Jon Bauer's Blog, page 3

I've always thought of Greece as a developed country, lumping it in with the mainstream European countries like your France and your Italy.

But Greece has many of the attributes of a developing country, corruption being the first to leap nimbly to mind. The flagrant bending of the rules from top to bottom is a big part of what's brought Greek finances to its knees.

You can't even be sure you own a house here once you've bought it. Turn your back on your home for a while and other people can m...

I took another pilgrimage to my childhood last week.

I don't know what your childhood is like for you now, but mine is this perpetual presence – vivid yet amorphous.

My childhood visits me often so it was nice to get a chance to get my own back. I hired a car and drove up from my sister's house in Sussex, to Chipstead in Surrey, and stood in the fields and lanes and woods of my past.

As a boy I spent a lot of time alone and used to appease my solitude by walking or cycling across fields –...

My surname means peasant. I like to say farmer, but translated from its heritage, Bauer means peasant. It is also the name for the pawns on the chess board. Hardly lofty, is it.

Even the British Royal family changed their name. Windsor, not a bad choice. Must have been inspired by the castle.

Greece is currently going through some severe austerity measures. Greece is skint. Struggling to pay back its debt let alone the principle sum. But what I'm told is that much of its issues come from the...