Who The Real Heroes Are

I spent almost a week in Greece about ten years ago and found the country fascinating. Hugely and inexorably antithetical to everything that I, an uptight Anglo Saxon, am and will ever be--but fascinating nonetheless. Maybe that's why I've been tracking the tension between Greece and the rest of Europe (particularly Germany) with special interest.

This article in the Times offers some excellent insight into why the Greek government is so financially imperiled. The opening is particularly noteworthy:

ATHENS — Vasia Veremi may be only 28, but as a hairdresser in Athens, she is keenly aware that, under a current law that treats her job as hazardous to her health, she has the right to retire with a full pension at age 50.".....“I use a hundred different chemicals every day — dyes, ammonia, you name it,” she said. “You think there’s no risk in that?”

“People should be able to retire at a decent age,” Ms. Veremi added. “We are not made to live 150 years.”