To the Government of
Greece
13 August 2020
Dear Sirs,
I am a Netherlands
national, pensioned and now resident in Greece, Corfu, after having lived in 7
countries and having owned and directed 8 companies in information and 3D
technology in 5 countries. I am fluent in 5 languages and still have to learn
Greek. (sorry its difficult)
I very much appreciate
living here in a country of beauty and surrounded with people who are very
friendly, helpful, intelligent and speak multiple languages. One is immediately
at home.
We are currently living
in very difficult times for the whole world, where a small number of criminal
people have created a plandemic for a barely existing disease, bringing the
economies on their knees. It is a pity to see the different governments
apparently have no intelligent response to this malicious warfare directed at
their people.
What I would like to
put your attention to, is the amazing amount of waste of time in administration
in Greece to get anything done. This must cost the economy a great amount of
money, which could be put to better use.
Since probably the
previous amount of tourism will never come back to Greece, because of the
scamdemic, other means of income and occupation for Greek people need to be
developed.
I have seen in the news
papers that Greece would want to become a tech country to the level of
California. This seems very utopic to me. High tech needs certain types of
minds.
Technology
I am daily confronted
with Greek websites for paying bills and getting information. NONE of these
function correctly. One can choose English language, but often at the next
important screen it will be all in Greek language and not understandable. Sites
are blocked, error 404, etc it really is a big mess and very badly programmed.
It is clear that programmers have had no correct schooling.
Whether on sites of
internet companies such as Cosmote, Wind, Vodafone that are immensely badly
programmed, then the electricity, water, government, Tepai sites, you name it
nothing works correctly.
At crucial moments when
one has to confirm or pay, the whole program goes down and will not accept you
anymore.
IT IS A MAJOR DISASTER.
So I suggest to import
some REAL programmers from English based countries to get the Greek internet
working for everyone.
This will save millions
of wasted hours for government and population.
I personally developed
5 years ago a simple program for Greek insurance agents for boat insurance that
they could fill in Greek language, auto translate to English for London based
insurers to approve, and provide the agent with all necessary documents in ENG
and GR to finalise the insurance. It took 2 weeks to develop and functioned
without a hitch for 4 years. Its logic.
Buying
property is a major hurdle.
We personally bought a
villa in Corfu. First visit in October 2019, made an offer, offer accepted
between seller and buyer begin November. Money ready to pay.
Then come notary, 2
lawyers, 2 building surveyors all discussing the problems and pitfalls of the
administrative offices. This goes on for weeks. Basically advising the buyer
(me) not to buy, because there are too many problems, part of a fence 30cm
displaced, 0,80 sqm of the villa not properly registered, etc.
5 meetings further, I
decided this is enough, draw a contract now and we settle.
More objections.
Finally we signed a pre-contract 20 December and paid in full.
Later it needed an
accountant to do some more silly paperwork.
I received the final
deed, signed and stamped on: August 10, 2020 !!!!
It took 9 months and there was no dispute between
parties.
The government really
has to seriously look into all this over the top administration to get anything
done.
I bought houses in
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France and from start to finish with only a
notary it took no more than 1 to 2 months.
Something definitely to
work on.
Importing
small things outside EU.
I bought some health
supplements from the USA (which I have imported for the last 15 years in other
EU countries). It took the customs 6 weeks to inspect and pass, after having
paid 45% duties on the product price plus the transport cost!
I am in the process of
liberating a package from the customs.
It concerns a wooden
light archery bow for training.
It has been sitting at
customs for 4 weeks. there have been 22 email exchanges.
Customs want the
original order, a full description what is in the package, an original
statement from the bank of the payment of 84€!!!
Not enough the police
want to see my Olympic license, for a bare bow which does not feature in any
Olympic discipline.
I am a gold medalist
for bare bow archery and pro instructor. I have been sending copy of club
membership, pictures of medals and me on podiums.
Here we are looking at
something like 10 people occupied for hours on end to clear a simple package
with a value of 84€.
There is something terribly
wrong with this administration.
Also in view that the
Costco Piraeus port probably the largest Chinese port in Europe will let
anything through, otherwise the whole port would come to a grinding halt.
So my personal advice
to save Greece from total ruin is to spend less time on facemasks, restaurant
idiocy, a-social distancing for a small flu that 99,9% of people will not die
of.
More than 60% of all
Greek restaurants and hotels will never open again, because they are bankrupt.
Most small business will close forever. Rents will not be paid. Small B&B
rentals will all be abandoned and fall in ruins. Ports will be littered with
boats unattended and sinking.
Maybe look at Sweden.
Let the Greek people decide to wear a slave mask or not.
Look after the real
sick people who need operations and other interventions.
The flu we have all had
once and its part of life.
Try to keep Greece alive
My best regards
Roy Hulsbergen
