Pat Oliphant for April 28, 2010

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    donald15  almost 14 years ago

    i don’t get this one

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  2. Groundhog
    jgcp1  almost 14 years ago

    OK, Don, pay attention. There is this currency called the Euro which is used by most of the members of the European Union (Britain, thank God, being one of the exceptions). Euro countries use the same money, so, for example, you can earn them in France and spend them in Germany. Problem is that Greece has been living high off the hog spending the wealth created in other countries (like Germany, France, the UK) and given to them as subsidies because they don’t actually make anything in Greece except olive oil. Now their economy is bankrupt, the locals are revolting because of the cuts in benefits (paid for by other Europeans) and the rest of the EU is tasked with bailing them out.

    Next comes Portugal, Spain, and every other country that is happy to spend other peoples’ money but can’t be bothered to create any wealth themselves. Any similarity between this and any other global economy is purely coincidental…

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    hastynote Premium Member almost 14 years ago

    Goldman Sachs helped Greece hide its lousy debt so that it could qualify for entry into the European Union. Now that the truth is known, some very unhappy European countries are having to hold up the Greek Parthanon in Athens. It is obvious that Greece can’t even help do that!

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    fritzoid Premium Member almost 14 years ago

    Still, the “Greece” caryatid is a stone fox (pun acknowledged, but incidental) compared to the other “Europe” figures.

    “Past glories” and all, yeah, but never underestimate the power of sex appeal.

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    fritzoid Premium Member almost 14 years ago

    fennec, Google was a good starting point, but it was still Greek to me (pun intentional, but still incidental) until, through trial and error, I reached “efharisto”…

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    lonecat  almost 14 years ago

    The best touch is that the only Greek figure isn’t providing any support at all.

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    fritzoid Premium Member almost 14 years ago

    lonecat, I don’t think that’s a “touch”; I think that’s the single significant detail which provides the whole meaning of the cartoon.

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  8. Don quixote 1955
    OmqR-IV.0  almost 14 years ago

    re I admit I was mildly puzzled by Punk’s comment so I looked up the legend and almost immediately guessed efharisto poli (thanks for what I picked up in Crete. Er, that’s efharisto for what I picked up in Crete). I like this legend. ;-)

    Ah yes, the grasshoppers sang while the hardworking ants toiled all summer. Trouble is, this grasshopper moved to the UK and toiled, too. So I look weary and as angry as those other folks, pillars of the community, and lost my handsome looks. :( Ai, que disgraça.

    Bob Hasty has it spot on but I detect a little anti-EUness in jgcp1’s comment, tch. ;-)

    I quite liked this ‘toon, I learned something new.

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  9. Groundhog
    jgcp1  almost 14 years ago

    I don’t mind the EU - just the bureaucracy, corruption, waste and over-regulation.

    The original idea of a free trade association in which everyone’s economic interdependence on the others would eliminate the likelihood of a third European war was good (if rather naive). Instead, we have a few productive economies propping up a (growing) mass of non-productive ones, and into the bargain, a diminution of the diversity that made Europe such a wonderful place to live.

    Corruption in Greece is rife and riddled with jobs-for-life made-up government departments and people collecting subsidies for doing absolutely nothing, but listen to the howls of protest when anyone tries to pull their snouts out of the trough. Just wait until some of the Eastern European contries come into the Euro-zone! Then we’ll really see how it’s done!

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  10. Don quixote 1955
    OmqR-IV.0  almost 14 years ago

    Sorry jgcp1, for some reason I thought you were from the UK. But essentially I don’t disagree with your words on the EU, perhaps just the degree. As for loss of diversity, well, my wife & child are trying to make up for it. Between us we have 4 nationalities. Wait, are we causing this loss through intermarriage? :-o I’m rather hoping the EU member states use this as a frigging valuable lesson on how the EU should and is supposed to work, a bit like what Neoconman alludes to. (nah, I’m not really that naive)

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    treered  almost 14 years ago

    so “Greece” is not part of “Europe”? the other corner should be “Germany”, the one next to “Greece” is “France”, maybe… and the roof should be “Euro”…

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  12. Don quixote 1955
    OmqR-IV.0  almost 14 years ago

    ^ I initially thought the same but perhaps Oliphant was trying to show that Greece was simply not being part of the EU “family” by not shouldering its responsibility as the others were.

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  13. Groundhog
    jgcp1  almost 14 years ago

    (A) I do live in the UK and have done for most of my life.

    (B) I live in a multi-cultural family, with me born in the USA, my wife, Russian and my stepson a teenager (different species altogether). I’ve seen the UK begin here (as the EEC which I DO favour) and quietly intrude into virtually every part of our lives, whether we wanted it to or not.

    (C) I do not support the idea of every “man” for himself, but I do believe in the preeminence of freedom over equality. We are NOT equal - we are all different. Trying to pretend that everyone is the same by shovelling money from where it is earned to where it is not is a fool’s errand.

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    Charles Brobst Premium Member almost 14 years ago

    They took all the best art from Greece. Time to give a little back.

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    MGJinAridzona  almost 14 years ago

    “F Harry Stowe” is how one pronounces “efharisto” or “efcharisto” -Greek for “thank you”.

    The man’s a genius; best laugh in ages.

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    4uk4ata  almost 14 years ago

    “Problem is that Greece has been living high off the hog spending the wealth created in other countries (like Germany, France, the UK) and given to them as subsidies because they don’t actually make anything in Greece except olive oil”

    While that is mostly true (it’s not all wrong, sure enough), I think it’s not nearly as bad - Greece does have an ok agriculture in at least part of its territory. The thing is, what caused the whole mess isn’t Greece’s economic performance per se. Greece has never been an economic overachiever, and already - in 2004 I believe - there was a small scandal that it might have, er, puffed up its statistics to qualify for using the Euro. Here, again, the original issue started with how Greece, which has a problem with deficits, kinda… misrepresented about the state of their finances to Eurostat (the agency collecting statistics, including economic ones). http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9632910 has some more on it. Oops.

    Sure, deficits are never good for a country’s image, but practically lying about them is way worse. When it came out, it obviously caused a huge mess - deficits aside, how can you trust, and invest in, a currency used by a country that lies about how much it gets and owns? To the EU as a whole, that can be even more damaging.

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