JP is a good friend of mine, and a senior official at the Treasury of France.
A few months ago there was a lot of talk about whether Greece should or should not have joined... the EU, the monetary Union etc.
JP summarily dismissed the issue: "this is "bullshit", as our friends the yanks would say. Really!".
"Of course Greece should be part of the EU & the monetary union. And the numbers were OK, let's remain serious. So what if some figures are off -- and do you know in what direction they are off, anyway?"
Then he added:
"To give you an idea of size, at Greece's level, the total errors is about as much as one of my Friday afternoons -- or less. So one can't give a damn, Greece is a small country and one can manage it. Plus, sh*t, it's Greece -- so you would have the country in the EU anyway, for the love of God. Let's be serious."
Then JP floored me:
"(...)
It's not the numbers... What we never foresaw was your politicians (appetite)! For 30 years they have been pillaging, non-stop! Even the furious Genghis Khan settled down after a while -- but not your politicians!
It was impossible for ANYONE to foresee this -- there had been no historical precedent!"
Greece's politicians set historical precedent.
Too bad for the population of the country, i.e. the 10-odd million minus the 10-12,000 intimately connected political clan.
Maybe these people deserve to have special ID card, stipulating their non-political status...
