A man dies and goes to hell. There he finds that
there is a different hell for each country.
He goes to the German hell and asks, “What do they do here?” He is told: “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for an hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.” The man does not like the sound of that at all, so he moves on.
He checks out the American hell, as well as the Russian hell, and many more. He discovers they are more or less the same as the German hell.
Then he comes to the Greek hell and finds there is a long line of people from all nationalities waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, “What do they do here?” He is told, “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for an hour. Then the Greek devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.”
“But that is exactly the same as the other hells. Why are there so many people waiting to get in?”
He is told, “Because the maintenance crew is always on strike, there’s no electricity so the electric chair doesn’t work, Albanians have stolen all the nails from the bed, and the Greek devil is a former government employee, so he comes in, signs the register and then goes to have his kefedaki and eat kourabiedes all day…”
(No offense! Just a joke which I picked up in the internet!)
He goes to the German hell and asks, “What do they do here?” He is told: “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for an hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.” The man does not like the sound of that at all, so he moves on.
He checks out the American hell, as well as the Russian hell, and many more. He discovers they are more or less the same as the German hell.
Then he comes to the Greek hell and finds there is a long line of people from all nationalities waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, “What do they do here?” He is told, “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for an hour. Then the Greek devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.”
“But that is exactly the same as the other hells. Why are there so many people waiting to get in?”
He is told, “Because the maintenance crew is always on strike, there’s no electricity so the electric chair doesn’t work, Albanians have stolen all the nails from the bed, and the Greek devil is a former government employee, so he comes in, signs the register and then goes to have his kefedaki and eat kourabiedes all day…”
(No offense! Just a joke which I picked up in the internet!)
No offense taken.
ReplyDeleteSomething that the foreigners must realize though, is that the above stereotypes don't apply to all Greeks. They only apply to the Greeks who work for the public sector.
Greeks that work for the private sector (with the exception of the so-called "closed professions"):
- get paid peanuts.
- work in bad conditions.
- don't retire prematurely.
- don't get to strike (cause they'll get fired if they do).
- are the ones who have to deal with the inefficiency of the public sector.
- are the ones who have to deal with the high prices that the restricted markets (i.e. the closed professions) bring.
So although it's fashionable to blame all Greeks, let's spare a thought for Greeks like the above, who have been victimized even more by the Eurozone's misguided policies.