What’s the best way to start a month, if not with a lengthy ranting. Some recent facts reminded me why my beloved country will always be about 10 years back, in terms of Internet and relevant technology usage.
Reason #1: Expensive Internet
Take a chance and check the aDSL prices of greek providers, or if you’re not greek, let me explain: You can have from 512Kbps to 1Mbps for about 20-25 euros per month. Cheap? No, including the fares we have to pay for phone access to our beloved national telephone company (OTE): all in all, to have a satisfying Internet access at your home, you have to pay about 50 euros a month. Let’s not fool ourselves, this thing is ridiculously costly.
Reason #2: Really bad QoS
If you’ve ever had to deal with any budding Internet company you know what I mean. It doesn’t matter if it’s about Internet providing, or web hosting, or web design: most middle-class companies in Greece don’t even use their e-mails to communicate with potential clients. I’ve lost the count of times when I tried to communicate via e-mail (call me schizophrenic, but I hate talking to unknown people on the phone) and they replied to me in the context of “Thanks for the e-mail! Give us a call to tell you more!”.
Reason #3: No respect for copyrights laws
It’s not all about the music and how piracy kills it. When I devote my time to assemble a nice photo collage for use in my website, I don’t expect to see it everywhere in the greek internet. I don’t know why, but Greeks tend to ignore copyright laws as far as the Internet is concerned. And this does not concern only individuals… Even web design companies adopt this kind of techniques to get their job easily done.
Reason #4: Idiotic application of laws
When a person who owns a greek blog aggregator gets sued for the content of one of the blogs in his catalog, then things are ugly. When some years ago all Internet cafes had to shut down because there was a gambling scandal including politicians, you can tell something is real bad. The Internet and the technologies included is an unknown thing for the greek government – all efforts to constrain some aspects of it have concluded to spastic, moronic moves.
Reason #5: Mentality
Let’s not fool ourselves: a large piece of the Internet market in Greece is just in for the money. The things I’ve heard those past few years… People just want to throw some easy deal, get it done in the cheapest and most mediocre of ways, and then get the money. This, in addition to the fact that small class clients do not pay (that’s a fact), are the reasons why the greek Internet is struggling those last few years.
Honorable Mention #1: The Whiners
I’m talking about the people that all they do is whine, whine and whine (and yes, I know I’m in a whining mood right here, but spare me, I don’t do it much). I know I’m not the one to judge, but in my opinion, they’re a waste of Internet space. Blogs full of whining over the news is nothing new for me, I can turn on the TV and find out more. This is one of the main reasons I never read any greek blogs, except some selected ones. People tend to believe that the most shocking and whining a post is, the more culture points it gives to them. Yet again, it’s just a personal opinion.
Honorable Mention #2: The Technophobics
You know who they are: Those that declare that they “hate the computers” and that they “don’t want anything to have with them”. A waste of sources, both physical and mental, because apparently, after a few years everyone will have something to do with a computer. These people are a common problem in Greece: 9 times out of 10, these are the people that will call you in a stormy night and plead you to come over because apparently, “something is wrong with the screen”. And when you finally go and squibble the mouse, the screen wakes up from sleep.
I know I’ve ranted much today, but I wanted to get it off my chest. What I hate the most about my work is mediocrity, but it seems that we’ve got plenty of it in Greece.
11 comments on this post
Tsevdos John #1
04.Nov.06
Hello darling,
First of all I can’t agree more with your post, although I want to add some extra “sugar” on top…Let’s start :
Reason 1 : Nothing to add actually… Internet is expensive plus there aren’t many public buildings/places (libraries, etc.) that offer free internet access… In 30 years perhaps…
Reason 2 : Quality of Service? What’s this? You are living in Greece darling, chill out…
Reason 3 : Copyrights? Isn’t this the right you have (as a Greek) to copy other people’s work? There is only one law : There are no laws (at least in IT-related issues).
Reason 4 : You also forgot to mention that we are still the only country in universe that arcade games are illegal!!! Greeks sure know how to apply rules and laws!!!
Reason 5 : I knew “professional” web developers/designers who were charging 2000 euros to install a drupal (free, open-source portal system) and wordpress (also free, open-source blogging system)… Easy money, that’s our mentality…
Honorable Mention 1 : Well stop reading them… That’s the nice thing with internet, you choose your sources…
Honorable Mention 2 : You know how to use a computer? Well that’s witchcraft isn’t it?
Thanks again for the gorgeous post Sugar, I really enjoy it.
Sugar #2
04.Nov.06
Thanks for your kind words, John. I couldn’t agree more with the points you’ve added.
As for the ridiculously overpriced web services, hell, I’ve even seen a 5000-euros installation of OsCommerce because apparently, it’s an e-shop and e-shops are expensive.
*rolls eyes*
Tsevdos John #3
04.Nov.06
Anyway, let’s all try to make things better…
Craig #4
04.Nov.06
I know what you mean, Sugar. I’m trying to get the language school where I work here in Thessaloniki to buy some PCs. I might as well be asking them to fund a manned mission to Mars. I’ve got my students blogging but it’s a real uphill struggle and with zero support from the frontisterio. At best, my efforts are tolerated.
The worse thing is that a lot of students are almost as technophobic as their parents and grandparents.
Sugar #5
04.Nov.06
Craig, I salute your effort to bring some computer practice in Greek foreign language schools.
Students blogging in english would be a terrific first step in the practice of the language.
But I understand your problems. Most parents don’t give a damn about their children’s technological education and face this kind of efforts with skepticism.
sugarenia.com - Web Standards, Accessibility & other Girly Stuff » Blog Archive » Why Greek sites suck #0: Prelude #604.Nov.06
[...] I recently posted an article (a heavily opinionated one) about how Greece falls 10 years behind in terms of Internet usage, comprehension and real-life application. [...]
Greece #7
04.Nov.06
I agree,things have to change in Greece.And fast!Internet is used all over the world probably cause it’s extremely useful.
Carole #8
04.Nov.06
Hi everybody,
I have read carefuly your comments….I can just agree with all of that. I am a foreigner in this country for more than 4 years even though I am working and leaving with a Greek citizen.I am planning to open a busines but I am quite worry about all of these issues and I am still trying to figure out how to proceed with my web site. To tell you the truth, I am really considering to give the work abroad. I am in the process to register the name of my company but I also know that in case something happens I will not have a lot of protection. What to do?
Any ideas or suggestion?
Many thanks,
Michael Persson #9
04.Nov.06
Im also a foregigner (from Sweden) in Greece among thousand others, I see that foreigners only way of making a descent life here is to make their own business.
Im a web standards developer from Sweden and i feel very comfortable with my situation here as greeks seem to rely on my profession and experience.
One cant trust the others here so better trust your skills and experience and make a business out of it…
Michael
RaiulBaztepo #10
04.Nov.06
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
stavros #11
04.Nov.06
DON’T FORGET ALL THOSE RiDICOULOUS GREEK TAXES THAT HELP KEEP ALL THOSE RIDICULOUS GREEKS IN BS JOBS…UNTIL THEY CAN RETIRE WITH full BENEFITS, AT AN AGE much LOWER THAN all OTHER SERIOUS CIVILIZATION!
we GREEKS, KNOW how TO suck OF A system UNTIL IT IS DRY!…and then BLAME someone ELSE!