The Cheek of the Greek

Friday 27/02/15

According to today's Guradian Varoufakis was talking about the Nazis when he was in Berlin. It also states that the Germans (Schauble et al, not the average German citizen) are suspicious of the Greeks and think they are 'cheeky' and 'greedy'.
 "No reward for cheek" according to the Bildzeitung which ran the headline 'Nein'. Apparently they also expect the Greeks to be grateful. Now I do think there is a time and place for gratitude but saying this about the nation you have previously occupied and driven to starvation and worse is a bit rich in my opinion.
Tell 'grateful' to the queues of Athenians (both Greek and immigrant) for the soup kitchen near Omonia Square. Grateful for having to queue for a bowl of soup and a lump of bread and then obliged to eat it on the pavement. How impertinent. How greedy. The scene looks like a photo from the 1941 German occupation of Greece except this time it includes veiled women balancing babies on their hips while trying to spoon soup into their mouths.
So if the Greeks need to be grateful then shouldn't the Germans be a tad more sensitive with the language they use?

Jacqueline Paizis