'We are shocked, shocked ... !'
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:date: 2012-01-30T09:35:04
:category: faith
:tags: culture

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.

.. _`This American Life`:
    http://www.thisamericanlife.org/
.. _`the possible breakup of the European continent`:
    https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/455/continental-breakup
.. _`La Piovra`:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_piovra
.. _`I am shocked, shocked, to find out that the gambling is going on in here!`:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5E3CSizTNQ