Why do you think you can leave the restaurant not paying the bill? Greek cuisine - tsadziki, fava, souvlaki, ouzo - I love them all, but from what I remember from my visits to Greece, I was always asked to pay the bill. Most of the times cash, not accepting Credit cards. Sometimes even tip was included into the bill itself. And I do not remember Greeks trying to escape restaurants unpaid. Apart from the fact that it is not nice to run away after the great dinner (good people just do not behave like this) it is also very frustruating to the people that have been in the same company with you going to the same restaurant, and year after year patiently ordered dishes they could afford and were paying for the food and booze instantly. Latvians took a path of paying the bill, even if that meant skipping next lunch or breakfast, but the honor, or just order of things, good manners were maintained.
From hero to zero. From what I see on TV, you have charizma. You resemble Bruce Willis, who has managed to save the world in number of "Die Hard" series... If compared to our prime-minister Dombrovskis, who managed to lead the country out of the crisis, you are... Titanic vs small fishing boat... But then, we know how Titanic ended... The issue is, charizma does not pay the bills either, and I wish you do not have to learn the hard way becoming zero fast, after you just run out of money to pay the bill for a breakfast of your Nation... Bold statements, like "we do not want to be addicts of Euro bail-out" is fine, but having a decent plan where to take the money is nice to have either...
Here, as Latvian, I need to confess, back in 2009, when Latvia took the path of austerity, I wished we would select someone like you to lead us, someone who sends Europeans to hell and party shall go on. It was painful to see parents taking 20% cut of their already miserable pensions (average pension here is around 200 EUR/month) with a grim. It was painful to afford much less, and I think that recovery of Latvia is not achievement of prime minister but all Nation was patient and tenacious to deliver on commitments, to save, to cut spendings, to eat less
Dear Yannis, why don't we learn from football? Latvia and Greece have something in common - we had great European championship in 2004. Latvia managed to squeeze into the final championship (yes, our bar is lower), while Greece, won the title!!!. Amazing achievements, and both were result of hard work, teamwork and very good tactics developed, to succesfully leverage those Resources that were available to both teams. We did not have and still do not have Ronaldos, Kakas, Messis, so for us, it was all about hard work... and the plan. It would be great to hear from you what is your plan to fix economy of Greece, If you will do it, your achievement will be matching or surpassing that of title... By the way, sorry to remind you, team of Greece was let to the glory by german - Otto Rehhagel, there might be some sign in it...
And, why do you believe EURO needs Greece? With 1,5% of European GDP but 3% of debt, I think it is good deal for Europeans you go to create your own GEURO, peg to Zimbabwean dollar and hyperinflate your way out of crisis... Euro will only become stronger (which is not necessary good thing, but that is different story about currency wars...). To me it resembles threats of suicidal person who scares everyone around with jumping out of window and then somebody will have to clean the street...
Happy to discuss more, but wishing you come out of communist utopia for your country...
If by any chance, you have read this letter, but you are not Yannis Varoufakis, please feel free to forward on to himself.