Quo Vadis Europe?

This is the label of a Lipton tea bag in Europe. It contains 22 different languages. No wonder Europe has so many problems.

Boarding on the Lufthansa plane to Frankfurt, I picked up the German edition of the Financial Times. I would have preferred the English version, but they did not have it. I can’t say I know German, but I can get by. Putin will run for president and the current president, Medvedev, is to be prime minister if Putin wins. I’ve always found it strange how, in 2008, he became prime minister after he could no longer be president after 2 consecutive mandates (8 years). He could have had a library named after him and, very likely, an aircraft carrier as well, but no, he had to stay in politics. It would be as if Ronald Reagan had decided to stay on as Secretary of State under his successor George Bush. And Putin can now stay on under a presidential mandate that has been extended from 4 to 6 years. They must have figured out that 4 years was not enough to crush any hope for a real democracy.

Another front page headliner was about the resignation of the UBS CEO as a result of a rogue trading scandal. A similar thing happened 2 years ago to Societe Generale. One would like to think that the banks will learn a lesson and these sorts of losses will never happen again, or, at least, not in the near future.

Of course, Greece couldn’t be missing from the front page of a financial newspaper, nothing new there. Greece’s default will start for sure a new economic crisis.
Western civilization began in Greece, will its end begin there as well?

As food, a sandwich (Italian-style chicken) was offered and I learnt something new and, very likely, useless, unless I ever take part in a quiz show and this happens to be one of the questions.

I sat in the 2nd row back from the business class and I noticed someone in front of me used the washroom designated for business class. I was tempted to do the same, but I decided against it: just because someone else does something and gets away with it, doesn’t mean I should do the same. I had to do the right thing; I was in coach so I should use the appropriate washrooms. And this is what I did.

Later during the flight, however, I needed to use the washroom again: the person that sat in the window seat was asleep (no one sat in the middle), and the flight attendant needed some help to collect his cans and glasses so I handed them to her. After that, I felt the urge to wash my hands – yes, I know, I am hopeless. But this time the flight attendant’s cart was blocking my way. I had no choice but to use the business class washroom (by the way, only one person was in business class).

And, big surprise, the soap dispenser was empty. It was Lufthansa the flag carrier of Germany, I could not believe it.
Now it seems not even Germany can save the Euro/Europe.