Sheer incompetence...

In this morning's edition of the Flemish paper 'De Morgen' a four page coverage (including the frontpage) of the recent forest fire incidents in Greece was included. The Morgen comics artist NAK (?) dispayed a unique sketch with the best capture of a reality that brings about bitter laughs. I took the liberty to freely translate it in English for broader comprehension of his text.

If you follow somewhat closer the current political situation in Belgium, you'd have heard that still, as we speak, we have no clue when the new coalition government will be formed, following the most recent national parlementary elections of past June 11th. Belgium is doomed since its foundation in the early part of the 19th century to be formed from two separate and entirely different communities (culture, language but also racial/DNA origins) into one country with two populations that typically despise or contempt each other, the Flemish 60% and the Waloons 40%. They have known that for hundreds of years but nevertheless the Netherlands and France decided to put a buffer zone between them to avoid further border confrontations among themselves and so the non-country Belgium was formed.

Thus, in the recent cabinet formation negotiations, it was again natural that the Flemish wanted one thing and the Waloons another... who's right and who' wrong? Both are right and wrong but it's a pity they can't subdivide this place in two, attach the Flemish to Holland and the Waloons to France and make out of Brussels a sort of Washington DC home to the Eurocrats. Simply said, impossible to do. In the meantime, when we'll ever have a new government following our most recent polls is anybody's guess. Mission Impossible IV.

On the other side the forests of the land of my ancestors are burning to the ground... 60 citizens burnt alive to this moment. Olympia itself was threatened by the fire including the stadium and the museum with unique archaelogical treasures (whose doorsteps were licked by flames one reporter wrote). I am bitterly thinking that the Britts are right after all to keep the Elgin marbles in their British Museum and protect this world heritage from contemporary Greek incompetence.

I often wonder how much modern Greeks have in common with those Ancients who dominated the Western World for a thousand years BC with their unique contributions to sciences, engineering, philosophy and every form of art we know? Answer: not that much! Not even 1% if you ask me.

The current cabinet's (of Constantine Karamanlis) monumental incompetence and sheer arrogance in not found even among Australian drunk aboriginals. Their 'bouloukos' PM (meaning baby fatso) would rather enjoy his BBQed lamb chops and drink ouzo and retsina instead of handling the country's problems. He would if he could! Yeah right! All he and his cabinet members are interested in, like any other government member in the country since its UDI around the same time Belgium was founded (what an irony), is how to build small fortunes from contractor bribes and by abusing EU funding approved by naive Eurocrats who believe Greek Officials have 'integrity'. Makes me paraphrase a Greek Beer billboard: 'We have given 300,000 words to the world, except one, integrity... (cos, we don't have that one in our vocabulary)'

Sad story. 'Commitment to a collective responsibility is not the strongest virtue of the Greeks', writes C.P. Papadichos, a chief columnist. 'We got too many bad habits. Without thinking of consequences, we light the BBQ or throw the remains of still burning cigarettes out of the car.' How right he is... what he actually says, we Greeks, as long as we solve our own problem we don't give a f*ck what happens next. Ego is a Greek word related to Egoism and means 'I' in modern Greek. I, me, mine like legendary Lennon sang in the sixties. We Greeks are the expert egocentric animals of the planet... I have yet to meet someone with more egocentric attitude than an average Greek's. Wunderbar! Bleeds my heart to think that I am one of them myself!