Friday, March 16, 2012

Problem Solving in Greece

Problem solving in Greece is as different from the other European countries as it is from one side to another of its own borders. 

In Makedonia, the northern part of Greece, people are calm and never in a hurry. For those who know how people from Transilvania are, Makedonia is the Greek Transilvania. You even have the the feeling that time dilates here. Everything is soooo zen! Problem solving is never an issue here since there are two main approaches: "siga, siga" meaning "slowly...very slowly" and "Halara!" meaning "Relax".
I read this funny blog in which a guy actually made a math formula of how much 5 minutes mean in Greece. 
GT = T*[1 - T/(HS*60)] + HT*dwf*ff
Where:
GT - Greek time[min]
T - Time as the rest of the world understands [min]
HS - Hours of sun [hours/day]
HT - Halara time needed for average Greek native [min/day]
dwf - day of the week corrective factor [0; 1]
ff- food factor
According to his calculations, 5 Greek minutes is the equivalent of 48,17 minutes in global time. 
Concluding, Makedonian problem solving strategy: "Halara"

Now, going a little bit southern on the map, we find Peloponnese. Here people are a bit more jumpy when considering problem solving. Here, the spirits get very high very quick. It could be the sun but it could also be a bit of spartan blood running through their veins. You probably have seen 300, the comic book movie made in 2006. I think you can count on the fingers of one hand the historical facts from this movie. One of these few though is that indeed, Spartans' highest desire was not to live long and enjoy life fully but to die a heroic death in battle.
Here is a scene from 300 in which you can see a lot of problem solving.

Thus, Peloponnese problem solving strategy: This means WAR!


Going even more south we find Crete. The island of Crete is the only one in Europe, except Sicily of course, in which the laws of blood prevail over the official laws of the land.You insulted my family, you die; you messed with my sister, you die; you looked funny at me, you die. And they are not that big on sense of humor either.
Some years ago, there was a police action in Crete trying to disarm the population, at least from fire arm. They found from new guns to guns from the second world war, from bomb shells to grenades and even a tank. Yes!A second world war tank parked nicely in a guy's yard. If you think I'm joking look for "traditional Greek Cretans" on youtube. Here is a target practice in Crete.


Concluding, Cretan problem solving strategy: "BANG!BANG!BANG!"

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