Who is the malaka?
There are stories, there are apocryphal stories and then there are stories – or should they be homilies – which are told by the Greek Prime Minister.
This came to mind when On The Spit saw a poster which has been seen on the streets of Athens looking for the malaka.
Which malaka you may ask?
Well, the story goes something like this.
In talking about the economic crisis, the Greek Prime Minister told the story of a humble Greek wage earner who walked up to him and offered to pay his salary to save ‘the nation’.
This served as a perfect homily for the Greek ‘battlers’ and the sacrifices they are willing to make to get Greece out of its current crisis.
However On The Spit thinks Greeks are a cynical lot.
On the one hand they indulge in under the table payments and avoid tax and try and make politicians their koumbaroi so that their kamari can get a job in the public service whilst on the other hand they bag politicians as being nothing more than kleftes, common thieves.
However the sods also have a great sense of humour as is demonstrated by the above poster which quickly says: “Wanted: The wanker who stopped the Prime Minister on the street and told him he was ready to give his wage to save the nation.
Wage: 5,000,000 euros. To be paid through a series of monthly interest free payments.”
Iran and Pakistan seek reparations from Greece for Alexander’s invasion
The Germans recently asked the Greeks to sell their islands to pay back some of Greece’s massive debt.
In response, irate Greek politicians called on Germany to pay back the gold they stole during their invasion of Greece in World War II.
On the Spit has heard that these calls have triggered an interesting reaction.
Iran and Pakistan are seeking reparations for Alexander’s invasion of Persia and India between 334 BC and 327 BC.
Iran and Pakistan are also trying to rally the Egyptians and other Middle Eastern nations to join them as claimants.
The reparations sought are big if one calculates the cost of the burning of Persepolis and interest over the last 2,500 years!
But, we think there may be a way Greece can turn all this to its advantage.
If Greeks decided that Alexander was not Greek after all and let their northern neighbours make him theirs, then maybe we can join the claimants and seek damages for the invasion of Greece by Alex’s dad King Phillip!
Fair Land Tax ‘dropi!’ (shame)
On the Spit predicted last week that the single issue party of disaffected landowners in South Australia who want to avoid land tax – had as much chance of getting one of their own into the Senate as we had of flying to the moon.
What made the FLT interesting was the large number of Greek Australians in it – all these budding real estate investors and building developers. But, we never predicted that they would score so few votes!
Regardless of the money they spent on securing one Rann’s past campaign consultants and in harnessing over $500,000 in party donations, their highest vote at last count was an embarrassing 350 and one of the lowest was 45.
Clearly, a disastrous showing as one of the candidates said to On the Spit: “Clearly South Australians don’t worry about land tax!”
No we suspect that the poor sods in SA may be more interested in health, education, the environment and jobs.