Greece

What has happened to this wonderful country?   My dear friend has a Greek daughter in law who is according to her - a perfect wife and mother.  Lovely, but she admits that her family in Greece have never paid a household bill....ever!  We just don't do that at home she states, we ignore them.
So what's changed for her?  the change is that whilst her husband works out a 5 year contract they now live in Germany where bills are paid as soon as they arrive - why? because that is what is expected in Germany.   She says that no one in Europe knows how bad things are in Greece - yet the Greeks are going on strike because they do not want any cuts.

Sister Catherine Wybourne reported today that the Church in Greece is feeding 35,000 people every day.   Hope religion bashers note where people go first for help when in dire need, says Sister Catherine.

Other friends of ours live in Spain - another beautiful country in dire straights.  They live in a very large apartment block by the sea which houses a mixture of Europeans.  Last year a note was sent to every owner asking for their share of a very large bill on the facade of the building.  Our friends paid up immediately as did their neighbours and waited for the work to begin - nothing happened for 15 months so all began to inquire.  Eventually fed up of the fussing Europeans the management posted a 'name and shame' poster with names and number of apartments.  All the German owners had paid up, as had all the British owners, all the French owners likewise; so who hadn't paid?   well it was the 23 Spanish owners - not one had paid a penny between them!  The new countries of the EU are still learning.