askyourdreamsforideas: Be a real Greek for a day

So you wonna know what it's like to be a business owner like me in Greece? Have a small taste of it then:

To make money in Greece, you must do it illegally or else not at all. Those-very few ones- who record their incomes honestly (yeah, that's stupid old me who believes in the just rewards of a just universe) are usually rewarded by the government with a huge fine for some honest mistake in their books,like writing a surname the wrong way,for example. Illegality is so much a part of the system in Greece that if you own a business of your own, every year the tax office (just call them the Tax Mafia,though they prefer to call themselves Tax Rambos) offers to let you legally pay a nice sum (starting at around 3000 euros=4.097 $ for small businesses) up front and thereby avoid being audited. Those who refuse to pay the sum are audited, and 99% of the time they are fined a far greater sum for some small discrepancy found in their books.

I challenge any Greek entrepreneur who's in business longer than 3 years in my country to prove my above statement wrong.

In fact, to get anything important done in Greece, it’s easiest to pay someone off. Want to get your driver’s license? Why pay the 1000 euros needed for the mandatory driving lessons when you already know how to drive and can pay someone half that to get a proper license from an employee of the Ministry of Transportation? Need your car to pass inspection? You come out cheaper and far less hassled if you just pay someone who works there to pass it for you. Try to do things the proper way in Greece and you will be strangled by red tape and gagged with fines.

But instead of being disheartened and taking my business and kids to greener pastures and nearby countries offering less and more honest tax paying systems,I choose to stay here to create jobs and contribute to the economy of my homeland. This is my (litterally) fight-to-death-for-my-country contribution,my 300-Spartan-warriors-lookalike sacrifice,a lost battle that I am fighting every fucking day,a fight made ten times worse by the fact that I have the added disadvantage of being a woman and a mother of four in this country...

If I sound bitter,it's because I am. Do not mistake my bitterness for defeatism or signs of surrender,though. Because I AM NOT SURRENDERING. I am staying put and fighting to death,like I said. Because I come from that warrior nation. Where even praying to the Gods was done standing up,hands outstretched to the sky,but never on one's knees. Where gorilla fighters of the near past would even go to church on horseback,forever ready for battle. Where Socrates refused to break the unjust laws of his country and died defending them.And fighting is just what we do around here.

If you call yourself a Greek and you are not prepared to fight till death for what you hold true and sacred, you'd better leave the country now. You see, things will get much worse before they get any better (this is true for the entire world too). We don't need your cowardly vibes around here anyway,because you are spoiling the collective soup of positive,fighting vibrations necessary to get us out of this mess that was partly of our own making (tolerance implies consent after all).

Even if you are not a Greek, the collective consciousness of humanity is yours for the asking anytime,anywhere.So my rantings still apply to you and your country. Consider this: if I choose to act on something,I immediately embody the virtues of it. If I am a non-vegeterian but I choose to eat like a vegeterian for a day, on that particular day I do become a vegeterian. If I am not a coward but I do act like one for a day,on that particular day I become a coward. If I choose to act like mother Teresa for a day,I litterally become everything she embodies for a day. And if I choose to act like a real,fighting Greek for a day,I definitely become one,no matter what my national background looks like.

I stand to fight and win. And by fighting I definitely do not mean the negativity of hatred and opposition. All things negative weaken us anyway. I am talking about the indomitable spirit of the winner who is unmovable in her convictions, neither harming anyone nor scared of anyone and anything,but just revelling in the beauty of her dreams no matter what. And this is my plan for my life ever after.

What about your plans?