Here's an interesting title to a news story I just read:
You learn so much every time there's a crisis: History, geography, economic, social, and political forces, they all show up, playing a role in the current economic crisis gripping a part of the world, which heretofore may hardly have been on your radar screen.
What Paul Krugman terms The Sum of all FUBAR is occurring on a small island. So for its beleaguered citizens there's currently no way out of there - unless they own a boat or plane or can muster the cash to purchase a ticket. I feel for these people. I'd hate to be trapped like that.
But as for FUBAR, Krugman doesn't detail the half of it. And it all boils down to that word "Sin" - and I mean sin. It's a perfect example, and a lesson for us all, of how a society (or a person), blurring moral and ethical boundaries in one area, can find its effects spreading and spreading, till they're mired in the worst sort of muck. And mired they are in Cyprus!
Based upon simple web searches last night, our household learned some very sad facts about Cyprus. And it all begins, it would seem, in a business model, which is apparently now dead. But as the old saying goes: "When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas." So, it would seem that once you decide to cater to folks who want to launder money, avoid taxes, and heaven knows what else, you leave yourself prey to purveyors of human trafficking, prostitution, shady real estate deals (another bubble ready to break), and alliances with thugs, gangsters, and probably drug smugglers galore. And it all started because a little island nation wanted to make a living off of unethical rich depositors. Perfect example of a moral/ethical slippery slope...
Yes, as the article states, Cyprus will pay dearly for its sins. And ironically this tiny island is also awash in religion. Mosques and Orthodox churches (multiple cathedrals!) abound. Indeed the country's own Orthodox Church owns a huge portion of its patrimony when it comes to land and wealth and real estate. Not to speak of the Russian (Orthodox) community there now as well...
A reckoning has come. And let us hope that the crisis and its aftermath, which will be extremely, extremely painful for all involved, will somehow force people - even us - to examine the moral/ethical compromises which led a beautiful island, an educated society, to sell its soul.
Let us truly pray that we not be led into temptation....
[Also posted here.]
You hardly see such a word in the press or the media anymore. But this time the writer (or his editor) has hit the nail on the head: Sin.Cyprus will pay dearly for its sins
You learn so much every time there's a crisis: History, geography, economic, social, and political forces, they all show up, playing a role in the current economic crisis gripping a part of the world, which heretofore may hardly have been on your radar screen.
What Paul Krugman terms The Sum of all FUBAR is occurring on a small island. So for its beleaguered citizens there's currently no way out of there - unless they own a boat or plane or can muster the cash to purchase a ticket. I feel for these people. I'd hate to be trapped like that.
But as for FUBAR, Krugman doesn't detail the half of it. And it all boils down to that word "Sin" - and I mean sin. It's a perfect example, and a lesson for us all, of how a society (or a person), blurring moral and ethical boundaries in one area, can find its effects spreading and spreading, till they're mired in the worst sort of muck. And mired they are in Cyprus!
Based upon simple web searches last night, our household learned some very sad facts about Cyprus. And it all begins, it would seem, in a business model, which is apparently now dead. But as the old saying goes: "When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas." So, it would seem that once you decide to cater to folks who want to launder money, avoid taxes, and heaven knows what else, you leave yourself prey to purveyors of human trafficking, prostitution, shady real estate deals (another bubble ready to break), and alliances with thugs, gangsters, and probably drug smugglers galore. And it all started because a little island nation wanted to make a living off of unethical rich depositors. Perfect example of a moral/ethical slippery slope...
Yes, as the article states, Cyprus will pay dearly for its sins. And ironically this tiny island is also awash in religion. Mosques and Orthodox churches (multiple cathedrals!) abound. Indeed the country's own Orthodox Church owns a huge portion of its patrimony when it comes to land and wealth and real estate. Not to speak of the Russian (Orthodox) community there now as well...
A reckoning has come. And let us hope that the crisis and its aftermath, which will be extremely, extremely painful for all involved, will somehow force people - even us - to examine the moral/ethical compromises which led a beautiful island, an educated society, to sell its soul.
Let us truly pray that we not be led into temptation....
[Also posted here.]
