclude the millions in bribes paid by industrialists, ship owners and Greek businessmen to ministers and leading politicians in both the conservative ruling party and the socialist opposition party.
The unruly freedom loving Greeks dislike authority and believe that the rules do not apply to them. In fact they do their level best to undermine most attempts to govern them. They hate paying taxes as much as they hate standing in queues. The devious Greeks lead the field in Europe when it comes to economic delinquency and tax evasion with the Italians coming a close second. In Greece tax evasion has replaced gambling, fornicating and complaining as the national sport. Part of the problem may lie in the ingrained belief that the state is corrupt and politicians are and always have been corrupt. They will find ways to steal tax-payers money. Why become complicit and reward them by paying taxes?
It may also have something to do with the psyche of the Greeks and their Roman neighbours. You get a heightened sense of rampant individualism and unrestrained egotism to the point where it becomes a psychopathy. In this moral wasteland this “me first” culture mutates into extreme atomism, the word Greeks use to describe a person or individual as an indivisible entity in its own right. The ancient Greeks however also used the word “idiotes” hence “idiot” to describe a private individual who lacks a community spirit. They knew that co-operation is the glue that holds society together.
There is strict compliance and monitoring when it comes to collecting basic sales tax yet absolute chaos when it comes to everything else. God forbid you buy a spanakopita or a cheese pie from a street vendor and he doesn’t print and give you a sales receipt. If caught by a roving inspector, both the seller and the buyer are heavily fined.
The Greek ministry of economics and finance at one stage had to look at innovative ways to recover unpaid taxes. It discovered that some high net worth individuals were reporting huge losses and paying very little personal tax yet they were living in magnificent villas with five toilets. So after a quick crash course in how to spot toilet evasion, tax inspectors were converted into toilet inspectors and a toilet tax was imposed. Greece is not alone here. Sweden has a bathroom tax. Shower friendly South Africa on the other hand, is going the other way. Under President Jacob Zuma, showers will become tax-free and crime free zones. Shower installations are water-wise and considered essential communal recreation structures so in future they will be a tax deductible expense.
In Greece, instead of paying your own taxes why not cut a deal and grease the palms of a sympathetic and needy tax official. Yiannis the tax official has a stay at home wife and three hungry children who are eating him out of home and pension. He needs some extra cash to complete the renovations at his summer cottage in his father’s village. Along comes Spiros, the plumber who knows somebody who knows Yiannis. Spiros meets Yiannis at an ice-cream kiosk on the far side of Athens where nobody knows them and reports his neighbour Petros.
Petros owns a souvlaki joint on a busy plateia in the Plaka district where he does a roaring trade until the early hours of the morning. In these troubled credit starved times it’s a rare and valuable commodity. It’s a cash business. His customers include taxi-drivers, students, policemen, off-duty prostitutes, politicians and night-club performers. Although Petros lives in a modest two bedroom apartment with only one toilet in an unfashionable suburb of Athens, he cannot resist buying the new 325i BMW cabriolet. This hubris and offence against Nemesis, the goddess of fallen heroes leads to his downfall. The shiny new black BMW catches the eye of the envious Spiros. One night Petros and Spiros share some mezethes. They get drunk on ouzo and Petros confides in his neighbour and tells him that he has huge piles of cash stashed away at the bottom of his cupboard because he doesn’t trust the banks.
The older Greeks know that there are two things that are difficult to conceal, and that is great wealth and a cough. Since ancient times, the Greeks have envied the good fortune of others. They have a remarkable aptitude for spiteful resentment, pettiness, back-stabbing and treachery. In this they may be no different to other great nations. Also the Greeks are suspicious by nature. They have always been suspicious of any mortal excess, be it great talent, great beauty and great wealth. Besides it’s best to keep ones head down and temper ones ambition lest one invokes the wrath of Nemesis, provoking her to unleash swift retribution and vengeance.
Spiros tells Yiannis the tax official about the cash that Petros is hoarding. In return Spiros gets a special tax rebate and now has the spare cash to buy his mistress Soula that gold baby Rolex that she has always craved. Spiros will also install Yiannis’ new Hans Grohe, multi-nozzle shower, free of charge in his summer cottage in the village.
Yiannis the tax official pays Petros a visit at his souvlaki joint in the Plaka. Yiannis tells Petros that he knows about his stash of cash. Petros gives Yiannis an envelope with 5000 Euros in it in return for his silence and co-operation. As an added incentive Petros throws in free souvlaki pita with all the trimmings and extra chips for a year for Yiannis, his wife Katinoula and his three obese children.
Until recently Greece did not have a comprehensive peri-urban and outlying areas development plan nor a proper computerised title deeds filing and registry system. The funds allocated by the EU for this purpose disappeared. For unscrupulous property developers this presented many fertile opportunities to plunder. If you wanted to build on land that was not zoned for urban or residential development you had several choices open to you. You could set alight and burn vast tracts of magnificent pine trees that once graced the land and protected it from future development. You then bribe an official at your local land planning office to declare the land now suitable for development. Then you bring in the concrete mixer trucks at midnight and pour foundations and slabs under headlights. The next morning it is a fait accomplit. The trees have been replaced by concrete. In this way even sidewalks, public beaches and mountain sides have been developed. Greece is full of such illegal buildings and structures making it a very upmarket favela in some areas.
At public hospitals in Greece you pay hospital orderlies so that you are not left lying on a bed in the corridor or worse on a stretcher in the basement next to the boiler. Worse can also happen. You might be sent to theatre and get a hysterectomy instead of an appendectomy. Now that might not sound too bad but it’s a major problem especially if you’re a male patient. In the private hospitals you give envelopes to the doctor and the nurses to ensure that you get better treatment. I too am guilty of bribing or “incentivizing” nurses and doctors for their utmost consideration. My father was dying of cancer and he was in great pain. I objected at first telling my father that it was their job, they had taken the Hippocratic Oath and owed their patients a duty of care. He replied that I was too pure and high minded. He said that it was only money. How do you refuse a dying man his last wishes?
My own experiences with the transport department in Athens made me flee Greece on the first out-bound flight and I have been in self-imposed exile for almost a decade. I paid a visit to the nearest transport department in a suburb of Athens shortly after my father died. All I wanted to do was to transfer ownership of my father’s car into my mother’s name. I walked into a dirty grey concrete building that stank of urine and stale tobacco. The walls were painted a pale fading green. I was confronted with numerous counters and several queues of wailing women and despairing men. Everyone was clutching sheaves of paper, waving them frantically in the air, at each other and shouting for no apparent reason. It looked like the trading floor of an old Bombay spice auction.
Eventually it was my turn and I approached the counter with much trepidation and a nauseous sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Before me stood a sour faced snarling unshaven lout with a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. He thrust a photocopied piece of paper at me listing twenty or so requirements that had to be complied with before the transfer of ownership could take place. Death certificates, identity documents, passports, affidavits, registration papers, tax certificates etc. He shouted at me, I shouted at him and I left cursing him, his family, his country, his thieving brigand ancestors, the Turkish blood in his veins, vowing never to return. I stormed out of the building and noticed several seedy looking touts with tight trousers and droopy moustaches loitering on the pavement outside. They looked like anorexic pimps. One of them slithered next to me and gave me a slant eyed hyena smile and offered to ‘facilitate’ any transaction with the officials inside the building for a small fee. He pointed to a small office on the opposite side of the street that specialised in dealing with such matters. Then I noticed that there were rows of similar transport ‘liaison’ or assistance bureaus. 200 Euros for the bureau and a further 200 Euros for the appropriate official inside and the matter would be expedited with a minimum of fuss, bother or supporting documentation. I could not afford to stay in Greece for a minute longer so the matter was handed to the family attorney who dealt with the matter after shuffling many papers and a considerable delay lasting all of two years. It would have been easier, cheaper and considerably more satisfying to set the car alight outside the transport department, with the offensive bureaucrat strapped to the roof rack and buy my mother a new car.
There are many issues to consider. Where did it all start? How did the Greeks become like this? How did this immoral impulse or instinct evolve? Are their actions immoral or simply amoral? Is it a case of selective morality or a complete lack of moral conscience? Why do Swedes and Norwegians not behave like this? Then there’s the slippery slope argument. What happens to a society when we all behave this way? Greece today has crippling public debt that stands at almost 92% of GDP. This lack of fiscal discipline may ultimately cost Greece its economic sovereignty as the EU considers measures to place Greece under a strict rehabilitation programme along with the three other misbehaving European member states collectively called ‘PIGS’ by Brussels Eurocrats, (Portugal, Italy, Greece & Spain).
When did the Greeks lose their sense of morality? Or maybe the question should rather be; ‘how can you lose something which you didn’t have in the first place?’ As with many things we look to history for the origins of the problem. The malaise and rot probably started in ancient Greece where they understood the art of the possible and expediency in all matters not just politics. For instance, it is a little known fact that one of the building blocks of Athenian democracy was the right to cruise for whores. Solon, the Archon of Athens, overwhelmed by an egalitarian impulse decreed that prostitutes should be available to everybody so he used state-funding to subsidize brothels. The sex-trade boomed. Fast forward 2400 years and nothing has changed. State funding is being used to pay for the defence of our very own sex machine and paragon of virtue, Comrade Jacob Zuma.
We turn to the Sophists who were our early advocates or hired guns known for their verbal and linguistic skills. You paid them to argue your case in the agora or some other public forum and they used their formidable skill at oratory coupled with sophisticated and elaborate arguments often devoid of the truth to present a favourable case.
On this hallowed ground then of solid foundations, ruined temples and compromised morality, the practice of bribing public officials for favours continued and became refined when Greece became a Roman colony. The Romans being of similar ilk aided and abetted the Greeks in their illicit endeavours, exchanged information and shared bribery techniques and tips. It also helps of course to blame someone else for our flaws, woes and vices. And here our traditional mortal enemy the Turks come in handy.
The reluctance of many of the older generation of Greeks to display their wealth is the legacy of living under Turkish rule for four hundred years. During this time the Greeks were heavily taxed by the Sultans Beys and tax collectors. From Persian Imperialism, the Ottoman Turks and their sultans inherited a love for shuffling papers, filling in forms, a huge bureaucracy and a comprehensive tax administration to fund a huge empire. This led to the depopulation of Athens as the anarchic and individualistic Greeks fled to the mountains and the countryside to avoid the yoke and stifling control of the oppressor. People lived like bandits and fugitives in caves far from the prying eyes of the Sultan’s spies. Even the church went underground to avoid harassment and persecution. The Greeks had to rely on a combination of stealth, their native intuition and cunning to survive. They became experts at concealment and deceit. They did their best to lie low and attract as little attention to themselves as possible. They did everything they could to hide the little wealth they possessed. They also became masters of complaining and feigned subservience and relished in their new-found role as miserable wretches so that they could keep the attentions of the curious Turks at bay. The wealthy traders and money-lenders however, who needed to stay in the city and conduct business simply bribed the very amenable Turkish officials, all the way up to the top echelons of the Sultan’s palace.
Death and taxes are supposed to be the only two certain things in life or so the saying goes. As we have seen not necessarily true in Greece when it comes to paying taxes. Transparency International omits to mention the payment of bribes to priests. So even in death if your family properly “incentivizes” the priest officiating at your funeral, he will wear his more elaborate and ornate ruby studded cross instead of the plain one he wears every day and he will also add a few extra verses to his prayer for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. Here too I speak of experience.
No frontier has escaped the attentions of the wily Greeks. The Space Exploration Agency of the European Commission wanted to send the first European into space. The CEO of the Space Agency asked for applications from interested parties and their costing projections.
An English astronaut asked the agency for 1 million Euros to do the job.
The French astronaut asked for 2 million Euros to do the job.
The Greek applicant, a taxi-driver from Kolonaki asked for 3 million Euros.
When he was asked by the CEO of the agency why three million Euros, he replied: one million Euros for you, one million Euros for me and one million Euros to send the stupid Englishman into space.
Costas Ayiotis
Pavement Philosopher
Pretoria
2 March 2009
Brillat Savarin
French Epicure &Gastronome
Bribery and corruption is as old as the hills. In fact after prostitution, it is the second oldest profession. Aristotle may be the founding father of ethics but the Greeks are certainly not fanatical when it comes to acting in an ethical way. Cynical pragmatism and extreme self-interest rather than idealism and absolute considerations of virtue, guides their actions. If by virtue however we rely on the ancient Greek meaning of the word “arête”, meaning excellence or being good at something, a relative rather than a moralistic term, then the Greeks are virtuous in that they excel at bribery. They have turned the nefarious art of bribery into a course in business efficiency. They have made it a vocation.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Greek Chapter of Transparency International, Greeks paid an estimated 748 million Euros or
R 9, 5 billion in bribes in 2008. It reported that sixty percent of these bribes were paid at public hospitals, tax offices, the transport department and land planning offices. It appears that most of the money went to pay corrupt tax officials with an average payment of 2 362 Euros as opposed to average payments of 222 Euros at the transport department. These figures probably exclude the millions in bribes paid by industrialists, ship owners and Greek businessmen to ministers and leading politicians in both the conservative ruling party and the socialist opposition party.
The unruly freedom loving Greeks dislike authority and believe that the rules do not apply to them. In fact they do their level best to undermine most attempts to govern them. They hate paying taxes as much as they hate standing in queues. The devious Greeks lead the field in Europe when it comes to economic delinquency and tax evasion with the Italians coming a close second. In Greece tax evasion has replaced gambling, fornicating and complaining as the national sport. Part of the problem may lie in the ingrained belief that the state is corrupt and politicians are and always have been corrupt. They will find ways to steal tax-payers money. Why become complicit and reward them by paying taxes?
It may also have something to do with the psyche of the Greeks and their Roman neighbours. You get a heightened sense of rampant individualism and unrestrained egotism to the point where it becomes a psychopathy. In this moral wasteland this “me first” culture mutates into extreme atomism, the word Greeks use to describe a person or individual as an indivisible entity in its own right. The ancient Greeks however also used the word “idiotes” hence “idiot” to describe a private individual who lacks a community spirit. They knew that co-operation is the glue that holds society together.
There is strict compliance and monitoring when it comes to collecting basic sales tax yet absolute chaos when it comes to everything else. God forbid you buy a spanakopita or a cheese pie from a street vendor and he doesn’t print and give you a sales receipt. If caught by a roving inspector, both the seller and the buyer are heavily fined.
The Greek ministry of economics and finance at one stage had to look at innovative ways to recover unpaid taxes. It discovered that some high net worth individuals were reporting huge losses and paying very little personal tax yet they were living in magnificent villas with five toilets. So after a quick crash course in how to spot toilet evasion, tax inspectors were converted into toilet inspectors and a toilet tax was imposed. Greece is not alone here. Sweden has a bathroom tax. Shower friendly South Africa on the other hand, is going the other way. Under President Jacob Zuma, showers will become tax-free and crime free zones. Shower installations are water-wise and considered essential communal recreation structures so in future they will be a tax deductible expense.
In Greece, instead of paying your own taxes why not cut a deal and grease the palms of a sympathetic and needy tax official. Yiannis the tax official has a stay at home wife and three hungry children who are eating him out of home and pension. He needs some extra cash to complete the renovations at his summer cottage in his father’s village. Along comes Spiros, the plumber who knows somebody who knows Yiannis. Spiros meets Yiannis at an ice-cream kiosk on the far side of Athens where nobody knows them and reports his neighbour Petros.
Petros owns a souvlaki joint on a busy plateia in the Plaka district where he does a roaring trade until the early hours of the morning. In these troubled credit starved times it’s a rare and valuable commodity. It’s a cash business. His customers include taxi-drivers, students, policemen, off-duty prostitutes, politicians and night-club performers. Although Petros lives in a modest two bedroom apartment with only one toilet in an unfashionable suburb of Athens, he cannot resist buying the new 325i BMW cabriolet. This hubris and offence against Nemesis, the goddess of fallen heroes leads to his downfall. The shiny new black BMW catches the eye of the envious Spiros. One night Petros and Spiros share some mezethes. They get drunk on ouzo and Petros confides in his neighbour and tells him that he has huge piles of cash stashed away at the bottom of his cupboard because he doesn’t trust the banks.
The older Greeks know that there are two things that are difficult to conceal, and that is great wealth and a cough. Since ancient times, the Greeks have envied the good fortune of others. They have a remarkable aptitude for spiteful resentment, pettiness, back-stabbing and treachery. In this they may be no different to other great nations. Also the Greeks are suspicious by nature. They have always been suspicious of any mortal excess, be it great talent, great beauty and great wealth. Besides it’s best to keep ones head down and temper ones ambition lest one invokes the wrath of Nemesis, provoking her to unleash swift retribution and vengeance.
Spiros tells Yiannis the tax official about the cash that Petros is hoarding. In return Spiros gets a special tax rebate and now has the spare cash to buy his mistress Soula that gold baby Rolex that she has always craved. Spiros will also install Yiannis’ new Hans Grohe, multi-nozzle shower, free of charge in his summer cottage in the village.
Yiannis the tax official pays Petros a visit at his souvlaki joint in the Plaka. Yiannis tells Petros that he knows about his stash of cash. Petros gives Yiannis an envelope with 5000 Euros in it in return for his silence and co-operation. As an added incentive Petros throws in free souvlaki pita with all the trimmings and extra chips for a year for Yiannis, his wife Katinoula and his three obese children.
Until recently Greece did not have a comprehensive peri-urban and outlying areas development plan nor a proper computerised title deeds filing and registry system. The funds allocated by the EU for this purpose disappeared. For unscrupulous property developers this presented many fertile opportunities to plunder. If you wanted to build on land that was not zoned for urban or residential development you had several choices open to you. You could set alight and burn vast tracts of magnificent pine trees that once graced the land and protected it from future development. You then bribe an official at your local land planning office to declare the land now suitable for development. Then you bring in the concrete mixer trucks at midnight and pour foundations and slabs under headlights. The next morning it is a fait accomplit. The trees have been replaced by concrete. In this way even sidewalks, public beaches and mountain sides have been developed. Greece is full of such illegal buildings and structures making it a very upmarket favela in some areas.
At public hospitals in Greece you pay hospital orderlies so that you are not left lying on a bed in the corridor or worse on a stretcher in the basement next to the boiler. Worse can also happen. You might be sent to theatre and get a hysterectomy instead of an appendectomy. Now that might not sound too bad but it’s a major problem especially if you’re a male patient. In the private hospitals you give envelopes to the doctor and the nurses to ensure that you get better treatment. I too am guilty of bribing or “incentivizing” nurses and doctors for their utmost consideration. My father was dying of cancer and he was in great pain. I objected at first telling my father that it was their job, they had taken the Hippocratic Oath and owed their patients a duty of care. He replied that I was too pure and high minded. He said that it was only money. How do you refuse a dying man his last wishes?
My own experiences with the transport department in Athens made me flee Greece on the first out-bound flight and I have been in self-imposed exile for almost a decade. I paid a visit to the nearest transport department in a suburb of Athens shortly after my father died. All I wanted to do was to transfer ownership of my father’s car into my mother’s name. I walked into a dirty grey concrete building that stank of urine and stale tobacco. The walls were painted a pale fading green. I was confronted with numerous counters and several queues of wailing women and despairing men. Everyone was clutching sheaves of paper, waving them frantically in the air, at each other and shouting for no apparent reason. It looked like the trading floor of an old Bombay spice auction.
Eventually it was my turn and I approached the counter with much trepidation and a nauseous sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Before me stood a sour faced snarling unshaven lout with a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. He thrust a photocopied piece of paper at me listing twenty or so requirements that had to be complied with before the transfer of ownership could take place. Death certificates, identity documents, passports, affidavits, registration papers, tax certificates etc. He shouted at me, I shouted at him and I left cursing him, his family, his country, his thieving brigand ancestors, the Turkish blood in his veins, vowing never to return. I stormed out of the building and noticed several seedy looking touts with tight trousers and droopy moustaches loitering on the pavement outside. They looked like anorexic pimps. One of them slithered next to me and gave me a slant eyed hyena smile and offered to ‘facilitate’ any transaction with the officials inside the building for a small fee. He pointed to a small office on the opposite side of the street that specialised in dealing with such matters. Then I noticed that there were rows of similar transport ‘liaison’ or assistance bureaus. 200 Euros for the bureau and a further 200 Euros for the appropriate official inside and the matter would be expedited with a minimum of fuss, bother or supporting documentation. I could not afford to stay in Greece for a minute longer so the matter was handed to the family attorney who dealt with the matter after shuffling many papers and a considerable delay lasting all of two years. It would have been easier, cheaper and considerably more satisfying to set the car alight outside the transport department, with the offensive bureaucrat strapped to the roof rack and buy my mother a new car.
There are many issues to consider. Where did it all start? How did the Greeks become like this? How did this immoral impulse or instinct evolve? Are their actions immoral or simply amoral? Is it a case of selective morality or a complete lack of moral conscience? Why do Swedes and Norwegians not behave like this? Then there’s the slippery slope argument. What happens to a society when we all behave this way? Greece today has crippling public debt that stands at almost 92% of GDP. This lack of fiscal discipline may ultimately cost Greece its economic sovereignty as the EU considers measures to place Greece under a strict rehabilitation programme along with the three other misbehaving European member states collectively called ‘PIGS’ by Brussels Eurocrats, (Portugal, Italy, Greece & Spain).
When did the Greeks lose their sense of morality? Or maybe the question should rather be; ‘how can you lose something which you didn’t have in the first place?’ As with many things we look to history for the origins of the problem. The malaise and rot probably started in ancient Greece where they understood the art of the possible and expediency in all matters not just politics. For instance, it is a little known fact that one of the building blocks of Athenian democracy was the right to cruise for whores. Solon, the Archon of Athens, overwhelmed by an egalitarian impulse decreed that prostitutes should be available to everybody so he used state-funding to subsidize brothels. The sex-trade boomed. Fast forward 2400 years and nothing has changed. State funding is being used to pay for the defence of our very own sex machine and paragon of virtue, Comrade Jacob Zuma.
We turn to the Sophists who were our early advocates or hired guns known for their verbal and linguistic skills. You paid them to argue your case in the agora or some other public forum and they used their formidable skill at oratory coupled with sophisticated and elaborate arguments often devoid of the truth to present a favourable case.
On this hallowed ground then of solid foundations, ruined temples and compromised morality, the practice of bribing public officials for favours continued and became refined when Greece became a Roman colony. The Romans being of similar ilk aided and abetted the Greeks in their illicit endeavours, exchanged information and shared bribery techniques and tips. It also helps of course to blame someone else for our flaws, woes and vices. And here our traditional mortal enemy the Turks come in handy.
The reluctance of many of the older generation of Greeks to display their wealth is the legacy of living under Turkish rule for four hundred years. During this time the Greeks were heavily taxed by the Sultans Beys and tax collectors. From Persian Imperialism, the Ottoman Turks and their sultans inherited a love for shuffling papers, filling in forms, a huge bureaucracy and a comprehensive tax administration to fund a huge empire. This led to the depopulation of Athens as the anarchic and individualistic Greeks fled to the mountains and the countryside to avoid the yoke and stifling control of the oppressor. People lived like bandits and fugitives in caves far from the prying eyes of the Sultan’s spies. Even the church went underground to avoid harassment and persecution. The Greeks had to rely on a combination of stealth, their native intuition and cunning to survive. They became experts at concealment and deceit. They did their best to lie low and attract as little attention to themselves as possible. They did everything they could to hide the little wealth they possessed. They also became masters of complaining and feigned subservience and relished in their new-found role as miserable wretches so that they could keep the attentions of the curious Turks at bay. The wealthy traders and money-lenders however, who needed to stay in the city and conduct business simply bribed the very amenable Turkish officials, all the way up to the top echelons of the Sultan’s palace.
Death and taxes are supposed to be the only two certain things in life or so the saying goes. As we have seen not necessarily true in Greece when it comes to paying taxes. Transparency International omits to mention the payment of bribes to priests. So even in death if your family properly “incentivizes” the priest officiating at your funeral, he will wear his more elaborate and ornate ruby studded cross instead of the plain one he wears every day and he will also add a few extra verses to his prayer for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. Here too I speak of experience.
No frontier has escaped the attentions of the wily Greeks. The Space Exploration Agency of the European Commission wanted to send the first European into space. The CEO of the Space Agency asked for applications from interested parties and their costing projections.
An English astronaut asked the agency for 1 million Euros to do the job.
The French astronaut asked for 2 million Euros to do the job.
The Greek applicant, a taxi-driver from Kolonaki asked for 3 million Euros.
When he was asked by the CEO of the agency why three million Euros, he replied: one million Euros for you, one million Euros for me and one million Euros to send the stupid Englishman into space.
Costas Ayiotis
Pavement Philosopher
Pretoria
2 March 2009
Credit & the Bankruptcy of Banks
Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until debt becomes unbearable.
The unpaid debt will lead to the bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to Communism.
Karl Marx, 1867.
The unpaid debt will lead to the bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to Communism.
Karl Marx, 1867.
A New Dawn
The world watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama with a combination of awe, admiration and anticipation. The first African American and 44th US President swore the oath on the Lincoln bible and history was made. We wish him well. God Bless America and God Bless Barack Obama. For a brief shining moment we celebrate with America but we all know that the celebrations will be short lived.
As ever Barack Obama rose to the occasion and many of his adoring supporters standing in the freezing cold of the capital’s mall could be forgiven for thinking that they were standing in the presence of greatness. Obama is said to represent the changing face of America. This was called the USA’s Mandela moment. Obama was inspirational and eloquent. His tone was filled with resolve and determination. His love for words and his great skill as an orator were clearly evident. The bigger question is whether he will be allowed to be a “doer” and a “risk-taker”, words he used in his speech. Obama’s message was one of hope and optimism. Hope that things will get better. That despite all the difficulties and challenges America faces, it will prevail. Americans will have to make continued sacrifices and work hard but in the end America will succeed. America’s can-do attitude, spirit of enterprise and optimism will see it through.
Great expectations have been created that America will become a greater nation and a greater society under Obama’s leadership. That remains to be seen. Obama said that America was “ready to lead once more.” A pointed dig at the lack of leadership under George Bush. Nonetheless Obama deserves every chance to prove his detractors wrong. His agenda is well known. His work cut out for him. On the domestic front Obama will have to focus on resuscitating the devastated US economy, rebuilding America’s ageing infrastructure and reforming the healthcare and social security systems. To achieve this he will have to negotiate the tricky minefield of Washington politics, with its gridlock, its compromises, many rival interest groups and where a massive bureaucratic marshmallow can stifle the life out of any initiative.
In his speech he asked for the remaking or reinvention of America and a new way forward. On the international front he will be expected to provide a new direction on the Middle East, more specifically to solve the quagmire in Iraq, Gaza, Iran and Afghanistan.
Obama has been welcomed by some as “the messiah” to save America. Wishful thinking my friends. He will preside over what many astute financial analysts have called the biggest “Ponzi” scheme in the world. I fear the emperor has no clothes. In theory there is no limit to how much money the US can print but ordinary US taxpayers will be expected to pay the brunt for all his ambitious programmes as the federal deficit balloons to $2trillion. He should remember that the business of America is business and nationalisation of banks and industries can only have short term benefits primarily for Washington bureaucrats. In the long term this policy will stifle business initiative, cause massive inertia and will ultimately fail and have to be reversed at great cost.
Watching CNN however brought out the professional curmudgeon in me. Reluctantly I was forced to look beyond the Obama euphoria and adulation and direct my ire principally at the various CNN anchors and reporters. They repeatedly reminded us that this was a peaceful transition to power. This is annoying to say the least. We are not morons. Without being ungracious or detracting from this momentous occasion we know that it is a peaceful transition to power. We also know that it is a historic occasion. Somebody should point out to them that the USA is not the only country in the world where peaceful handovers of power take place. No doubt the USA with its complex system of checks and balances is one of the world’s greatest and most successful democracies. One CNN political commentator, Paul Begala even went so far as to say “no other country has this.” Well Mr. Begala, peaceful transitions to power happen all over the world, even in Africa. It is increasingly becoming the norm rather than the exception. Who will forget the miracle of South Africa’s peaceful transition to democracy in 1994 and the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black president.
Transitions to power may be peaceful. More important is what takes place after the transition to power.
Here the record in the USA and the rest of the world is not so great. Once in power the process of governing has not always been peaceful, especially in times of civil or economic strife. A brief tour of US history reveals a disturbingly high level of violence, political assassinations or attempted assassinations. Four US Presidents have been killed in office. Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F Kennedy were all assassinated in office. And if Wikipedia is correct, there have been 90 attempts to kill sitting and former US Presidents. There is also a strong possibility that two others, Presidents Zachary Taylor and Warren G. Harding were poisoned while in office. Other prominent Americans assassinated include Senator Robert Kennedy, shot in 1968 while on the campaign trail and Reverend Martin Luther King, the civil rights activist, also shot in 1968.
However we should not single out the USA here for reproach. Every country in the world has had its share of political assassinations and violence. Japan has lost 5 Prime Ministers to assassination, Spain and Romania 4 each. Just about every Latin American country has had presidents assassinated. So too have India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. If the record of some individual African states is low in this regard, it’s a dubious distinction. It’s only because of the lack of democracy and free and fair elections. There haven’t been frequent elections or regular changes of the guard. Long term totalitarian regimes like Zimbabwe have good stats in this regard only because tyrants get ousted or killed once every 20 years or so. I sincerely hope that Barack Obama serves two terms in office, succeeds in his quest to change America for the better and is spared the fate of Abraham Lincoln, who like Obama hailed from Illinois. But as Charles Manson acolyte Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme said, “anybody can kill anybody.” Somebody please tell this to the Zimbabweans.
No-one can beat the Romans of course when it comes to political assassinations. Their emperors had the shortest life expectancy in the world, a tradition continued in less deadly form in modern Italian politics. If anecdotal evidence is anything to go by, it is alarming to note that a high percentage of people all over the world expect an assassination attempt on Barack Obama, be it by Al Qaeda or by white supremacists. Unfortunately America has many enemies and Obama will have a lot of work to do to restore America’s image abroad, patch up diplomatic relationships and undo the harm caused to America’s reputation by his predecessor. Indeed as he said in his speech, America seeks peace, dignity, mutual friendship and respect. “America is a friend of each nation.” Even as he says this Obama faces the difficult and unenviable task of reaching out to the Muslim world while at the same time trying to defeat Muslim sponsored extremism and terror.
To everyone’s relief a wistful George Bush departs the scene to sulk on his Texas ranch. It was a great sight watching the giant olive green US Marine Corp One helicopter lift off and take Bush to Andrews Air Force Base and retirement. The moment was filled with symbolism and a sense of inevitability as the crowds on the national mall waved him goodbye. Like Thabo Mbeki he will ruminate on the many lost opportunities and his shattered legacy. As is the custom with departing Presidents, Bush addressed a private farewell letter to Obama. The world would give anything to know its contents. Did Bush offer Obama advice? Unlikely. Did he fill it with pleasant homilies? We’ll never know for sure. I suspect it said something along these lines:
“Dear Barack,
Welcome to the White House.
The popcorn machine in the cinema room on the second floor is broken. It needs a new butter-melter. It hasn’t been serviced since Bill left in 2000 because Dick Cheney knows how to fix it. Dick can fix anything. One time he even fixed my waffle maker.
You’re welcome to keep the jar of jelly beans that I left behind for you in the bottom draw of Lincoln’s desk in the Oval Office. It’s the only sweet part of the job.
Have a nice day, goodbye and good luck.
Kind regards
George”
Costas Ayiotis
Pavement Philosopher
20 January 2009, Pretoria
As ever Barack Obama rose to the occasion and many of his adoring supporters standing in the freezing cold of the capital’s mall could be forgiven for thinking that they were standing in the presence of greatness. Obama is said to represent the changing face of America. This was called the USA’s Mandela moment. Obama was inspirational and eloquent. His tone was filled with resolve and determination. His love for words and his great skill as an orator were clearly evident. The bigger question is whether he will be allowed to be a “doer” and a “risk-taker”, words he used in his speech. Obama’s message was one of hope and optimism. Hope that things will get better. That despite all the difficulties and challenges America faces, it will prevail. Americans will have to make continued sacrifices and work hard but in the end America will succeed. America’s can-do attitude, spirit of enterprise and optimism will see it through.
Great expectations have been created that America will become a greater nation and a greater society under Obama’s leadership. That remains to be seen. Obama said that America was “ready to lead once more.” A pointed dig at the lack of leadership under George Bush. Nonetheless Obama deserves every chance to prove his detractors wrong. His agenda is well known. His work cut out for him. On the domestic front Obama will have to focus on resuscitating the devastated US economy, rebuilding America’s ageing infrastructure and reforming the healthcare and social security systems. To achieve this he will have to negotiate the tricky minefield of Washington politics, with its gridlock, its compromises, many rival interest groups and where a massive bureaucratic marshmallow can stifle the life out of any initiative.
In his speech he asked for the remaking or reinvention of America and a new way forward. On the international front he will be expected to provide a new direction on the Middle East, more specifically to solve the quagmire in Iraq, Gaza, Iran and Afghanistan.
Obama has been welcomed by some as “the messiah” to save America. Wishful thinking my friends. He will preside over what many astute financial analysts have called the biggest “Ponzi” scheme in the world. I fear the emperor has no clothes. In theory there is no limit to how much money the US can print but ordinary US taxpayers will be expected to pay the brunt for all his ambitious programmes as the federal deficit balloons to $2trillion. He should remember that the business of America is business and nationalisation of banks and industries can only have short term benefits primarily for Washington bureaucrats. In the long term this policy will stifle business initiative, cause massive inertia and will ultimately fail and have to be reversed at great cost.
Watching CNN however brought out the professional curmudgeon in me. Reluctantly I was forced to look beyond the Obama euphoria and adulation and direct my ire principally at the various CNN anchors and reporters. They repeatedly reminded us that this was a peaceful transition to power. This is annoying to say the least. We are not morons. Without being ungracious or detracting from this momentous occasion we know that it is a peaceful transition to power. We also know that it is a historic occasion. Somebody should point out to them that the USA is not the only country in the world where peaceful handovers of power take place. No doubt the USA with its complex system of checks and balances is one of the world’s greatest and most successful democracies. One CNN political commentator, Paul Begala even went so far as to say “no other country has this.” Well Mr. Begala, peaceful transitions to power happen all over the world, even in Africa. It is increasingly becoming the norm rather than the exception. Who will forget the miracle of South Africa’s peaceful transition to democracy in 1994 and the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black president.
Transitions to power may be peaceful. More important is what takes place after the transition to power.
Here the record in the USA and the rest of the world is not so great. Once in power the process of governing has not always been peaceful, especially in times of civil or economic strife. A brief tour of US history reveals a disturbingly high level of violence, political assassinations or attempted assassinations. Four US Presidents have been killed in office. Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F Kennedy were all assassinated in office. And if Wikipedia is correct, there have been 90 attempts to kill sitting and former US Presidents. There is also a strong possibility that two others, Presidents Zachary Taylor and Warren G. Harding were poisoned while in office. Other prominent Americans assassinated include Senator Robert Kennedy, shot in 1968 while on the campaign trail and Reverend Martin Luther King, the civil rights activist, also shot in 1968.
However we should not single out the USA here for reproach. Every country in the world has had its share of political assassinations and violence. Japan has lost 5 Prime Ministers to assassination, Spain and Romania 4 each. Just about every Latin American country has had presidents assassinated. So too have India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. If the record of some individual African states is low in this regard, it’s a dubious distinction. It’s only because of the lack of democracy and free and fair elections. There haven’t been frequent elections or regular changes of the guard. Long term totalitarian regimes like Zimbabwe have good stats in this regard only because tyrants get ousted or killed once every 20 years or so. I sincerely hope that Barack Obama serves two terms in office, succeeds in his quest to change America for the better and is spared the fate of Abraham Lincoln, who like Obama hailed from Illinois. But as Charles Manson acolyte Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme said, “anybody can kill anybody.” Somebody please tell this to the Zimbabweans.
No-one can beat the Romans of course when it comes to political assassinations. Their emperors had the shortest life expectancy in the world, a tradition continued in less deadly form in modern Italian politics. If anecdotal evidence is anything to go by, it is alarming to note that a high percentage of people all over the world expect an assassination attempt on Barack Obama, be it by Al Qaeda or by white supremacists. Unfortunately America has many enemies and Obama will have a lot of work to do to restore America’s image abroad, patch up diplomatic relationships and undo the harm caused to America’s reputation by his predecessor. Indeed as he said in his speech, America seeks peace, dignity, mutual friendship and respect. “America is a friend of each nation.” Even as he says this Obama faces the difficult and unenviable task of reaching out to the Muslim world while at the same time trying to defeat Muslim sponsored extremism and terror.
To everyone’s relief a wistful George Bush departs the scene to sulk on his Texas ranch. It was a great sight watching the giant olive green US Marine Corp One helicopter lift off and take Bush to Andrews Air Force Base and retirement. The moment was filled with symbolism and a sense of inevitability as the crowds on the national mall waved him goodbye. Like Thabo Mbeki he will ruminate on the many lost opportunities and his shattered legacy. As is the custom with departing Presidents, Bush addressed a private farewell letter to Obama. The world would give anything to know its contents. Did Bush offer Obama advice? Unlikely. Did he fill it with pleasant homilies? We’ll never know for sure. I suspect it said something along these lines:
“Dear Barack,
Welcome to the White House.
The popcorn machine in the cinema room on the second floor is broken. It needs a new butter-melter. It hasn’t been serviced since Bill left in 2000 because Dick Cheney knows how to fix it. Dick can fix anything. One time he even fixed my waffle maker.
You’re welcome to keep the jar of jelly beans that I left behind for you in the bottom draw of Lincoln’s desk in the Oval Office. It’s the only sweet part of the job.
Have a nice day, goodbye and good luck.
Kind regards
George”
Costas Ayiotis
Pavement Philosopher
20 January 2009, Pretoria
Friday, October 24, 2008
Mastering the Art of Doing Nothing
Pavementism
It has been said that the Greeks have mastered the art of doing nothing purposefully. The wiser older Greeks spend most of their time on pavements and side-walk cafe's discussing their favourite topics, soccer, politics, food, women, philosophy or whatever else grabs their fancy. It’s an ancient tradition that has its origins in the Agora or open place of assembly of Athens. The younger more ambitious Greeks are busy scheming how to take short cuts and swindle their partners, their employers, the government or their relatives for short term gain. They pay no heed to the words of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew which warns us: “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul.” Similarly the ancient Greeks believed that great riches would be despised but glory never.
The Greeks are otherwise a nation of restless passengers and spectators with great expertise in social commentary. They sit uneasily on the laurels and achievements of their illustrious forefathers, the ancient Greeks. But even the ancient Greeks had slaves to do the chores and lots of time on their hands to develop new theories for the betterment of humanity. The modern Greeks are unlikely to improve the lot of mankind with new theories or by inventing a space shuttle or vacuum cleaner but at least by passing their time debating at their favourite pavement cafes they cause the least harm to society.
My friend and fellow pavement philosopher, Quinten Knox has recently coined a phrase called "Pavementism."* Pavementism is a spontaneous movement which encourages people to slow down and smell the coffee. Its adherents are called pavementistas. Pavementistas are a special breed of very sociable people who happily spend their time on the pavement with absolutely no idea about what they are going to do next. If you are someone who likes drawing up lengthy to-do lists or lives with diaries, deadlines and schedules, then chances are you’re not a pavementista. You’re a stone cold sober realista. Similarly if you’re a devoted fashionista or someone who has children at a private school, you are unlikely to be a pavementista. You are more than likely a reluctant payista.
Pavementistas believe that when they are on the pavement, they are in the midst of life. Enjoying coffee on a pavement somewhere, watching the passing daily parade of people and cars go by and lots of free, unallocated time, is the ultimate ambition of a true pavementista or the summum bonum, the greatest good. Baristas make the coffee and pavementistas drink the coffee. And coffee shops in shopping malls don’t count as worthy destinations for pavementista purists. The coffee shop must have a real pavement and face a public street, square or piazza and be family owned not part of some branded franchise. There are not many original side-walk cafes left and they deserve to be supported and preserved because of the worthy role they play in the social fabric of a neighbourhood.
Diogenes the Cynic was one of the earliest intentional pavementistas and pavement philosophers. He was a 4th century BC philosopher who lived with his faithful hound in a tub on the pavements and side-walk gutters of ancient Athens and Corinth. He walked the streets during daytime with his lantern and staff in search of an honest man and a real human being. But none was to be found. He found only rascals and scoundrels. Diogenes shunned the corrupt practices, earthly pleasures, the vanity, artificialities, pretension and luxuries of Athenian society while extolling the virtues of self-sufficiency, austerity and a simple lifestyle. Alexander the Great went to visit Diogenes and as he stood over the philosopher, who was lying relaxing at the side of the road, the young king asked him whether there was anything he could do for him. Diogenes looked up at Alexander and asked him to stop blocking his sunlight. Alexander was so impressed with this reply that he told his assembled courtiers and generals that if he was not Alexander, he would be Diogenes.
Deliberate and enlightened pavementism is the very antithesis of mindless busyness, haste and multi-tasking. It requires long periods of reflection, observation and contemplation. A pavementista has the rare ability to spend 3 to 4 stress free hours on a pavement everyday, drinking coffee alone or with friends without feeling guilty. Certain nations are better at producing pavementistas than others. The leading countries in the field at the moment are Greece, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Italy, France and Portugal. In many of the rural villages of Greece and Turkey, the men hang out at the coffee shop, smoking and drinking small cups of dark strong coffee. It’s Greek coffee if you’re in Greece and Turkish coffee if you’re in Turkey, but it tastes and looks the same and is brewed the same way. The women are prepared to work the fields for the sake of peace in the home and to keep the men happy. They deem it a better compromise than sending them off to war or to some distant factory or mine. Japan has not produced any noteworthy pavementistas but it has produced many legendary train gropers and frotteurs. Unfortunately the Protestant work ethic and misguided Nazi inspired notions that work shall set you free has killed pavementism as a movement in many countries. Guilt, fear and ego are currently recognized as the three main obstacles to becoming a successful pavementista. Pavementistas find their inspiration on the pavement. They are usually sensitive creative types like poets, artists, day-dreamers, layabouts, writers and pavement philosophers. But they can also be plumbers, electricians, hashish smokers, voyeurs, pimps, drug-dealers, cigarette vendors, arms dealers, car salesmen, unemployed stock brokers and commodities traders.
I have bumped into many retired bankers, civil servants and former CEO’s, mostly in Greece. They still have a manic, harassed look on their faces like they’re being hunted or chasing some elusive prize. They don’t get it. They clutch small leather strap pouches and are always in a rush, continuously running around town, doing errands for their wives, buying stamps, dog food and paying utility bills. They cannot relax and find it very difficult to become pavementistas. They are fatally addicted to their own busyness and self-importance. They are busy merely for the sake of being busy.
Admittedly many who aspire to join the movement are trapped by their present circumstances. Many might ask how does one become a pavementista when you have a full-time job, mortgage, car payments, overdrafts, kids at school, and a disgruntled mother- in- law. Zorbas full catastrophe in other words. You’re a highly paid professional who works 18 hour days. You work to pay an ever growing list of bills and your clients make huge demands on your time and headspace. You get home shattered, with energy levels depleted and spend very little quality time with your family. Your spouse is stuck with you either out of economic necessity, dependence or habit. Your children are distant and aloof. How can you ever become a pavementista? It’s fine for a while if you really love what you do but otherwise it’s a tough situation for most people on the relentless daily treadmill with clients and corporates making ever increasing demands on exhausted, burnt-out people. Life becomes an endurance test. You’re a zombie on weekends, feeling like you’ve just done 15 rounds in the ring with Mike Tyson.
The words of American writer Henry Thoreau come to mind when he said: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." If you’re chained to your desk and find yourself like I once did staring out the window of your corner office, desperate to escape and longing for freedom and a simpler life, you start by becoming a frequent escapista, the first rung on the ladder before graduating with eventual pavementista status. You run out for a quick cup of coffee. Once a week is not enough. You gradually build up your fitness, tolerance and exposure levels until you can spend more time out of the office without feeling remorse or guilt. You may however need to opt for a pared down lifestyle, give up the big house, crippling payments and the shiny BMW that’s killing you every month and trade down for a Toyota Yaris and a small apartment. Are you prepared to trade your illusory status and fleeting possessions for more freedom and less money?
Some critics condemn the lifestyle of committed pavementistas as being non-productive and irresponsible. These critics are usually corporate raiders who specialize in gambling with other peoples money and pension fund fraud. Pavementistas have also been accused of being "social Velcro" and "pavement sluts" who live on the fringes and margins of society eating the crumbs that fall off the corporate dining tables. This is simply false. It is true however that genuine pavementistas have simple tastes and needs usually satisfied with a quick shot of the finest Arabica but otherwise they are non-conformists with little time for the conventions, norms and demands of polite and organized society. As a rule however, pavementistas are peace loving, mild-mannered, non-competitive and very tolerant phlegmatic types. They only become militant when they are forced to attend formal functions, wait in queues or renew their driver’s license.
Some commentators refer to dedicated pavementistas as “pavement specials.” This description is usually reserved to describe dogs lacking some form of pedigree. This analogy is completely understandable but while pavementistas share many common traits with mans best friend, they are not dogs. Dogs will eat anything then lick their balls and relieve themselves in public. Dogs however have their virtues. They are companionable, honest and faithful. Like dogs pavementistas can happily sit outside for hours sunning themselves, content to live in the present without anxiety, without dwelling on the past or worrying about the unfathomable and unpredictable future.
Pavementistas believe that speed; busyness, cocktail parties, social climbing and corporate networking are extremely dangerous to your health. Research shows that health is linked to higher levels of education and status. PhD’s and respectable members of the community who contribute their time and energy to society are supposed to be healthier. Scientific studies also confirm however that people who meet and socialize every day with friends over coffee on the pavement tend to be happier and live longer. The pavement is egalitarian and democratic. It is the modern Agora. It is the great leveler among men, the forum and marketplace of ideas. In ancient Rome, the forum served as the central public meeting place where people gathered to air their views, to seek justice and to restore their faith and hope. The pavement revives this ancient custom.
Senior pavementistas of many years service and experience become the doyens and ambassadors of the Pavementista movement. They then become elevated to "boulevardier" status on account of their peripatetic lifestyle and the numerous pavement cafes that they have visited all over the world. This is the same as being a "Chevalier" or knight of the pavement. This gives them the right to hold court, to join in on any pavement discussion and offer their views and counsel without invitation. They also mediate in disputes between feuding pavementistas, but this is very rare.
When pavementistas look back on their life, they never regret the happy hours spent with friends and loved ones drinking coffee on the pavement. They are comforted by the immortal lines of T.S.Eliot:
“For I have known them all already, known them all -,
Have known the evenings, mornings and afternoons,
I have measured my life with coffee spoons.”
Costas Ayiotis
25 October 2008
Waterkloof, Pretoria.
Aspiring pavementistas should also read “For the Love of Coffee & Diogenes the Cynic” posted in the archive of this blog. *For a description and definition of Pavementism, also go to http://www.quintenknox.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)