'We are shocked, shocked ... !'

Po 30 ledna 2012

I was listening to my regular dose of This American Life, this time about the possible breakup of the European continent. It made me to remember on the early 2000s, and what we were thinking then. I remembered all those news stories about Italian government “suddenly” getting its debt under control, which nobody believed (La Piovra anybody?). What were we thinking? And I remember well, what I was thinking. That European (mainly German) economy is strong enough to carry one crazy Greece to get among truly developed countries, and perhaps if we get couple of years to Italians they will get into shape as well. Thinking about it from this point of view, it was very expected that all those southern countries would be very much in debt currently, because all those debts should cover investments (yes, of course, some of them silly, like an international airport in La Mancha) which would need some time to bring money back. But then 2008 crisis happened, and all I could think was the Captain Louis Renault from Casablanca: “I am shocked, shocked, to find out that the gambling is going on in here!” And no, I don’t think I am shocked by this hypocrisy. When one gets into gambling in the Nazi occupied country, or into this amount of debt (and yes, swindling books) he gets knowingly into danger that somebody gets shocked and let him down to save his own neck. But it certainly makes me less shocked now.

Category: faith Tagged: culture